User Profile

This article discusses the User Profile page in the Kentik portal.

About User Profile

The portal's User Profile page serves two related purposes for Kentik users:

• Manage user-specific settings that control how information (e.g., time zone, theme etc.) is presented within the Kentik portal.

• Manage user-specific preferences in areas such as authentication, notifications, and landing pages.

Settings made in your profile affect only your Kentik experience. These changes have no effect on other Kentik users in your organization.

User Profile Page

The User Profile page is a central place to view and specify user-specific settings for the Kentik portal. These settings enable you to tailor aspects of Kentik to your own needs. To access your user profile, click the user icon at the far right of the main navbar, then choose User Profile from the User Menu.

The User Profile page is organized as a collection of tabs that each represent different categories of settings:

• General: Your role, name, and email address, as well as defaults and notification preferences.

• Authentication: SSO, password and API token resets, and two factor authentication settings.

• Chart Colors: Personalization settings for how you view the portal.

Note: Additional settings related to the administration of users are covered in Users.

General Settings

The General tab of the User Profile page is covered in the following sections.

Note: Use the Save button to save changes made to any settings on the General tab.

User Information

This pane contains basic settings related to the individual user:

• Role: Your user level in Kentik: Member, Administrator, or Super Administrator (see About Users). This section is controlled by Administrators.

• Full name: Your full name as registered with Kentik.

• Email: Your email address as registered with Kentik.

  Note: To change your email, enter the new address in the field and click Save, then complete the verification instructions sent to the new address.

User-Specific Theme

The theme determines the background colors used for the portal UI. You can choose from the following options:

• Auto (OS Setting): The theme follows your OS settings:

  • If your OS is set to Dark mode, the Kentik portal will also display in Dark mode.

  • If your OS is set to change with the time of day, the Light theme is used during the day and the Dark theme is used at night.

• Light: Light background for daytime or brightly lit environments.

  Note: This is referred to as the Standard Theme on the Chart Colors tab.

• Dark: Dark background, often used in low light environments.

The color palette for the Standard/Dark themes is set on the Chart Colors tab (see Chart Colors).

User-Specific Defaults

The following user profile settings enable customization of the user experience in the portal:

• Landing Page: Radio buttons that determine which Kentik portal page you'll be taken to upon login.

  Note: For options like Observation Decks, Dashboards, and Saved Views, you must select a specific view from the accompanying drop-down (see Default Landing Page).

• Time Zone: Radio buttons that determine the time zone in which times are expressed, either UTC or local.

• Data Explorer:

  • Historical Overlay: A switch that determines whether the Historical Overlay display setting in Data Explorer is enabled by default.

  • rDNS Lookup: A switch that determines whether reverse DNS (rDNS) lookups are performed by default when querying IPs. Disabling this option will speed up IP queries.

• Network Explorer:

  • Show Other Traffic: A switch that determines whether Network Explorer shows all of the remaining aggregated traffic outside of the Top N charted time series.

Default Landing Page

This setting determines which Kentik portal page you'll be taken when you first log into the portal. Use the radio buttons to choose one of the following:

• Observation Decks (default): A dropdown to choose a specific Observation Deck. Filter the list to a specific deck by starting to enter its name. (An Observation Deck is a flexible, shareable high-level view of your organization’s network).

• NMS Dashboard: The default dashboard for Kentik's Network Monitoring System.

• Network Explorer: Provides you with a high-level overview of the traffic on your network.

• Library: Provides a single place to find, view, and manage views (Dashboards, Saved Views, Observation Decks) of your organization’s network data.

• Synthetics: Provides visibility into the health, performance, and availability of your network.

• Data Explorer: Kentik’s primary interface for manually exploring the network data stored in the main tables of the Kentik Data Engine. The query settings of the Data Explorer sidebar will be set to defaults.

• Alerting: Provides a list of current and historical alerts generated by Kentik’s alerting system.

• Insights: Provides a centralized list of your organization’s insights (Kentik and custom).

• Dashboards: Displays a dropdown to choose a dashboard. Filter the list to a specific dashboard by starting to enter its name.

• Saved Views: Displays a dropdown to choose a saved view. Filter the list to a specific saved view by starting to enter its name.

• Quick Views: A dropdown to choose a specific Quick View page (e.g., Sites, Devices, ASNs). Filter the list by starting to enter its name. (A Quick View is a pre-built, single-click data visualization that provides a table-view of network activity for a specific attribute).

• Market Intelligence: The Kentik Market Intelligence page in the Service Provider section of the portal.

Notification Preferences

Notification preferences relate both to notifications that appear in the portal and those that can be emailed to the user. The following toggle switches turn different types of notifications on/off:

• Service Updates: A switch that enables notifications about service status (e.g., scheduled maintenance, outage), which are emailed to the user and displayed in the portal during an active session.

• Product Updates: A switch that enables notifications about the product (e.g., updates to features, interface, capabilities), which are emailed to the user and displayed in the portal during an active session.

• BGP Session Events: A switch that enables emails sent when there is a non-service-affecting interruption (flap) in BGP.

Note: Product and service updates will be displayed at login even if the corresponding switches (above) are off.

Authentication Settings

The Authentication tab of the User Profile page is covered in the following topics.

Single Sign-on

If Single Sign-on (see Authentication & SSO) is enabled for your company, you will see a Single Sign-on pane at the top of the page. The pane contains information about logging in with SSO.

Note: Super Administrator users can access Single Sign-on settings by selecting Authentication & SSO from the Organization Settings menu.

API Token

The API Token pane of the Authentication tab contains the following elements:

• API Token: A field containing a Kentik-generated string that is used to authenticate the user in an HTTP header (X-CH-Auth-API-Token).

• Copy (button): Copies the API token to your clipboard.

• Reset (button): Resets your API token. A new token will be generated and written to the API Token field.

Note: If a security note is displayed just under the Token field, the access setting for the API subsystem on the Access Control page (Organization Settings » Portal Access Control) is set to allow only specified APIs.

Password

The Password pane of the Authentication tab contains a Reset Password button. When the button is clicked a password reset email is sent to the address that you provided on the General tab, and you’ll see a notification at the top of the page confirming that password reset has been initiated. Follow the instructions in the email to reset your password.

Two-Factor Authentication

The Two-Factor Authentication pane of the Authentication tab contains settings that support enhanced security. Kentik uses a modern WebAuthn-based system that organizes 2FA into three distinct categories: Security Keys, Device Authenticators, and Legacy Methods.

Security Keys

External security keys, such as physical YubiKeys and phone authenticators, can be used to verify logins. The Security Keys table displays your registered keys.

• Add Key (button): Prompts your browser's WebAuthn flow to register a new external security key.

Device Authenticators

Device-bound authenticators provided by your browser or operating system (e.g., Apple's iCloud Keychain, Windows Hello, or Android biometric passkeys) can be used to verify your identity. The Device Authenticators table displays your enrolled devices.

• Enroll Device: A button that prompts your browser's WebAuthn flow to register your current device as an authenticator.

Legacy Methods

The Legacy Methods table manages older authentication methods, such as standard TOTP applications (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator) and previously configured YubiKeys. These methods remained as-is when Kentik implemented WebAuthn.

• Add Legacy TOTP: A button that opens a dialog enabling you to register a new time-based one-time password (TOTP) authenticator.

Manage Authentication Methods

Within each of the three category tables (Security Keys, Device Authenticators, Legacy Methods), you can manage individual authentication methods using the following controls:

• Edit (pencil icon): Allows you to edit the name of the authentication method.

• Disable (shield icon): Disables (but does not remove) the authentication method.

• Remove (trash icon): Permanently removes the authentication method from your profile.

Note: If you remove or disable all items across all three lists, Two-Factor Authentication will be disabled for your account.

Add a Security Key or Device Authenticator

Because Kentik leverages standard WebAuthn protocols, the exact steps for adding a Security Key or Device Authenticator will vary depending on your specific operating system (macOS, Windows) and browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge).

General Steps:

1. Click Add Key (for external keys) or Enroll Device (for built-in biometric/OS authenticators).

2. A system dialog from your browser or operating system will appear.

3. Follow the on-screen prompts (e.g., insert and touch your physical security key, or scan your fingerprint/FaceID).

4. Once verified, provide a name for the new authenticator in the Kentik portal to easily identify it later in your authentication lists.

Add a Legacy TOTP

To register a traditional TOTP authenticator (like Google Authenticator), use the Add Legacy TOTP button:

Note: Always use a different device, such as a mobile phone, than the device from which you will access Kentik.

1. Download your preferred authenticator app to your mobile device.

2. In the Kentik portal, click the Add Legacy TOTP button in the Legacy Methods section.

3. In your authenticator app, press the add button (usually a plus sign) and choose Scan a QR code.

4. Point your phone's camera at the QR code displayed in the Kentik dialog on your computer screen. The app will save the secret and display a rotating authentication code.

5. Enter the new authentication code from your phone into the Kentik dialog, then click Save.

6. The dialog will close, and the new method will appear in the Legacy Methods list.

Note: When logging into Kentik, your browser will automatically prompt you for your default WebAuthn method (Security Key or Device Authenticator). If you need to use a Legacy TOTP instead, you can cancel the browser prompt and enter your code into the One-time Token field (see Two-factor Login).

Chart Colors Settings

The Chart Colors tab of the User Profile page is covered in the following topics.

About Chart Colors

User visualization settings, accessed via the Chart Colors tab on the User Profile page, enable you to control the appearance of visualizations that are rendered in Data Explorer and in the dashboards and saved views of the portal Library. The tab is structured with a control area on the left and a preview area on the right that allows you to see the effect of your settings on various types of visualizations.

Chart Colors Display Controls

The control area at left is used to set the colors and palettes used for visualizations when the portal is in the Standard Theme or Dark Theme. The control area includes the following settings and controls:

• Theme: A button group that determines whether you are currently previewing and setting colors and palettes for the Standard or Dark theme, which are each set independently. This setting allows you to see how the colors that you select will look when the current theme is active in the portal.

  Note: To set when each theme is active, see User-Specific Theme.

• Labels: Controls that determine the color of the labels that are applied to the key of a chart. To set a label color, do one of the following:

  • Click the color swatch at left and choose from the popup color palette.

  • Enter a hex number in the field at right.

• Overlays: Controls that determine the color of the Total and Historical overlays that are used on time-series visualizations. The color controls for Overlays are the same as for Labels.

• Quantitative and Qualitative: Controls that determine the color palettes (see Chart Colors Color Palettes) that will be applied to quantitative and qualitative visualizations (see Chart Colors Previews).

• Reset to Default: A button that restores all settings of the current theme (light or dark) to default values.

• Save: A button that saves the current settings of both themes. The settings for each theme will be applied throughout the portal whenever that theme is active.

Chart Colors Color Palettes

The controls in the lower part of the control area enable you to choose color palettes for visualizations in both of the categories (quantitative and qualitative) whose chart types are listed in Chart Colors Previews. You can either choose a preset palette (by clicking on it in the palette list) or build your own palette.

To build a custom palette for either quantitative or qualitative visualizations:

1. Turn on the Use custom values switch. The preset palettes will be replaced with a set of individual color controls like those used for labels and overlays.

2. Use the controls to change any of the individual colors that you'd like to change.

3. Click Save.

   Notes:

   • To go back to using a preset color palette, switch Use Custom Values off.

   • Color palette settings will have no effect for the following chart types: Sankey, Horizon, Geo HeatMap, Gauge, and Table.

Chart Colors Previews

The right side of the Chart Colors tab contains two preview panes that display charts similar to those in the Data Explorer chart display area (see Explorer Chart Display). The top preview pane is for quantitative view types and the bottom is for qualitative. The Visualization dropdown at the top right of each preview pane is used to choose a representative visualization of a given type so that you can see the effect of the color choices made with the Chart Colors Display Controls.

The following Chart Visualization Types are available to preview in the two panes:

• Preview: Quantitative Views: The Visualization dropdown at the top right of the Quantitative Views preview pane (top preview) includes the following chart types that display quantitative data:

  • Stacked Area Chart

  • 100% Stacked Area Chart

  • Stacked Column Chart

  • Horizon Chart

  • Bar Chart

  • Matrix

• Preview: Qualitative Views: The Visualization dropdown at the top right of the Qualitative Views preview pane (bottom preview) includes the following chart types that display qualitative data:

  • Line Chart

  • Pie Chart

  • Sunburst