DRYiCE iControl v2.4.0

The iControl product provides business context to operational events by linking applications, business units, and products to a business process flow delivering products or services to an endpoint. It resolves the challenges with data sanity/accuracy to enhance the performance observability and add predictive analytics through machine learning and a growing list of dashboard widgets. The following document details changes within the release (version above). There are a number of new features in this release as documented below.

These release notes relate to version 2.4.0 improvements and updates, over 380 development tasks are included within the release. This release updated the underlying 3rd party component libraries and makes the iControl product available through the Google Cloud Platform.

There are now two versions of the Flow widget/performance page:

• Standard (Non-grouped) Flow Widget – summary information and details regarding ALL Targets within the Flow including Targets that have completed or yet to start monitoring during the current period.

  

• Dimension (Grouped) Flow Widget – summary and details regarding open Targets within the Flow, the Targets are grouped by the selected Dimension Value so, for examples:

  • Selecting non-hierarchical dimension Application will group Targets within the Flow Steps/Links by the associated Application (Ref displayed, full name in the tooltip).
  • Selecting hierarchical dimension Geography will group Targets within the Flow Steps/Links by the associated Regions (Europe, Asia, etc.).
  • Selecting hierarchical dimension Geography>Northern Europe will group Targets within the Flow Steps/Links by the associated Countries (Denmark, Finland, etc.).

In additional to regional holidays, addition Inclusion and exclusion days can now be defined in calendars. Calendar administration is accessed via either the Flow list or Target list pages.

The two important details to note are:

• Monthly Targets employ the ‘Standard business working days’ (Mon-Sun) as selected within the calendar, Daily Targets use the standard working days (Mon-Sun) defined within the Target Create/Edit form and applied to Thresholds.

• Additional (manually added) working days/dates override everything else so, for example, if 25th December has been entered as a working day then all associated Targets will be operational on that day

Not a big change but an important feature to note, Dimensions must now be defined as Hierarchical if they are to contain Parent/Child relationships, otherwise they will default to Non-hierarchical and contain a flat values structure only. For example, within the standard/default dimensions:

• Business Products is a Non-hierarchical dimension, a single list of products one or more of which can be selected from a simple drop-down list or radio buttons (if single select).

• Geography is a Hierarchical dimension, where Europe contains Northern Europe as well as Southern, Eastern and Western Europe, and Northern Europe contains Great Britain as well as Finland, Sweden, Norway, etc. Hierarchical dimension will require a Tree View control to be selectable within forms.

• Ability to edit/set the name on Observation widgets (WEB-2950).

• Fixed: Observation widget graphs 'snap back' on dashboards (WEB-2248).

• Fixed: Targets on Flow Widget - displaying/counting Draft/Rollout/Inactive Targets (WEB-3150).

• Fixed: Web Flow Widget (Current Status) displaying incorrect statuses/details (WEB-3094).

• Fixed: Linked Flows on Current Status page/widget displaying incorrect status (WEB-3099).

• Fixed: Investigate and address source of "Prediction" errors (BACKEND-1485).

• Fixed: Dimension hierarchy: Parent/Child recursive validation not working correctly (BACKEND-2135).

• Fixed: Now displaying Target visualisation when 4th Saturday selected (WEB-1964).

• Fixed: Dimension value hierarchy: Parent/Child recursive validation not working (BACKEND-2135).

• Fixed: Creating domain pack flows, dimension values not being saved (WEB-3010).

• Fixed: Changing Target Type: add validation to limit change from/to numeric types (WEB-3011).

• Fixed: Able to create children with undefined parents in STR dimensions (BACKEND-2270).

• Fixed: Removing dimension values leave orphan aggregated targets (BACKEND-2271).

• Fixed: Dimension Dashboard now picking up hierarchical data (BACKEND-2331).

• iControl Font: Change/Set default font to Lato (was 'Open Sans') (WEB-2878).

• Flow Performance list: Implement Performance/Status tabs within the page (WEB-2903).

• Fixed: Daily Continuous Target Threshold: Admin UX (WEB-2847).

• Fixed: Empty string max values not handled, breaks event processing (BACKEND-2300).

• Target "Performance" and "Configuration" tab access from list pages (WEB-2902).

• Fixed: Groups References not converted to keys on import (BACKEND-1565).

• Add selected target type icon and target timezone to threshold page (WEB-2980).

• Fixed: Error displayed moving from Shared Dashboard page to User Dashboards (WEB-3061).

• Fixed: [Dashboard] on hover button name is not changing (WEB-2971).

• Flow Performance page UX updates/alignment (WEB-2996).

• Add a "Product type" System setting (BACKEND-1927).

• Add global_tz to set-up page (BACKEND-1959).

• Implement Domain Pack vertical selection within system config (BACKEND-1314).

• Dimension Performance page updates/alignment (WEB-2554).

• Dimension Performance page UX updates/alignment (Web-2998).

• Fixed: Group Historical widget can only group by dimension type root (BACKEND-2193).

• Fixed: Flow widget constraints - allow for Target filtering by non-Flow dimensions (WEB-3000).

• Fixed: Flow Widgets not being selected as options when single flow selected (WEB-3100).

• Fixed: 401 Authorization error not caught on Application start-up (WEB-2806).

• Fixed: Create (Domain Pack) Flow: 'Dimensions' not being saved (WEB-3010).

• Fixed: Remove aggregated Targets from Data Stream selection drop-down (WEB-3009).

• Changing Target Type: add validation to limit change from/to numeric types (WEB-3011).

• Fixed: Export (to CSV) button within Target Performance list page not working (WEB-3031).

• Fixed: Errors displayed when accessing flow_list_now (WEB-3054).

• Target Performance page UX updates/alignment (WEB-2997).

• All Widgets: Drill-down to both Performance/Current Status (WEB-3059).

• Fixed: Export CSV not functioning for observation widget or graphs (WEB-3032).

• Target Performance list: Implement Performance/Status tabs within the page (WEB-1807).

• Fixed: Multiple FLOW dimensions imported for Targets imported as flow children (BACKEND-2303).

• Add underlying error display for toasts to ALL pages (WEB-1945).

• Fixed: Able to create children with undefined parents (in System default dimensions) (BACKEND-2270).

• Fixed: Dashboard fail on initial load in clean build (WEB-3082).

• Fixed: Authentication errors displayed when login into Non-Splunk (WEB-3055).

• Fixed: Operator not being displayed in Flow Performance list page (WEB-3001).

• Fixed: Filters not working on drill-down Targets list in modal (WEB-3062).

• Fixed: Target list drill-down with 'Calendar day' using list_historic (not list_now) (WEB-3089).

• Fixed: Unable to access Shared Dashboards 'Edit' page (WEB-3093).

• Fixed: Unable to save a refresh time of 24 hours for a widget (WEB-3041).

• Fixed: calendar_date_group widget times out (BACKEND-2312).

• Fixed: Historical view of data in target performance page and modal broken (WEB-3105).

• Fixed: Performance Windows modal layout broken (WEB-3111).

• Fixed: Fix header label for current status and performance view (WEB-3115).

• Fixed: Historical Target Performance in Warning status (BACKEND-2371).

• Fixed: Intermittent issue processing Comparison Targets - overly precise window (BACKEND-2313).

• Create an explicit is_hierarchical flag for DimensionTypes (BACKEND-2081).

• Fixed: Clicking Train button on Predictive data stream user is getting error on console (WEB-3034).

• Fixed: Getting an error on selecting date from calendar while clicking on "Observation Deviation" from Target performance list (WEB-3033).

• Fixed: New User (without dashboards) Dashboard page error if no Shared Dashboards exist (WEB-3072).

• Fixed: Incorrect label in DataStream configuration (WEB-3104).

• Fixed: Observation widgets on dashboards not displaying last refresh time on tooltip (WEB-2827).

• Fixed: Monthly continuous threshold unable to use Last/28th to Last day (WEB-2773).

• Fixed: Correct display for Isle Of Man (and other Countries/regions) (BACKEND-2385).

• Fixed: test_viewer_icontrol unable to login to aws/gcs non-splunk env (BACKEND-2368).

• Fixed: Data Stream link not working in Target Configuration page (WEB-3060).

• Fixed: Dependency warnings - not working correctly (BACKEND-2295).

• Fixed: Unable to navigate to Component report from Drilldown (WEB-2768).

• Fixed: Target Performance/Configuration tabs via widget within Flow Performance page (WEB-3151).

• Fixed: GroupBy drill-down list not being filtered by Group (Dimension value) (WEB-3148).

• Fixed: dimension_tree_now widget makes non-unique query to table (BACKEND-2363).

• Summary Widgets: headers, tooltips, opacity UX improvements (WEB-2892).

• Patch flow references with dashes will change ‘-‘ into’_’ (BACKEND-2335).

• Fixed: Dimension Admin: acl not implemented correctly for FLOW (WEB-3155).

• Fixed: Flow Performance page: displays (persistent) error message when list empty (WEB-3158).

• Fixed: All endpoints returning incorrect result for Time Period '1CD' (BACKEND-2314).

• Persist Error toast information until explicitly closed by User (WEB-2992).

• Add refresh button to Flow Performance page (WEB-2631).

• 'Actions' menu - on Flows, implement same UX on all other object list pages (WEB-3109).

• Relabel Properties buttons as 'Configuration', aligns with other pages (WEB-3154).

• Fixed: Hierarchical dimension not being removed on PUT (BACKEND-1676).

• Augment Dimension issues dashboard to capture orphaned instances (BACKEND-2199).

• Fixed: Status Dashboard - "Duplicate" status lines visible (BACKEND-2306).

• Fixed: Multiple Records found for TargetPerformanceSnapshsot (BACKEND-2118).

• Fixed: Prediction processing failing (BACKEND-1614).

• Fixed: Unable to amend BaseSearch name (BACKEND-2326).

• Fixed: Observations outside Active Window generated incorrectly (BACKEND-1536).

• Fixed: Unable to execute |trainmodel in SPL (BACKEND-1544).

• Add Predictions to Splunk Status dashboard (BACKEND-1480).

• Rework Splunk Status dashboard to ensure key metrics always shown (BACKEND-1696).

• Fixed: Error executing Patch 19 on iControl upgrade (BACKEND-1616).

• Amend Capabilities for Non-Splunk (BACKEND-2143).

• Update holidays to latest version for the new year (BACKEND-2126).

• Fixed: Splunk Cloud: Unable to assign roles & view capabilities for Private Applications (BACKEND-2145).

• Fixed: Inactive observation windows incorrect for target with multiple thresholds (BACKEND-1558).

• Fixed: Infinity errors when calculating TargetPerformance (BACKEND-2113).

• Fixed: Adjust logic to ensure Group By values overwrite pre-existing filters (BACKEND-2282).

• Fixed: "Lifecycle" update overwriting breachStatus for a valid "Observation" (BACKEND-1640).

• Fixed: Unable to delete an Aggregated Target (BACKEND-1713).

• Create a Splunk dashboard to review User Allocations (BACKEND-1662).

• Fixed: Dimension values: unable to remove the parentref from a parent (BACKEND-2260).

• Fixed: Removing dimension values leave orphan aggregated targets (BACKEND-2271).

• Fixed: 'FilterBy' specific Flow returns different results than unfiltered text search (BACKEND-2398).

• Fixed: Target Performance associated to multiple Groups not appearing on Dimension Flow Widget (BACKEND-2386).

• Fixed: Pop-up error messages obscure 'x' and message protrudes from message box (WEB-3159).

• Fixed: Group Calendar Widget not displaying Groups (or data)! (WEB-3108).

• Fixed: Dimension Issues Dashboard not picking up a hierarchical data issue (BACKEND-2331).

• Apply user role(s) associated capabilities to Import Flows (WEB-3162).

• User/Owner drop-down/list details - Add login 'name' in brackets after user full name (WEB-3172).

• Implement new 'Aggregated' Target icon (WEB-3169).

• Fixed: Flow configuration page displaying 'Targets' breadcrumb (WEB-3194).

• Fixed: Grouped widget and drill-down modal 'Pie' long name issues (WEB-3198).

• Fixed: Group Pie Summary filters not carrying down into drill-down widgets (WEB-3199).

• Fixed: Clicking on Browser refresh button from 'Shared Dashboard' edit page, user is getting blank page as a return (WEB-3195).

• Fixed: External links on Flow Widget/Performance page 'Steps' incorrect position(s) (WEB-3207).

• Fixed: Getting error as "Unable to get BaseSearch data - domain_object_id: undefined, filters: {}" on Base Search configuration page (WEB-3190).

• Fixed: Historic Target Performance drill-down missing 'Performance Windows' menu (WEB-3186).

• Fixed: Dimension Performance: empty lists stay busy (WEB-3157).

• Fixed: Dimension Performance: scroll corrupts Dimension value list (counts) (WEB-3181).

• Fixed: External Links on flow link not working on Dimension Flow Widget (WEB-3284).

• Fixed: External Links being added to the wrong Flow 'Link' (WEB-3288).

• Fixed: Incorrect data type is been stored in state for flow steps and links (WEB-3289).

• Fixed: Unable to see/add Targets to Links or see existing Link Targets on Dimension version (WEB-3293).

DRYiCE iControl dependencies:

• Splunk Machine Learning Toolkit v5 (for Splunk 8 and above).

iControl is a product within the emerging market sector of Operations Intelligence – Technology solutions that leverage analytics to help end-users continuously observe and manage business operations in real-time.

iControl forms part of a combined software and services solution developed by HCL DRYiCE around “Business Flow Observability” which enables its customers to observe, measure, and report on the impact of IT performance in delivering business outcomes. Today iControl is primarily used by the project teams as an implementation tool.

Business Flow Observability enables end users to observe business relevant targets on a real-time basis and take informed actions accordingly. It is used by Operations technology staff on a day-to-day basis to ensure smooth running of the critical business flows to deliver end product outcomes.

Key elements of a Business Flow Observability implementation are to:

• Define a visual “flow” for the end-to-end business process

• Define service-level targets to set expected performance for key points within the flow

• Associate these targets with metric data provided from underlying monitoring

• Calculate real-time service-level performance and capture variance from expected levels

• For existing customer support log on to support.dryice.ai

• For sales-related inquiries, please reach us at support.dryice.ai@hcl.com