How to use the Surface tile

The Surface tile shows health state, performance metrics and other information on top of an image, such as a map.

How does the Surface tile work?

The Surface tile works by using a row perspective to show a row of data for each of the resources returned by the scope. (The Matrix tile also uses a row perspective to show data, but in a single table, see How to use the Matrix tile).

A row perspective can display health state, performance metrics and other information for each resource. They work in a similar way to dashboard perspectives in that they are stored in dashboard packs, they use a match criteria that defines which resource they apply to, and they have a rank that specifies which row perspective should be displayed when multiple row perspectives match. A row perspective is made up of 'cell tiles' of various types, such as Status, Sparkline, Bar, Health State History etc.

Resources shown on the Surface tile can use different row perspectives. (The Matrix tile uses the same row perspective for all the resources returned by the scope).

The Surface tile supports a maximum of 25 resources per tile, so only the first 25 objects of a scope are shown. Configure the scope carefully to show the 25 resources you need.

Can I change what information is shown?

You can change the row perspective used by each individual resource, and you can untick any cell tiles you don't want to show.

Can I create new row perspectives?

When cell tiles are unticked, the data is still returned, but it is hidden from view. To make the tile more efficient or for more customization you can create a new row perspective: How to create and modify row perspectives.

How to configure a Surface tile

1. Add a new tile to a dashboard or perspective and choose Resources > Surface tile.

   

2. Image

   Here you can choose one of the provided images or upload your own.
   Tip: If you want a different selection of maps, you can download more at https://freevectormaps.com/

   Supported image formats: png, jpg, jpeg, gif, tif, tiff. svg, bmp
   Tip: SVG images resize best since they are vector images.

   File size limit: 10MB

   Image size: Images fill the size of the tile, which means you can resize the image by adjusting the tile's size. The size of the tile also depends on the screen the dashboard is being viewed on.

3. Scope:

   Configure the scope to define the resources you want to show, Scoped resources will appear straight away and can be dragged into position.

   The Surface tile supports multiple resources types. The Surface tile can show a different row perspective for each resources (whereas the Matrix tile can only display rows of data for resources of the same type with a common row perspective). The row perspective used by each object can be changed, see Display information below.

   The Surface tile supports a maximum of 25 resources per tile, so only the first 25 objects of a scope are shown. Configure the scope carefully to show the 25 resources you need.

   

   Scope options on dashboards

   Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.

   Note: By default, results are shown across all subscriptions (unless the subscription option is chosen to specify only one or more subscriptions).

   Filter by tenant	By default results are shown across all tenants. In Dashboard Server 4.7 and above a user who has access to multiple tenants will see a filter by tenant option. If you see the message "You do not have access to all of the tenants currently selected" or "Tenant ID could not be resolved" In a multi-tenant environment a user who does not have access to all tenants will see this message if they attempt to edit a scope containing tenants that they do not have access to. This may be because: One Dashboard Server admin has added a tile scoped to tenants that other Dashboard Server admins do not have permissions to. The customer/tenant is no longer serviced by this Customer Service Provider (CSP), so the tenant has been permanently removed for all Dashboard Server admins. Symptoms A tile scope shows: "You do not have access to all of the tenants currently selected. Click here to reset which will remove those tenants from the scope." Tenants the user does not have access to show as: "Tenant ID could not be resolved" Procedure The message warns users that they do not have permissions to all the tenants in the scope. If the user chooses to reset and therefore edit the scope then the tenants that they do not have access to will be removed. If saved this scope will also have those tenants removed for users who do have access to them. It is not possible for the user to edit the scope without those tenants being removed from the scope. Where a tenant has been removed permanently you may wish to reset the scope to remove the unresolvable tenants.
   List	List allows you to select several individual items to show. You can add multiple items. To remove an item click the x to the right of its name. Tip: Start typing and after two characters you'll see suggestions that match the name appear. Note: It depends on the tile what happens when you select more than one item. For example, when you select two virtual machines for a Status tile, you'll see the status of those VMs individually. When you select two virtual machines for a Cost Management tile, you'll see the cost for the two VMs added together.
   Resource group	Select one or more resource groups. Filter by type: Tick filter by type to only show resources of a particular type within the chosen resource group.
   Subscription	Select one or more subscriptions from the dropdown box if you wish to restrict results to only one or more subscriptions. When this is not used results are shown across all subscriptions. Filter by type: Tick filter by type to only show resources of a particular type within the chosen subscription.
   Tags	Select items with a particular tag. Add the tag name and the tag value you want to use to search for. If you select multiple tags, the search automatically 'ANDs' the tags which means the scope only contains items which are tagged with all the tags listed. Filter by type: Tick filter by type to only show resources of a particular type within the chosen tag(s).
   Type	Scope type can be used to show all resources of a particular type, for example all databases across all subscriptions, by typing databases and selecting SQL databases.
   Show hidden types	This works in the same way as the Show hidden types option in the Azure portal. Hidden types include some ancillary resources which are created/managed by Azure infrastructure. It might be useful to display these resources when cleaning up your resource groups or subscriptions.

   Scope options on perspectives

   Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.

   The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed resource. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:

   • the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")

   • the actual resolved scope that depends on which resource you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")

   After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different resources you are viewing.

   On perspectives, you can scope tiles to:

   this resource (only on perspectives for resources)	The tile's scope will be the resolved to the resource that is currently viewed.
   child resources (only on perspectives for resource groups and subscriptions)	When you select this option, the scope of the tile will be resolved to all resources that are in the group or subscription that is currently viewed. If you want to narrow the scope down to a specific type of resource in the group or subscription, you can filter for one specific type of resource.
   other resources	Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed resource, it will always show data for the static resource picked here. Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different resources depending on what resource is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed resource.

4. Display

   Once the resources appear on the image you can drag them into location, and customize the way the panels look.

   

   Hide metrics - tick boxes allow you to hide/show individual metrics.

   Change row perspective - the drop down arrow at the bottom of the panel allows you to change the row perspective being used. The drop down list shows all the row perspectives that match the individual resource, and you can choose a different row perspective to see different metrics. For more information about creating new row perspectives see How to create and modify row perspectives.

   Show preview - allows you to view the tile without the editing controls, so you can see what it will look like in normal use.

   Settings in the tile display panel:

   Object size	Change size of the panels. From the initial size set, the panels will scale with the image, as the tile or dashboard size changes.
   Object opacity	Change how transparent the panels are.
   Label	Change how the metric labels are shown in relation to the metric graph.
   Hide object name	Tick this option if you wish to remove the resource name, if for example it's already shown on the image.
   Collapse mode	The metrics from the row perspective are hidden by default. Clicking on the resource name (if shown) reveals the metrics, therefore clicking on the resource name to drilldown is disabled.

5. Click done to save the tile.