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79 lines
3.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
===========================
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Ceph Dashboard Design Goals
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===========================
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.. note:: This document is intended to provide a focal point for discussing the overall design
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principles for mgr/dashboard
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Introduction
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============
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Most distributed storage architectures are inherently complex and can present a management challenge
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to Operations teams who are typically stretched across multiple product and platform disciplines. In
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general terms, the complexity of any solution can have a direct bearing on the operational costs
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incurred to manage it. The answer is simple...make it simple :)
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This document is intended to highlight Ceph Dashboard design goals which may help to
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* reduce complexity
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* increase productivity
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* improve time-to-value
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* increase observability
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Understanding the Persona of the Target User
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============================================
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Ceph has historically been administered from the CLI. The CLI has always and will always offer the
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richest, most flexible way to install and manage a Ceph cluster. Administrators who require and
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demand this level of control are unlikely to adopt a UI for anything more than a technical curiosity.
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The relevance of the UI is therefore more critical for a new SysAdmin, where it can help technology
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adoption and reduce the operational friction that is normally experienced when implementing a new
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solution.
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Understanding the target user persona is therefore a fundamental first step in design. Attempting to
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design a UI that meets the requirements of a 'seasoned' Ceph Administrator or Developer, and a
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relatively new SysAdmin is unlikely to satisfy either user group.
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Design Principles
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=================
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Key Principles
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______________
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#. **Clarity and consistency**. The UI should ensure the data shown is unambiguous and consistent across
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different views
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#. **Data timeliness**. Data displayed in the UI must be timely. State information **must** be reasonably
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recent for it to be relevant and acted upon with confidence. In addition, the age of the data should
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be shown as age (e.g. 20s ago) rather than UTC timestamps to make it more immediately consumable by
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the Administrator.
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#. **Automate through workflows**. If the admin has to follow a 'recipe' to perform a task, the goal of
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the dashboard UI should be to implement the flow.
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#. **Provide a natural next step**. The UI **is** the *expert system*, so instead of expecting the user
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to know where they go next, the UI should lead them. This means linking components together to
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establish a flow and deeper integration between the alertmanager implementation and the dashboard
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elements enabling an Admin to efficiently step from alert to affected component.
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#. **Platform visibility**. The platform (OS and hardware configuration) is a fundamental component of the
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solution, so providing platform level insights can help deliver a more holistic view of the Ceph cluster.
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#. **Jargon Busting**. Jargon is an unavoidable component of most systems. However, a good system will
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include inline help to support new and infrequent users of the UI.
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Common Pitfalls
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_______________
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* Don't re-implement CLI commands in the UI. The sysadmin will likely use the CLI primitives in scripts
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to automate tasks, so by simply adding a CLI feature we miss the workflow and add complexity, which
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potentially 'bloats' the UI.
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* Don't think like a developer...try and adopt the mindset of an Administrator, who only works with the
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Ceph cluster part-time - this is the reality for today's Operations teams.
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Focus On User Experience
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========================
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Ultimately, the goal must be to move away from pushing complexity onto the GUI user through multi-step
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workflows like iSCSI configuration or setting specific cluster flags in defined sequences. Simplicity
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should be the goal for the UI...let's leave the complexity to the CLI.
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