Explorer Features
An overview of Explorer application features.
The Explorer application gives you the ability to investigate, remediate issues and manage operations across all your endpoints in real-time. For more information, please refer to Using Tachyon Explorer.
Here's an overview of the features available in the Explorer application.
Explorer features
Questions, actions and their responses
Explorer lets you directly question connected devices to retrieve responses, run actions, and get real-time information from them. The Explorer front-end capabilities ensure fast querying, investigation, and remediation.
The questions, responses and actions feature includes:
Graphical display of response information
Instruction impact assessment
Response history.
Note
For more information on Instructions and their responses, please refer to:
Exporting data from Explorer
Results visible in Explorer can be exported to files containing comma-separated values (CSV) or, in the case of the Export all option on the instruction response page, tab-separated values (TSV), and results can be marked for export at the point of asking a question to automate the process. Explorer lets you export the data on a number of pages to CSV files:
Instruction history
Responses - you can export a single page or all results once the Instruction has finished gathering responses - these can then be used for auditing purposes or to drive external programs
Drill-down responses
Device information
Note
For more information on exporting data from Explorer, please refer to:
Coverage, question filters, view filters and follow-on instructions
Questions and responses can be tailored to focus on specific ranges of devices through the use of coverage and filters:
Coverage acts first to let you restrict the devices that will be asked a given question
Question filters act before devices have responded to narrow the responses that are sent
View filters act after the responses have been sent to focus the responses presented to the user and to determine the input into the follow-on instructions
The responses to initial questions can be further refined by asking follow-on questions or actions, allowing questioners and actioners to focus in on the results they want to see.
Note
For more information on coverage, question filters, view filters and follow-on instructions, please refer to:
Approval workflow
To enhance the safety of running actions in the Tachyon system, there is an approval workflow that ensures that every action requires the approval of designated approvers before it can be run. To make it even safer, someone with approval permissions cannot approve their own action.
When an attempt is made to run an action, the approval workflow sends an email and a Tachyon notification to all the approvers associated with the action. Any of the approvers may approve or reject the request to run the action.
Note
For more information on the Approval workflow, please refer to:
Authentication
Users must provide their user credentials when attempting to run an action, this prevents unauthorized access by a third party attempting to make use of an unattended computer.
Actions can also be configured to require two-factor authentication, where the user attempting to run an action is challenged to enter a unique, one-time authorization code that has been sent to them via an alternative method - such as email or via a registered mobile.
Task-based organization for accessing and scheduling instructions
Tachyon provides a way of accessing the questions and actions that is organized around the way that network administrators typically interact with their network. This interface also lets you run the Instruction using a schedule.
The Explorer→Instructions→Tasks page in Explorer provides a structured view of the instructions defined in the Product Pack. It also lets you schedule the tasks so they can be run in the future or according to a particular schedule.
Using task groups
The benefit of using Tasks lies in the task group structure that is defined in the product packs. It is this structure that enables you to focus in on specific task areas to find the particular instruction that you want.
For example you may be interested in instructions related to particular software vendor's products. Depending on the Instructions that you have uploaded to your Tachyon system you may see the following structure:
At the top-level there is a Software Vendors task group whose children are 1E and Microsoft.
Underneath the 1E task group there is a Tachyon group that contains Configuration, Diagnostics and Verification groups as well as a couple of Instructions.
Underneath the Microsoft task group is the Configuration Manager task group containing Instructions related to that product.
Note
For more information on using Task groups to access and schedule Instructions, please refer to:
Inventory and connectivity
The Devices page in the Explorer shows you all the devices that have connected with Tachyon and their current connection status. There are two views provided that let you research the devices: the devices table and the devices dashboard, please refer to The Devices Table and The Devices Dashboard for more details.
Note
For more information on inventory and connectivity, please refer to: