Timeline
Thomas Steele avatar
Written by Thomas Steele
Updated over a week ago

The Timeline is where you can view past and current events for your Blue Matador account. Alerts, Warnings, and Anomalies are all displayed with summary information, and can be viewed individually in detail. It is accessed via Explore > Timeline.

Event Graph

The Event Graph shows the number of events over time in a stacked bar graph. The color of the bar corresponds to the following event severities:

  • Red: Alerts

  • Yellow: Warnings

  • Cyan: Anomalies

  • Gray: Hidden events 

If you hover over a bar on the graph, a breakdown of the events in that time period appear near your cursor.

You may click and drag on the graph to change the time period of the timeline to the selected area. 

Time Selection

Besides using the graph to select the time period for events, you can also use the time selector just under the graph. The time selector has default options for the past 4 hours, day, week, and month, as well as a custom option. 

Users can view Events that have occurred within the last three months. Events are searchable by dragging your cursor over a section of the Timeline graph, choosing a default or custom time range from the dropdown menu, or using the arrow buttons.

The custom option allows you to select a date range to view events for. The time is assumed to be midnight for the selected dates, and you can use the click and drag method on the graph to fine-tune the time window. 

Live Update

The live update option appears below the event graph if your selected time range ends with now. This allows you to use the Timeline as a real-time list of events using any time range and filters. If Live Update is selected, then events will animate into the timeline as they occur. 

Show Hidden

If your Timeline contains hidden events, you can choose to show them by selecting Show Hidden below the event graph. This will cause events that are hidden in the dashboard to appear in the timeline marked with the hidden icon. Hidden events will also then appear in the event count graph, and the count in the graph will reflect how many hidden events there are.

Event List

Below the event graph is the event list. The event list can be used to explore events in your account and correlate events across resources. 

The top of the list displays the number of Alerts, Warnings, and Anomalies for all the events in the list. 

Below the event counts, events are summarized in reverse-chronological order. Each event has the following information:

  • The top-left icon and left-hand border indicate the event severity (Alert, Warning, or Anomaly)

  • Next to the severity icon is the event type

  • Next to the event type is the event created date

  • Next to the created date is the resource type and resource name

  • Below the first line of information is the event summary, a description that includes details for the event. Some events will have a bulleted list below the summary with up to 5 details pertaining to the event

  • If an event is muted or hidden, there will be a mute indicator in the top-right of the card 

Depending on your time range and filters, the event list may contain hundreds or thousands of events. If there are many events, then the list will be paginated, and selecting a new page will take you back to the top of the event list.

Selecting one of the event cards will open the event details pane.

Event Details

Selecting an event from the event list will open up the details pane. The details pane has all of the information Blue Matador has for the event:

  • The event severity icon and event type

  • Links related to this event including:

  • A link to the Blue Matador Troubleshooting document

  • An AWS Console link for AWS resources

  • A Copy Link button to generate a Timeline URL for this event

  • A Mute button to create mute rules for the event

  • If an event is muted or hidden, an indicator appears with a link to the Mute Rules page.

  • The resource type and resource name

  • Resource metadata, which includes things like region, AWS tags, Kubernetes labels, etc.

  • The list of projects the resource and event belong to

  • The start, end, and duration of the event

  • The event summary with a description of the event and extra details depending on the event type.

Filtering

Filtering allows you to select which events appear in the Timeline. Filters can be set up by selecting elements of the Timeline UI that support filtering, which is indicated by a cyan filter icon.

Clicking on the filter icon opens up the filter menu with two options:

  • Show Only These: Only events with the matching property will be included

  • Exclude These: Any events with the matching property will be excluded

Excluding filters take precedence over other filters. Specifying multiple of either filter type requires that the event match all of the filters. Once filters have been set up, they will appear above the event list. Individual filters can be deleted, and clicking Reset will clear all filters.

Events can be filtered by severity using the event counts at the top of the event list.

Filtering by event severity

If you have the details pane for an event open, you can filter by event type, resource attributes, or projects

Filtering by event type

Filtering by AWS tag

 

 

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