Large Visualizations for System Monitoring of Complex, Heterogeneous Systems

As systems grow larger in size and complexity, it becomes increasingly difficult for administrators to maintain some shared sense of awareness of what's going on in the system. We implemented a large public display with appropriately designed visualizations that allow for rapid assessment and peripheral awareness of system health. By placing the visualizations on a large display in a shared, commonly used team location, system administrators can monitor behavior as they walk past. Such a display helps administrators identify emerging problems early on and be a focal point for discussions of the system. It allows them not only to share information with colleagues on an “as-noticed” basis, but also highlights interconnected problems that would not be otherwise evident. We found that this approach significantly reduces the workload of individual system administrators, changing the nature of their work by radically simplifying a complex task through social sharing of peripherally noticed state.