Upgrade from Dashboards Classic to Dashboards
If you have classic dashboards created in the previous Dynatrace, you can automatically recreate them in the Dashboards app in the latest Dynatrace.
Why upgrade?
Upgrade your existing dashboards to the new Dashboards app to
- Experience a drastically faster and simpler user experience with the latest user interface
- Fetch all Dynatrace data from one place with Grail
- Blend in external data with app function-based code tiles
- Add more flexible and versatile filtering with variables
- Take context seamlessly with you with intents
Use this upgrade procedure and try your dashboards with the enhanced functionality of the new Dashboards app.
What’s in the scope of this upgrade?
When you upgrade a dashboard
- Dynatrace recreates your Dashboards Classic dashboard (with some exceptions as noted below) in the Dashboards app running under the latest Dynatrace.
- You can continue to use the original dashboard in Dashboards Classic. This upgrade does not delete or change the original dashboard.
Supported tile types
The upgrade mechanism supports a limited set of tile types from Dashboards Classic for recreation in the new Dashboards app. Supported tile types are:
- All Data Explorer tiles (custom tiles that you created in Data Explorer)
- All visualizations except Heatmap (see below for details)
- Markdown tiles and headers
Supported metrics
Because Grail provides better scale and cardinality for metrics, we didn't replicate metrics one-to-one. Instead, we created new metrics that are either extended or a merged version of multiple previous metrics.
See Built-in Metrics on Grail for a full list of metrics available on Grail, with a mapping from their Dashboards Classic counterparts, so you can select the best metrics whenever the upgrade mechanism can't automatically map them.
Supported settings
-
Metric configuration
- Metric
- Aggregation
- Split by
- Filter
- Limit
- Rate
- Default
- Timeshift
-
Visual settings
- Resolution
- Unit
- Format
- Thresholds
- Fold
- Show legend
- Show trend (Single value)
- Show sparkline (Single value)
- Columns (Table)
- Dual axis (Graph)
What's not currently in the scope of this upgrade?
-
Built-in tiles (other than Markdown and Header tiles)
In the new dashboard (in the Dashboards app), Dynatrace replaces the built-in tile with a Markdown tile explaining that the built-in tile type can't be converted automatically and that you need to recreate it manually in the Dashboards app.
- Image
- Host health
- Network metrics
- Network status
- Docker
- VMware
- AWS
- Service health
- Service or request
- Top web applications
- Application health
- User behavior
- User breakdown
- World map
- Key user action overview
- Bounce rate
- Top conversion goals
- Conversion goal
- JavaScript errors
- Resources
- Most used 3rd parties
- Mobile app
- Custom application
- Live user activity
- Web application
- Key user action
- User Sessions Query
- Service-level objective
- Browser monitor
- Synthetic monitor health
- Third-party monitor
- HTTP monitor
- Database health
- Database performance
- Data center service health
- Problems
- Smartscape
- Log query table
-
Heatmap visualizations
Heatmap visualizations are not yet supported in the Dynatrace app. Any tiles using Heatmap visualizations in the original dashboard are upgraded (added to the new dashboard) but with an automatically selected default visualization. You can change the visualization to another supported visualization type after the upgrade.
-
Visualization settings
- Three or more axes (Graph)
- Different geometries for metrics. For example, a line and a bar in a single visualization (Graph).
But you can configure this manually in the new dashboards with the Custom geometry chart settings in Dynatrace version 1.299+.
-
Dashboard settings
- Default management zone doesn't exist in the new dashboards.
- Dynamic filters need to be recreated as variables.
- Title font size doesn't exist in the new dashboards.
- Permissions need to be reassigned via document sharing.
- Preset enablement doesn't exist in the new dashboards, but you can get essentially the same effect with read-only sharing.
- Anonymous links don't exist in new Dashboards
- Report subscriptions don't exist in new Dashboards
-
Automatic licensing model conversions
If you upgrade Kubernetes-based dashboards, the new Kubernetes metrics are available only for DPS-enabled customers, so you might not see data, even though the upgrade was successful.
- For more about the new Kubernetes metrics, see Built-in Metrics on Grail.
- For details on becoming a DPS-enabled customer, see Dynatrace Platform Subscription (DPS).
How to upgrade
You can upgrade a dashboard from the Dashboards page or from within the displayed dashboard.
After you upgrade a dashboard
- The Dashboards app opens with the new dashboard displayed.
- The original dashboard remains unchanged.
From the Dashboards page
To upgrade a dashboard from the Dashboards page
-
Go to Dashboards Classic in the latest Dynatrace.
-
On the Dashboards page, find a classic dashboard that you want to upgrade.
-
In that dashboard's row, select > Upgrade.
-
After the upgrade is completed, the recreated dashboard is displayed in the Dashboards app.
From the currently displayed dashboard
To upgrade a dashboard from within the displayed dashboard
-
Go to Dashboards Classic in the latest Dynatrace.
-
On the Dashboards page, find the dashboard that you want to upgrade and select its name to display that classic dashboard.
-
In the upper-right corner of the dashboard, select > Upgrade.
-
After the upgrade is completed, the recreated dashboard is displayed in the Dashboards app.
From Data Explorer for a single visualization
To upgrade a single Data Explorer–based visualization
-
On a dashboard, select a Data Explorer–based tile and select Configure in data explorer to open the selected tile's visualization in Data Explorer.
Or you can start from Data Explorer and configure a new visualization there.
-
Once your visualization is finished, select Open with in the upper-right corner of the Result section of Data Explorer.
If "Open with" is disabled
Open with is disabled if the selected metric couldn't be mapped or converted to a metric available in Grail. Hover over the information icon on the button to see why.
-
In Open with, select the destination app: Dashboards or Notebooks.
-
In Select destination, select the destination document.
- To add your Data Explorer visualization to an existing Dashboards or Notebooks document, select the document from the list and then select Confirm.
- To create a new document for your visualization, select New notebook or New dashboard (depending on the destination app you selected previously).
-
The document is displayed with your Data Explorer visualization added as a new notebook section or dashboard tile.
What to do after the upgrade
In the Dashboards app, review the new dashboard.
You can open the original and new dashboards in two different browser windows to compare them side by side, one with the old dashboard displayed in the Dashboards Classic app, and the other with the new dashboard displayed in the Dashboards app.
- Look for tiles that didn't upgrade at all. In the new dashboard, a tile that wasn't upgraded is replaced with a message in a Markdown tile.
- Look for tiles that were upgraded but without the original visualizations. You can edit them to select different visualizations.
For details on what to expect, review the above sections:
