A bit related to T273716.
Maybe it's because I'm too used to the Icinga dashboard:
But I find the AlertManager dashboard cluttered to the point I can difficultly use it to see what is going on in our infra:
Some changes that *might* make it better (even though I'm not a UX designer):
- Offer a table view layout instead of a grid, similar to Icinga
- Don't have boxes inside boxes inside boxes. For example "alertname: Icinga/DPKG" in in a colored box, itself in the tile header. Each box being a different color, it distracts the eyes from the relevant information
- Remove duplicate information: for example, when sorted by severity, the top container is "severity: critical", but then each alert has "severity: critical" in it, wasting precious real estate
- Remove unnecessary information: for example,
- "severity: critical" should just be "critical", the color and the word "critical" is enough to show that it's about severity, showing "severity" in a tool-tip on highlight would be nice too
- "alertname: Icinga/DPKG" doesn't need the "alertname: Icinga/" part, "alertname" is obvious from the location of the text (like writing title: on a book cover"), "Icinga" should be a tag, it shouldn't matter at this level through which software the alert is coming from
- The number of impacted hosts (eg. "1" in the red circle) should not be displayed if there is only 1 (or less than 3) impacted host
- The overview panel doesn't show everything but truncates it with "+7 more"
- It also has redundant information, all items in the "alertname" category starts with "alertname:"
Summary of what's available/implemented
- Offer a table view layout instead of a grid, similar to Icinga
Documented at https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Alertmanager#Can_I_display_less_information_on_the_alerts_dashboard?
- Don't have boxes inside boxes inside boxes. For example "alertname: Icinga/DPKG" in in a colored box, itself in the tile header. Each box being a different color, it distracts the eyes from the relevant information
Some boxes are different colors to attract the eye, though we can customize as needed. The boxes themselves reflect alert groups or labels/annotations (and can be clicked).
- Remove duplicate information: for example, when sorted by severity, the top container is "severity: critical", but then each alert has "severity: critical" in it, wasting precious real estate
Implemented in Karma
- "severity: critical" should just be "critical", the color and the word "critical" is enough to show that it's about severity, showing "severity" in a tool-tip on highlight would be nice too
Implemented in Karma
- "alertname: Icinga/DPKG" doesn't need the "alertname: Icinga/" part, "alertname" is obvious from the location of the text (like writing title: on a book cover"), "Icinga" should be a tag, it shouldn't matter at this level through which software the alert is coming from
source: icinga is a tag and the Icinga prefix is gone
- The number of impacted hosts (eg. "1" in the red circle) should not be displayed if there is only 1 (or less than 3) impacted host
I (Filippo) disagree, there's value in having the information always in the same place
- The overview panel doesn't show everything but truncates it with "+7 more"
This is by design, though the threshold can be changed
- It also has redundant information, all items in the "alertname" category starts with "alertname:"
Implemented in Karma