In my previous blogs in the Dashboard Server Learning Path, we looked at working with the Web API tile and the PowerShell tile. In this instalment, let’s try the SQL tile. This tile will let you connect to any SQL database and run a SQL query straight from SquaredUp. This tile is also available in both the SquaredUp for SCOM and Azure products, so I have some familiarity with it already.

Amongst all the cool features of SquaredUp Dashboard Server, the coolest kid on the block is probably the PowerShell tile. The reason is simple – PowerShell is easy, it’s awesome, and it’s powerful! You can not only retrieve data from the source (like the APIs), but you can also manipulate that data, work with variables, loop it, filter it, and use it in whichever way works the best. Like they say, the things PowerShell can do are only restricted by the proficiency of the user.

The NiCE Active 365 Management Pack for SCOM enables advanced monitoring for Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, and AAD Connect in hybrid environments. It ensures end-to-end control for your Microsoft 365 cloud and hybrid services. The new NiCE Active 365 Management Pack 3.3 release comes with great new features.

SCOM 2019 is a monitoring powerhouse. Its capabilities are unmatched. But it also has some serious issues when it comes to unearthing and visualizing the valuable data locked inside. The replacement of Silverlight with HTML5 in the SCOM 2019 web console was a welcome enhancement, but the SCOM web console still shares its design with the administration console, which is slow, complex, and makes it downright difficult to get the visibility you need.

Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the basics, let’s get on creating our first dashboard! I spot an familiar tile here, the WebAPI tile. This tile is available in the SquaredUp SCOM and Azure products too. WebAPI tile is the way you bring external data into SquaredUp. As long as the tool you’re connecting to has an API endpoint that returns data in JSON payload, you can work with that data to display the data in a dashboard in SquaredUp.