Managing Dashboards

Entering Edit Mode

To make any changes to a dashboard, including editing panels, updating settings, or reorganizing layout, click the Edit icon at the top-right corner of the dashboard. This switches the toolbar to edit mode, showing Settings, Add Panel, Save, and Exit edit.

Click Exit edit to return to view mode without saving, or Save to save your changes.

Adding Sections to a Dashboard

Sections group related panels under a collapsible header, so long dashboards stay easy to scan. In edit mode, click Add, then select Add section.

Click the section header to expand or collapse the panels underneath it, and drag panels into it to organize them.

Dashboard Settings

Click the Settings icon in the toolbar while in edit mode to open the Dashboard Settings panel. From here you can:

General tab

• Name: Update the dashboard name.
• Description: Add or edit a description.
• Add to Folder: Move the dashboard into a folder to keep it organized with related dashboards.
• Links: Add external links that appear as quick-access buttons on the dashboard (e.g., a link to a related service’s traces page). Click Add Link to add one.
• Tags: Add tags to make the dashboard easier to search and categorize.
• Default AWS Region: Set the default AWS region for the dashboard.
• Delete Dashboard: Permanently delete the dashboard.

Click Save to apply changes or Cancel to discard them.

Variables tab

You can add and manage variables in your dashboards. Variables are placeholders for values that help you create dynamic dashboards by avoiding hard-coded values within queries.

1. Click the Variables tab in Dashboard Settings.

2. Enter a Name , Label , and Description for the variable.

3. Select the Variable Type:

• Query: Dynamically populates values based on a query. When selected, an additional Query Type dropdown appears. Select the appropriate query type from the available options.
• Constant: Sets a fixed value that remains unchanged across the dashboard.

4. Click Save.

Once the variable has been added, you can use it by selecting the created variable in the panel query box and saving the new query.

Variable values from attribute values, filtered by metric

Populating a variable from OTel attribute values adds these fields:

• OTel Dataset: Choose the dataset (e.g., Metrics) to pull attribute values from.
• OTel Attribute Key: Choose the attribute whose values populate the variable, such as host_name.
• Metric (optional): Reads the attribute off this metric’s series, so a label can come from a metric that carries it even when the panels chart a different one. Leave empty to look across every metric. The dropdown lists any existing template variables alongside the available metrics with their type (Gauge, Sum, and so on).
• Filters: Click Add filter to narrow the values further by other attributes.
• Regex (optional): Enter a regular expression, such as /^prod-(.*)/, to match only values that fit the pattern.

Turn on Multi Values to let viewers select more than one value at once, and Show All option to add an All choice to the variable dropdown.

The Preview of values list updates as you adjust these fields, showing exactly what viewers will see in the variable dropdown.