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Finding Data and Objects in the Operations Manager Consoles

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, System Center 2012 - Operations Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager

System Center 2012 – Operations Manager, with the appropriate management packs imported, will provide you with a comprehensive view of what is going on with your monitored applications, hardware, and processes. This can result in a very large volume of data being displayed in the Operations console. Learning how to quickly locate the data you need is essential to efficient interaction with the console. You can use the Scope, Find, and Search buttons on the Operations console toolbar to filter your view of monitoring data so that you can find the exact monitoring object or group of objects that you need. You can also filter your data based on the number of hours or days you would like to show.

Note

Any time that you do not see the information you expect in the results pane, check the scope and time filters to ensure that the correct objects and time period are set for the results you need.

The Scope, Search, Find, and Time tools apply a temporary filter to the data you are viewing in the console. While you can locate a specific object using Search or Find, you can also use Scope or Time to display a set of objects that meet a set of criteria. The following table shows the differences between the different filtering options.

Filter

When to use

For more information, see

Scope

Use to limit the data in a view to only those objects that meet your criteria. This scope remains in place until you clear it.

Search

Use to display a list of objects that meet your criteria. You can then act on those objects; however, when you navigate away from this list, the filter is removed, and any view will show all objects (not just those from your search criteria).

Find

Use to display a known single object.

How to Use Find and Search

Time

Use to limit the data displayed to only that data (such as alerts) that has been generated within a defined time frame.

How to Change the Time Criteria

How to Change Scope

Changing the scope of the monitoring view enables you to view only those objects that meet a certain criteria, such as management servers. For example, if you want to view only those computers in your environment that are running Windows XP, you can apply a scope that uses “Windows XP” as the criteria; no other computers are displayed.

To change the scope of the monitoring view

  1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring to display the objects in your monitoring environment.

  2. Click the Scope button on the Operations Manager toolbar. If this button is not available, check to make sure that you have an object, not a folder, selected in the Monitoring pane. The Change View Scope dialog box displays a list of existing groups and distributed applications.

    Dialog box to change scope

  3. If the list is too long, you can find a specific group or distributed application by entering a word or phrase in the Look for field. After you make a selection, click OK. Now only the objects that meet the scope criteria are shown in the Results pane.

Use the Find button when the list of objects in the Results pane is too long to quickly pick out a particular object. Use the Search button when you want to find all objects that meet a certain criteria.

To use Find to locate an object within a list

  1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring.

  2. Select a view that is available in the Monitoring workspace. This displays a list of objects in the Results pane.

  3. Check to see whether a Look for box is at the top of the Results pane. If there is no Look for box, click the Find button on the toolbar. In Look for, type a word, such as the name of an object, that you want to find in the list, and then click Find.

    The object that you are looking for is displayed.

  4. Click Clear to go back to the original list of objects.

To use Search to create a list of objects

  1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring.

  2. Click the Search button on the toolbar.

  3. In the Search window, type the word or phrase that describes the set of objects you want to find. A list of objects that meet your criteria is displayed. The list is sorted by object type.

How to Change the Time Criteria

Changing the time criteria of the monitoring view enables you to view only those objects that meet a certain criteria, such as Last 12 hours. When you change the time criteria, you limit the display to only that time period. For example, if you want to view the last week of data, you can change the time criteria to Last 1 week.

You can filter your view to the following time periods:

  • Last 1 hour

  • Last 2 hours

  • Last 4 hours

  • Last 8 hours

  • Last 12 hours

  • Last 1 day

  • Last 2 days

  • Last 3 days

  • Last 4 days

  • Last 5 days

  • Last 6 days

  • Last 1 week

  • Last 2 weeks

  • Last 3 weeks

  • Last 1 month

  • All

To change the time criteria

  1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring to display the objects in your monitoring environment.

  2. Click the Calendar button on the toolbar. If this button is not available, check to make sure that you have an object, not a folder, selected in the navigation pane.

  3. Select the time criteria you are interested in.

    Now only the objects that meet the time criteria are shown in the Results pane.