Using Your Dashboard

This module describes the features on your Cisco WebEx Server dashboard and how to use them.

About Your Dashboard

This section describes the features on your dashboard and how to use them. The dashboard is the home page of the administration site and provides several displays and graphs of key monitoring features.

The dashboard includes the following sections:

  • System messages—One or more system messages appear in a bar at the top of the page. Three types of system messages might appear at the top of the page:
    • Warning—Indicated by a red bar. Warning messages indicate the system is in a special state. For example, maintenance mode.
    • Alert—Indicated by a yellow bar. Alerts indicate time-sensitive issues such as license expiration dates.
    • Information—Indicated by a blue bar. Informational messages that notify you of important information. For example, these messages might inform you that a first-time tutorial is available or display the status of a disaster recovery procedure.
  • System Monitor—This section displays the system status and time stamp and includes the following subsections:
    • Status—Indicates overall system status, Good or Down.
    • Meetings in Progress—Select to open the Meeting Trend page that displays the total number of participants and meetings on your system over a specified period of time. You can select the following:
      • 1 day—By default, data for the previous day is displayed. Use the date selector to select a single day during the preceding six-month period.
      • 1 week—By default, data for the previous week is displayed. Use the date selector to select a single week during the preceding six-month period.
      • 1 month—By default, data for the previous month is displayed. Use the date selector to select a single month during the preceding six-month period.
      • 6 months—The previous six-month period is displayed. The date selector disappears since you have selected the maximum period.
      • Time of day—To view meetings that occurred during a specific time of day, mouse over the graph and select the desired time.
    • Usage—Displays the current participant count both as a percentage of total resources and the number of participants. You can select the Usage graph to open the Meeting Trend page. You can select a point on the Participants or Meetings graphs to show the Meeting list for the time slot specified on the graph.
    • Alarms—Displays the alarm threshold settings you have configured. By default, alarm thresholds are displayed as a percentage. Select Number # to change the alarm information to numerical data. Alarm thresholds are displayed in the System Monitor section in graphical form and on the Alarms page in numerical form. You can select the graphs in the System Monitor section to view the Resource History page for the alarms that you have configured. See Viewing Your Resource History for more information. You can configure alarms for the following:
      • Meetings In Progress—Indicates when current meetings are experiencing issues.
      • Usage—The total number of users currently using the system.
      • CPU—Shows the value of the one virtual machine in the system with the highest CPU usage out of all virtual machines in the system.
      • Memory—Shows the value for the one virtual machine in the system with the highest memory usage.
      • Network—Total system bandwidth used.
      • Storage—Recording and database backup storage space used.

        Note

        The storage alarm appears if you have configured a storage server. See Configuring a Storage Server for more information.

    • Process status—Displays the performance of several key system features. The status of each feature is described as Good, Fair, or Down.
      • Video
      • Audio
      • Web Sharing
      • Recording (appears if you have configured a storage server)
      • Start/Join Meetings
    For video, audio, and web sharing, monitoring is performed on each client-server connection based on a threshold defined for the corresponding parameters used to determine status of a meeting. An alert is sent to from the meeting monitoring agent to a meeting monitoring receiver if one of corresponding parameters from a client connection goes beyond the threshold. Most of the settings are measured in milliseconds. For web sharing, additional criteria is added to determining meeting status. This criteria includes a minimum of three alerts from the same connection within three minutes with one third or more of the total number of participants experiencing the same issues. For telephony issues, the meeting status is based on the severity of the error.
    The guidelines for process status are as follows:
    • Good—All services on your system are operating.
    • Fair—Your system is operating at reduced capacity. Periodically recheck your system. If it is still displaying a status of fair after 48 hours, contact the Cisco TAC for assistance. See Using the Support Features for more information.
    • Down—All services on your system are not running. Contact the Cisco TAC for assistance. See Using the Support Features for more information.
  • System Backup—Displays the time and date that the last backup was taken. It also notifies you if the backup failed and the date of the first backup attempt if one has not been created yet.

    Note

    Only appears if you have configured a storage server.

  • System—Displays the maximum number of users on your system, the version number, product URL, and the number of user licenses. If you are using a free-trial edition of Cisco WebEx Server, this section also indicates how many days are remaining in your trial period when there are 30 days or less. Select View More to go to Managing Your System.
  • Settings—Displays your current system settings including the maximum number of participants allowed in each meeting, audio type, whether or not video and mobile features are enabled, and Single Sign-On (SSO) status. Select View More to go to Configuring Settings.

Viewing and Editing Alarms

Procedure

    Step 1   Sign in to the Administration site.
    Step 2   Select Dashboard > Alarms.

    The Alarms page appears displaying the current alarm thresholds.

    Step 3   Select Edit.

    The Edit Alarms page appears. Select Percentage % to view the alarm threshold as a percentage or Number # to view the alarm threshold as a number. The default setting is Percentage %.

    Step 4   Select the check boxes for the alarms that you want enabled and select the interval for each enabled alarm.
    Option Description
    Meetings In Progress

    Displays the meetings in progress threshold.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter a number from 2 to 99 percent.

    Default: Selected with an interval of one hour.

    Usage

    Displays the current system threshold.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter the number of users.

    Default: Selected with an interval of 12 hours.

    CPU

    Displays the current CPU threshold in MHz.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter number of MHz.

    Default: Not selected. Interval is one hour.

    Memory

    Displays the current memory threshold in GB.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter the number of GB

    Default: Not selected. Interval is one hour.

    Note    The Memory gauge shows an approximation of the memory used by the one virtual machine that has the highest memory load. When the gauge is in the red zone for a short periods of time, it is not an indication that the system is in a critical state or that it needs immediate attention. High memory use might be an indicator that there are other system performance issues that should be addressed. If memory usage exceeds 90 percent for a long period of time, we recommend that you review the vCenter memory usage and CPU statistics. If those statistics are found to be out-of-range, consider modifying your system to reduce the load.
    Network

    Displays the current network bandwidth threshold in Mbps.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter the number of Mbps.

    Default: Not selected. Interval is one hour.

    Storage

    Displays the current storage threshold in GB. The maximum storage threshold is calculated as (the total space – recording buffer size). The size of the recording buffer depends on the size of your user system (50 user, 250 user, 800 user, or 2000 user system), the number of Cisco WebEx meetings held, and the length of the recorded meetings. Larger user systems (800 and 2000 user systems) require more storage to accommodate larger database backups. In general, plan to provide enough storage space for three backup files. See Recommended Storage for Backup Files for details.

    • If set to Percentage %, move the selector bar to set from 2 to 99 percent.
    • If set to Number #, enter the number of GB.

    Default: Not selected. Interval is one hour.

    Note   

    This section only appears if you have configured a storage server. See Configuring a Storage Server for more information.

    An email is sent to administrators when an alarm exceeds a threshold. The interval is used to suppress multiple alarms within the specified time to avoid sending too many emails about the same issue. The interval for each alarm can be:

    • One hour
    • Six hours
    • 12 hours
    • 24 hours
    Step 5   Select Save.

    Your alarm settings are saved and the Alarms page is updated with your changes.

    Viewing Your Resource History

    Your resource history contains detailed graphs for each alarm configured on your system. The current values for meetings, participants, and storage are shown in the right-side panels. See Viewing and Editing Alarms for more information on the alarms you can configure.

    You can view your resource history by selecting the alarm graphs on the System Monitor window. See About Your Dashboard for more information. For example, select the CPU graph and the Resource History window appears.

    You can select a network graph on the Resource History page to open a Network History graph. Your Network History graphs display the network bandwidth usage for several categories. You can also select any of the following categories to see their bandwidth consumption displayed on the graph:
    • Voice connection using computer
    • Teleconference
    • Web Sharing
    • Video

    If you have a storage server configured, you can select the Storage box in the right column of your Resource History or Network History page to see a Storage History graph. This graph shows how much space has been used on your storage server.

    Viewing Meeting Trends

    Procedure

      Step 1   Sign in to the Administration site.
      Step 2   Select Dashboard. When Dashboard page is reloaded, Meeting Trend shows the meeting data for today (from 12:00 am to 12:00 am the next day). Meeting List lists meeting details.
      Step 3   Use the From and To fields to set the time period for the meeting trend information and for the meetings displayed in the Meetings list. You can select a point on the Meeting Trend graph to list the meetings on the Meetings list that occurred during the time slot specified on the graph. To view meetings that occurred during a specific time of day, mouse over the graph and select the desired time. The Meetings list shows the total number of meetings that occurred during the selected time period, the meeting topics, hosts, numbers of participants, and the state of the meeting. You can sort each column of information in the Meetings list, and the meetings are displayed in order by state: In progress, Ended, and Not started.
      Note   
      • Meetings scheduled before midnight and extending to the following day are displayed on the graph by the meeting start date.
      • If a meeting is disconnected due to a system problem and then reconnected, it is counted twice on the Meeting Trends graph.
      • Meeting trend data for one-month and six-month views is based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is therefore not accurately displayed over a 24-hour period. For example, if your system hosts 200 meetings during a given day, the database records the occurrence of those meetings based on GMT and not local time. Meeting trend data for one-day and one-week views are based on the user's time zone.

      The Meeting Trend graph is updated with your new settings.

      Note    The display of future meetings on Meeting Trend might be delayed up to 24 hours.
      Step 4   (Optional)Select the date using the calendar tool under the graph. Check the Show future meetings checkbox to display future meetings on your graph.

      The Meeting Trend graph is updated with your new settings. You can mouse over Meeting Trend to display information for a particular time. For example, [2 pm, 3] means there were 3 meetings in the time period of 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

      There is an icon between the Time range selector and the Meeting Trend graph to show or hide the Meeting data list. These data points are the same as shown on the graph. They are made accessible primarily for the benefit of users with a keyboard and screen reader.

      For 24-hour time range, the data for passed and in-progress meetings are in 5 minute intervals. Future meetings are in one-hour intervals. When the time range is greater than 24 hours and less than one week, all data points are in one hour intervals. When the time range is larger than 1 week, all data points are in one day intervals. Past and in-progress meeting data are shown in green. Future meetings are shown in orange.

      Step 5   (Optional)Select the Participants or Meetings graph for meeting information including the following:
      • Status
      • Meeting Topic
      • Host
      • Participant
      • State

      Enter search terms in the field above the table to filter the meeting list. The meeting list can be sorted by selecting the header of the key column.

      Step 6   The current system status is displayed in the right column of the page.

      System status can be

      • Good—All services on your system are operating.
      • Down—All services on your system are not running. Contact the Cisco TAC for assistance. See Using the Support Features for more information.
      Step 7   Select the alarm status box in the right column to see the Resource History for the alarms.

      Using the Meetings in Progress Chart to Address Meeting Issues

      When you receive an email indicating that there are issues with meetings, perform the following steps to determine the cause.

      Procedure
        Step 1   Select the link in the meeting issue email that you received.
        Step 2   Sign in to the Administration site.
        Step 3   On the Dashboard, select the Meetings in Progress chart. The Meeting Trend page displays.
        Step 4   Select the far right edge of the graph to open a detailed table showing the status of each current meeting.

        You can use the detailed information presented in the table to help determine the cause of the issue described in the email you received. Select the Meeting Trend at the data point corresponding to the time when the system reported meeting issues. For example, assume that at 10:00 a.m. an email was sent reporting meeting issues. Go to the dashboard and select the 10:00 a.m. data point on Meeting Trend. The meeting list shows the details for those meetings. Meetings with performance issues are displayed in the Status column in red or yellow.

        About Maintenance Mode

        Many configuration changes require that you put your system into maintenance mode. Maintenance mode shuts down conferencing activity so you need to schedule your maintenance windows to ensure minimal down time for your users. The Maintenance Mode button is present on all pages in the administration site.

        After you determine when you want to put your system in maintenance mode, select the Email Users feature to notify your users in advance that they will be unable to join or host meetings during the maintenance window. See Emailing Users for more information.

        Putting your system in maintenance mode does the following:

        • Closes all current meetings.
        • Disconnects all users from those meetings.
        • Prevents users from signing in from web pages, the Outlook plug-in, and mobile applications. Emails are automatically sent when the system is taken out of maintenance mode.

        You must put your system in maintenance mode to perform the following tasks:

        Each of your virtual machines has a console window that indicates when it is in maintenance mode. You can open the console windows in your vCenter inventory bar (for navigation). The console windows provide the URL of the system, type of system (primary, high availability, or public access), type of deployment (50-, 250-, 800-, or 2,000-user system), and current system status including whether maintenance mode is on or off and the time and date of the status change. The time displayed is configured in your Company Info settings. See Configuring Your Company Information for more information.