Best Practices for Using Graphs

Follow best practices when working with graphs in STA to maximize their usefulness.

Hide graphs to make space for the table

Collapse the graphs area of the screen to provide more space to view a table. You can save this view as a default template if the table details are more useful in your environment than the graphical overview.

See Resize or Collapse Areas of the Screen.

See Create a Template and Set the Default Template for a Screen.

Compare to the system average

The dotted black line shown by default in all graphs shows a summary or average across your tape library system. This provides a good comparative baseline.

Add individual resources to graphs

Add specific resources (drives, media, and so on) to the graphs. This is a powerful tool for comparing resources within your tape library system.

See Add Library Resources to Graphs.

Synchronize the date and time range on graphs

Synchronize date and time ranges on the Overview screen graphs to provide a good way to compare resources across multiple data ranges. Change the date and time range in one graph and then synchronize the other graphs to it.

See Synchronize a Date Range Across All Graphs.

Display Detailed Values

Move the mouse over a areas of a graph to display the value in a tooltip. Other items within the graph are dimmed.

Highlight Values

Move the mouse over an area of the legend to highlight that entry in the graph. All other entries remain on the graph but are dimmed.