SCOM Data source for Grafana: Drill down using datalinks

This article describes how to create a drill down panel using datalinks and health state and performance panels.

Start by adding a new visuzalitation.

Chose the Health State query option and fill in your SCOM group and class. Use Single class to select specific resources, or Group to select all instances in a group. In this example we use All VMware ESX Servers and VMware ESX Server. Then click on the text Time series in the upper right side to open the visualization type drop down menu.

Chose the Table type.

Click on Save to save the dashboard with the panel or click Apply to add the panel without saving the dashboard.

Add another visualization. This time, use the Performance type query and fill in your options. Use Single class and then either chose one or more default Class instances to be displayed or leave the field empty. Apply the query and then Save or Apply your panel.

Looking at the dashboard again, click on the dashboard settings button in the top field.

Go to Variables and then click Add variable.

Fill in the field Name with the text classInstanceId and select the option Nothing for Show on dashboard.

Scroll down to the bottom and click Apply.

Do this one more time to add another variable named name.

Now from your dashboard, edit the health state panel by click the three buttons on the panel upper right corner. The button is hidden, so touch the corner with the mouse pointer to show it.

On the right side you can either manually look for or search for the option Data links and then click Add link.

Paste the URL for your target dashboard. This can be the same dashboard, or a new dashboard dedicated for drill down operations. In this example, we use the same dashboard for both our panels making sure we save the dashboard at least once to get a dashboard id, and so we then just copy the marked portion of the browser URL. Then we add the text &var-classInstanceId=$ to the url. This should open a drop down menu in which you select Fields Id.

Also append the text &var-name=$ and select Fields Name. Click save.

Edit the performance panel and on the right side, manually look for or search for the option Display name. Enter ${name}. This will display the name of the current object as a label under the performance graph. Apply or Save the panel.

Now if you click on an object name in the health state panel, the performance graph should change and display the name of the object.