Summary: alongside new software version 22.10 of the Centreon monitoring platform, its popular MAP extension has been totally redesigned to facilitate the creation and update of graphical views. Views can be seamlessly migrated from the legacy extension to this newer version. Server performance has been improved, too. In the near future, this new MAP extension will also be compatible with Centreon 22.04 platforms. Read this blog post for more detailed information.
Note : this blog post addresses Centreon On-Premises users. Centreon Cloud users subscribing to the Business Edition already benefit from the new MAP extension and are not concerned with this information.
Centreon MAP extension: graphical views on your IT
The Centreon IT monitoring platform provides full visibility on IT, Cloud and Not-Cloud, through a variety of dedicated views that can be shared with all stakeholders, from event and alert views to custom detailed dashboards to high-level cockpit views…
MAP is the name of one of the most popular extensions of the Centreon platform since it provides a tool to draw graphical, real-time views that can directly show the availability and performance of any critical infrastructure that you’re in charge of.
These views are fully integrated into the Centreon user interface. They can be included into any custom dashboard. You may drill-down into a view to automatically access more detailed information for troubleshooting purposes. User rights are applicable so that each user only accesses the exact views he/she needs.
The MAP extension is included in the Centreon Business Edition and Centreon MSP Edition subscriptions.
Editing graphical views from the Centreon web interface
The so-called MAP client is the user interface that is used to create and update graphical views. In the legacy version of the extension, it was called the desktop client because it was a Java software client to be installed on each and every desktop PC used to create or edit views.
This desktop client is no more. Graphical views can now be created and edited directly from the Centreon web user interface, by any user with the proper user rights.
The user interface is still an easy-to-use drag and drop drawing tool that retains all the capabilities from the legacy desktop client, albeit with a slightly different look and feel. During the Beta phase of this project, we observed that users of the legacy desktop client could adapt within minutes to the new web user interface. And new users barely need to read the online documentation to feel comfortable editing complex views.
A new server with increased performance
The MAP server stores all graphical views and serves them to the Centreon web interface. On very large monitoring platforms, with thousands of views showing thousands of objects in real-time, the legacy version of the server could struggle to keep up.
A brand new server has been developed, implementing a new data model, to increase the performance in all circumstances. During the Beta phase of this project, significant improvements were demonstrated. This was confirmed by our stress tests in the lab.
Seamless migration for complete backward compatibility
You’ve probably guessed it by now: the new web client has been designed to only work with the new server. A dedicated migration procedure has been implemented to migrate all the legacy views from the legacy data model and server to the new server, ready to be edited from the web user interface.
Once the new server is installed alongside the legacy server, this seamless migration can be triggered from the Centreon user interface and is fully automatic : legacy views are transferred to the new server with the new data model.
Legacy views are kept on the legacy server to allow for a roll-back, if necessary. Please note: views that are created or edited with the new MAP extension can not be migrated back to the legacy version. This applies to legacy views that are migrated and then edited.
The migration procedure is described here in the online documentation.
Compatible Centreon platforms
This new MAP extension is compatible with all Centreon 22.10 platforms, or later.
Administrators of Centreon 22.10 platforms can choose to run either the legacy extension or the new extension: the legacy extension is not deprecated. By default, the new extension is used when installing a new Centreon 22.10 platform.
Within a few days or weeks, the new MAP extension will also be available for Centreon 22.04 platforms. Administrators of Centreon 22.04 platforms will then be able to benefit from the new extension, prior to migrating the whole platform to the 22.10 or later version.
This is only the beginning
In the past 12 months, we focused on delivering this new MAP extension with the goal to better integrate it to the platform, enhance the user experience, enhance the performance for large organizations and ensure a seamless migration while retaining the same feature set.
This totally revisited and technologically-refreshed extension is now the springboard for new functionalities that we will add in coming software updates. Be sure to migrate to the new MAP Extension to benefit right-away from the web client and to be ready for new features and improvements.
Where to find more information?
The 22.10 online documentation is up to date and describes both the new and legacy MAP extensions, both client and server sides, as well as the migration procedure.
A webinar to deep dive in all details and intricacies of the new extension or the migration procedure will take place on the third week of January, 2023.
We’ve renamed the dedicated group on The Watch community platform that we used to share information with Beta users: this group is a good place to ask questions or find answers very specific about the new version of the extension.
You’re not using the MAP extension yet and would like to know more about it? Ask for a demo to see if the Centreon platform is for you.
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