Observation Deck

This article discusses the Observation Deck features of the Kentik portal.

About Observation Decks

An Observation Deck is a flexible, highly customizable, and shareable high-level view of your organization's network. It’s one of several default landing pages that can be assigned to Kentik portal users. You can create as many custom Observation Decks as you need for different workflows or teams.

The core of an Observation Deck is the display area where visualizations (a.k.a. Widgets) are arranged to focus on specific aspects of your traffic volume, performance, costs, connectivity, or utilization (see Add Content to an Observation Deck). Widget panels, along with customizable Text panels, can be grouped into collapsible Sections to minimize scrolling within the deck.

Unlike standard Kentik dashboards, Observation Decks are designed to act as comprehensive landing pages. Teams can build, share, and assign multiple Observation Decks to suit different roles or operational needs across the organization.

Existing Users: If you had a customized Observation Deck prior to the latest feature enhancements, your personalized view has been automatically migrated to the Library as a Private object.

Access an Observation Deck

Observation Decks are managed centrally within the Kentik Library, but there are a few different ways to access them in the portal depending on what you are trying to view:

• From Your Default Landing Page: If an Observation Deck is assigned as your default landing page in the Kentik portal, it will be displayed in the following scenarios:

  • Upon initial portal login.

  • Upon clicking the Kentik logo at the upper left of any portal page.

• From the Main Nav Menu: From the main nav menu, click Observation Deck to open your currently assigned Observation Deck.

• From the Library: Also from the main nav menu, click Library to open the Kentik Library.

  • Use the Filter controls to show only objects of type “Observation Deck” that are visible to you (see Permissions & Sharing).

  • Click on any deck in the list to open it.

Note: Portal users are assigned by default to an Observation Deck of same name (see Default Visualizations).

Create an Observation Deck

This section describes the steps to create a new Observation Deck.

1. Navigate to the Library via the left-hand navigation menu.

2. Click the Add New dropdown at the top right of the page.

3. Select Observation Deck from the dropdown menu.

4. A new, blank Observation Deck will open. You can now begin adding widgets, sections, and text panels as described in Customize an Observation Deck.

Note: By default, newly created Observation Decks are Private. You must adjust the Visibility settings in the deck's properties if you want to share it with other users in your organization (see Library).

Permissions and Sharing

Observation Decks are governed by Kentik's standard Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) rules, offering the same flexibility as Dashboards:

• Private: Visible and editable only by the user who created it.

• Shared: Visible to other users in your organization based on assigned permissions.

• Label-Based Access: You can apply labels to an Observation Deck to restrict or grant access to specific user roles or groups.

Notes:

• Member users can only manage Observation Decks they created themselves.

• Administrators users can manage all Observation Decks, regardless if self-created, and can assign Observation Decks as the default landing page for any user.

Customize an Observation Deck

Personalize the look and organization of an Observation Deck by renaming elements, rearranging panels, and adjusting their sizes. This can be done either from the Observation Deck page or the Library (see Access an Observation Deck). The process on the Observation Deck page is described here.

TIP: Be sure to click Save Changes to finalize any changes that you make to an Observation Deck.

Edit the Titles

You can easily update Observation Deck panel names by hovering over the panel title and clicking to edit the text inline.

Notes:

• The overall name/title of an Observation Deck can only be changed via the Library.

• Text panels do not have a title bar.

Change the Layout

You can customize the layout of an Observation Deck to prioritize the information most important to you:

• Reposition: To move a panel, click and drag its repositioning handle located in the middle of the title bar. Other panels will automatically rearrange to accommodate the change.

  • Text panels only: Click and drag the four arrows icon to reposition it.

• Resize: To resize a panel, click and drag from the handle at the bottom right.

Add Content

To add new data or structural elements to an Observation Deck from the Observation Deck page, click the Add dropdown menu at the top right of the page. You are presented with three options:

• Widget: Selecting this option opens a page where you can choose from various data-driven visualizations, grouped by category:

  • Alerting: Visualizations related to alerts generated by alert policies.

    Note: For each policy whose alerts are to be covered by a Health Map by Sites visualization, Site must be specified as a Policy Dimension (see Data Funneling), and each device covered by the policy must be assigned to a site (see Device Settings).

  • Cloud: Visualizations related to traffic to and from your resources that are housed in public cloud providers.

  • Core: Visualizations drawn from the Core section of the Kentik portal, including widgets based on individual dimensions (IPs, ASNs, etc.) or broken down by data sources (devices, clouds, interfaces).

  • Edge: Visualizations derived from Edge modules including Connectivity Costs and Discover Peers.

  • Insights: Insights from Kentik's Insights & Alerting systems.

  • NMS: Visualizations from Kentik's Network Monitoring System.

  • Protect: Information, derived from the DDoS Defense module, on DDoS attacks and mitigations.

  • Service Provider: Visualizations derived from Service Provider modules including CDN Analytics, OTT Service Tracking, and KMI Insights.

  • Synthetics: Visualizations related to synthetic testing configured in the Test Control Center using global and privately-deployed Kentik ksynth agents.

• Section: Adds a dedicated Section widget, allowing you to group related panels together into collapsible and expandable sections. This is highly recommended for managing longer, more complex Observation Decks.

• Text: Adds a Text panel. You can add rich text, emojis, and embedded URLs directly into your Observation Deck using Markdown and/or the included text editing tools. This is ideal for adding inline instructions, runbooks, or links to external resources.

Remove Content

To remove a panel from the Observation Deck display area:

• Remove a panel: Click the menu icon (three vertical dots ⋮) at the upper right of any panel, then choose Remove.

Section Management

When you add a Section to your Observation Deck, it acts as a container to group other panels together. By default, new sections are added to the bottom of your deck and are initially named “Untitled Section”.

• Rename a Section: Just like the standard widgets, you can hover over the section title and click to edit the text inline.

• Add New Panels to a Section: Click the Add Panel to Section dropdown located inside the empty container. From here, you can select Widget or Text to build a new panel directly inside the section.

  Note: You cannot nest a section within another section.

• Move Existing Panels into a Section: You can move panels that are already on your Observation Deck into a section. Click and drag the panel by its repositioning handle (located in the middle of its title bar) and drop it inside the section boundary.

• Section Menu: Each section has its own widget menu (three vertical dots ⋮) in the upper right corner. If you choose Remove from this menu, it will remove the entire section container from your Observation Deck.

• Collapsing/Expanding: Click the chevron icon next to the section's title to collapse or expand the grouped widgets, saving screen space.

Text Panel Management

While Text panels share the same basic action menu (⋮) as the other panel types, they have a few unique UI behaviors:

• No Title Bar: Unlike Widgets and Sections, Text panels do not have a traditional title bar.

• Repositioning: Because there is no title bar to grab, you must click and drag the specific repositioning handle (A four-arrows icon visible on hover) to move a Text panel around your Observation Deck or drop it into a Section.

• Editing Content: Text panels display rendered Markdown. To modify the text, links, or formatting inside the panel, click the widget menu (⋮) in the upper right corner and select Edit.

Observation Deck Page UI

Navigating an Observation Deck involves interacting with a few main UI elements, including the title bar, the main display area, and the individual widget controls.

Title Bar

The title bar of Observation Deck runs across the top of the page and includes the following controls:

• Add (dropdown): A menu that allows you to add new elements to your display area, including data Widgets, organizational Sections, or Markdown Text panels.

• Revert: Discards any unsaved changes you have made to the layout, titles, or widgets, returning the Observation Deck to its last saved state.

• Save Changes (active only if unsaved changes have been made): A button that commits the current collection of widgets and their layout.

• Setup Tasks (present only on the default landing page if setup tasks remain): A pane showing your organization's progress with initial onboarding tasks (see Setup Tasks Pane).

Setup Tasks Pane

The setup tasks pane shows your organization's progress with the setup tasks for which Kentik provides wizards for new customers/trial users (see Getting Started). Once all setup tasks are complete the pane will no longer show and all subsequent management of your portal settings will be handled via the portal's Settings section (see Main Settings), which you access via the main menu.

The Setup Tasks pane includes the following controls:

• Setup Tasks Chart: An indicator of how far your organization has progressed with its initial setup tasks.

• View Setup Tasks: A button that takes you to the Welcome to Network Observability page in the setup tasks wizard (see Setup Tasks).

Main Display Area

The main display area of an Observation Deck includes a set of panels (Widgets, Sections, or Text) that show different aspects of your organization's network activity.

Note: For new Kentik trials/customers, the initial selection of visualizations on the Observation Deck will be tailored based on the interests expressed on the How Can We Help page of the initial login sequence covered in Initial Setup Login.

Panel Actions Menu

Every widget, section, and text panel on your Observation Deck includes an actions menu (three vertical dots ⋮) in its upper right corner. Clicking this opens a dropdown menu with options to manage the individual panel, which may include:l

• View/Edit in Data Explorer (only for widgets displaying Data Explorer queries): Opens the widget’s underlying query in Data Explorer for deeper investigation.

• + Move Panel to…: Moves the panel to an existing Section.

• Duplicate: Creates a copy of the panel within this Observation Deck.

• Edit: Opens the panel configuration settings.

• Remove: Deletes the panel from the Observation Deck.

• Add Panel (sections only): Select Widget or Text from the dropdown menu to add a new panel to this section.

Default Visualizations

Kentik users who visit the default, system-provided Observation Deck for the first time will see the following visualizations:

• Traffic Overview: Visualizations, each on a separate tab, of total traffic volume and the volume of traffic matching each of the following traffic profiles (see Simple Traffic Profile):

  • Internal: Traffic that both originates and terminates inside your network.

  • Inbound: Traffic that originates outside your network and terminates inside your network.

  • Outbound: Traffic that originates inside your network and terminates outside your network.

  • Through: Traffic that both originates and terminates outside your network.

  • Other: Traffic that is not classified by the above profiles (see Traffic Classified as Other).

• Traffic By: A table giving a breakdown of the traffic on top X entities in your network such as IPs, Sites, Devices, Interfaces (default) ASNs, etc. The columns of the table vary depending on which type of entity is selected from the dropdown list.

• Connectivity Costs:

  • Estimated cost: The estimated cost you are paying per billing cycle (monthly) for connectivity.

  • Ingress: The sum of the Ingress rates stated for every interface that has been associated with any of your cost groups.

  • Egress: The sum of the Egress rates stated for every interface that has been associated with any of your cost groups.

  • Connectivity Costs: A button that links to the Connectivity Costs landing page.

• Peering:

  • Inbound/Outbound traffic: A table showing the inbound and outbound rates, based on the aggregate, metric, and time range settings in the Parameter Controls, of traffic whose connectivity type is IX, Free Private Peering, or Paid Private Peering.

    Note: If there's no traffic for a given connectivity type, it will not be listed in the table.

  • Discover New Peers: A button that links to the Discover Peers landing page.

• Capacity Planning:

  • Status: A count of interfaces on your network whose utilization is in each of the various capacity planning states (healthy, warning, critical).

  • Capacity Planning: A button that links to the Capacity Planning landing page.