Objects

What is an object?

Objects in SquaredUp represent entities that are familiar to you (for example, a server or a pipeline) and are used for the following purposes:

• To filter your data on dashboard. See Data Tiles.
• To create collections (a collection of objects) that can be re-used across multiple dashboard tile. See Collections.
• To drill down from various places across the product and explore more details about an object and its health:
  • Drilling down to an object from a tile on a dashboard.
  • Using the global search.
  • From the data source overview page which gives you a list of all objects and data streams for a data source. See Plugins and Data Sources.
• To enable advanced features such as custom correlations, tags and custom types

Objects are first discovered and indexed in the graph as soon as you connect to a data source that supports object indexing. Data stream links, properties and relationships are created at this point, and subsequently refreshed at interval.

Objects and data streams often work together. A data source defines a list of object types to index, as well as a list of relevant data streams. (for example, a CPU for a server or a build duration for a pipeline). See Data Streams.

Collections

What is a collection?

A collection contains objects indexed by data source. A collection can be used as a filter when configuring dashboard tiles. Collections can be created either manually from the Objects tab on the left-hand pane or on the fly when adding a tile to a dashboard and saved to use with further tiles.

Once you have defined a collection, it's only available in the workspace you created it in so you don't clutter up other workspaces with collections. You can define as many collections as you want.

Collection limits

A collection can contain a maximum of 500 objects. If your collection contains between 100 to 500 objects, a warning message will advise you that the collection is large, which may impact dashboard performance. If your collection contains 500 or more objects, then the collection will be limited to the first 500 objects in alphabetical order. This hard limit is enforced to ensure that dashboards are able to show visualizations consistently.
When a data source comes with out-of-the-box dashboards, collections are created automatically when adding the data source. These collections are always dynamic, with a hard limit set by the data source. You can edit these collections to make them work in your environment. Doing so will remove the limit set by the data source so you can refine the collection to meet your needs.

How to create a collection

Collections can be created from the Objects page with the Add collection button or via the Objects tab when creating / editing a tile.

Create a collection from the Objects page

1. In SquaredUp browse to Objects and then click the Add collection button. The Add collection window opens.
2. Select the objects to add to the collection and click Next.
3. Enter a name for the collection and click Save.

Create a collection from the tile editor

1. When creating or editing a tile in SquaredUp, browse to the Objects tab.
2. Click Add collection
   next to Collection in the Filter panel to add a new collection.
3. Select the objects to add to the collection and click Next
4. Enter a name for the collection and click Save.