Data Explorer and Data Cubes

Data Explorer and its individual cubes allow you to view, filter, and manipulate data in many different ways .

Data Exploration

Data exploration is the act of examining the minute details of an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube.

Consider your data to be a three-dimensional cube that you would like to explore, both inside out and outside in, so that you can glean more insights from your data. Of course, most real world data sets will have more than three dimensions, but the concepts from a 3D cube can be directly extended to a multidimensional hypercube.

With an OLAP cube, there are five operations that you can perform:
  1. Slice: Think of slicing a piece of cheese; you make a single cut to the cheese to expose the insides. A typical slice operation is the time slice. Instead of reviewing all the data of the last 30 days, you slice the data to expose only Day 1.
  2. Dice: Consider dicing a block of cheese; you make multiple cuts and separate the block into a number of smaller pieces. A typical dice operation involves taking a slice of data, such as the Day 1 data, and cutting it further to filter by the venue name and AP group. A smaller piece of the original OLAP cube results from the slice and dice operations.
  3. Drill Up and Drill Down: In order to delve into the details, you can drill down to a specific AP in an AP group, and drill down further to a specific client host name. Conversely, you could search for a client MAC address and drill up to find the AP and venue to which it belongs.
  4. Roll Up: The roll up operation typically involves numbers known as measures. After the slice, dice, and drill down of your data, you can roll up the numbers to gain a better understanding of the whole, for example, the total transmit traffic for the selected APs.
  5. Pivot: The pivot operation allows you to view the data from a different perspective. Think of pivoting as changing the hierarchy between the dimensions.
As you use the custom reporting, you can refer to these five operations.
Figure 265  Data Explorer and Data Cubes

Data Explorer allows you to explore the data under various categories, using your own permutations and combinations, unlike the other canned reports available.

NOTE
The Schedule tab is for use only with dashboards you create, not with data cubes themselves.
For information on how to use data cube filters, which are common to all the data cubes, refer to Data Cube Filters. You can also create and save dashboards, which allows you to customize reports by using data from any or all of the data cubes. Refer to Creating a Data Explorer Dashboard and Actions You Can Perform on an Existing Dashboard for more information.

Applications

The Applications cube allows you to explore the application data your system uses.

Figure 266  Data Explorer: Applications

Network

The Network cube allows you to explore network traffic data and its usage.

Figure 267  Data Explorer: Network

Airtime Utilization

The Airtime Utilization cube allows you to explore the airtime utilization data in your system.

Figure 268  Data Explorer: Airtime Utilization

Clients

The Clients cube allows you to explore client data for your system.

Figure 269  Data Explorer: Clients

Sessions

The Sessions cube allows you to explore data about the various sessions in your system.

Figure 270  Data Explorer: Sessions

Switch Inventory

The Switch Inventory cube allows you to view information about the switch configuration data your system uses.

Figure 271  Data Explorer: Switch Inventory

Events

The Events cube allows you to view data about events that have occurred in your system.

Figure 272  Data Explorer: Events

AP Inventory

The AP Inventory cube allows you to view information about the various AP models your system uses.

Figure 273  Data Explorer: AP Inventory

AP Alarms

The AP Alarms cube allows you to view information about alarms in your system.

Figure 274  Data Explorer: AP Alarms

Rogue APs

The Rogue APs cube allows you to view information about APs that have been flagged as "Rogue" because they cannot be identified by existing APs in your system.

Figure 275  Data Explorer: Rogue APs

Switch Network

The Switch Network cube allows you to explore switch traffic data and its usage.

Figure 276  Data Explorer: Switch Network

Wi-Fi Calling

The WiFi Calling cube allows you to view the metrics data for the Cloud controller.

Figure 277  Data Explorer: Wi-Fi Calling
Parent topic: Data Explorer