Troubleshooting Missing Usernames and Metric Data in ControlUp Process Monitoring Dashboards and Stat Widget Limitations

A common issue encountered with ControlUp dashboards involves inaccurate reporting of process start times and user counts, specifically with high numbers of users and processes that initiate immediately after login. In a troubleshooting case, a community member observed that the Netskope client was not routing traffic to on-premises file shares for 5 to 10 minutes post-login. They wished to confirm through a dashboard or report that the service in question (stAgent process) started almost immediately after user login. However, the dashboard filtered to this process was showing many “N/A” values for relevant metrics, and the total user count was about 900 fewer than expected.

The core technical challenge was identified as a data collection nuance related to where process data originates and the timing of process starts relative to the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) agent. It was clarified that the metrics came from “process stops” indices. Users noted that usernames were sometimes missing from these entries because the process starts before the SIP agent logged the user identity, leading to incomplete user data capture. Additionally, the “app_launch_time_ms” metric was missing for some process start events, likely due to this timing discrepancy. Differences were highlighted between two different data sources, “process_stops” (Windows-focused) and “builtin_process_stop” (Mac-focused), explaining variations in available metric details.

Another topic discussed was the limitation encountered when interacting with Stat widgets in ControlUp dashboards. When clicking on a stat card representing many devices (e.g., 2000 unique device IDs), the drill-down view only displayed up to 500 devices, causing confusion and incomplete visibility. This limitation was acknowledged as potentially unintentional and slated for further investigation. The community debated the practical need for disabling this drill-down feature in some dashboards, with consensus that although direct action on large device sets might be unusual, users still expect full visibility matching the dashboard summary counts.

From a solution perspective, filtering widgets by exact username with a negation filter was suggested to show only entries with recorded usernames, assisting in troubleshooting user data completeness. The issue with incomplete metric values related to early-starting processes remains a technical limitation tied to data collection timing, without an immediate fix but with suggested workarounds for filtering and interpreting available data.

In summary, to troubleshoot processes that start immediately after login but show incomplete metrics or user data in ControlUp dashboards:
– Understand the difference between the Windows “process_stops” and Mac “builtin_process_stop” indices and their data characteristics.
– Recognize that processes starting before the SIP agent registers the user can result in missing usernames and launch time metrics.
– Use filtering techniques to isolate entries with valid usernames.
– Be aware of drill-down limits on Stat widgets (currently capped at displaying 500 devices), which affects visibility on large datasets.
– Monitor ControlUp updates for potential removal or adjustment of drill-down limits.

For more details on dashboards, filtering, and process monitoring in ControlUp, refer to the official documentation at https://docs.controlup.com, and for dashboard customization best practices, visit https://cuacademy.controlup.com.

Read the entire ‘Troubleshooting Missing Usernames and Metric Data in ControlUp Process Monitoring Dashboards and Stat Widget Limitations’ thread below:

Good morning,

I am troubleshooting an issue where we see a netskope client not routing traffic back to some on prem file shares for 5 – 10 minutes after user logon. Trying to prove that the service itself is starting almost immediately after login and want a dashboard (or a report) to prove that.
The dashboard I have is filtered down to the stAgent process, but everything is reporting as N/A & the total number of users is about 900 less than I’d expect.

Is my problem that this is starting before I see the SIP service start on the user logon report for a single user?

this data comes from process stops. Do you guys know why the username would not be recorded for this process?

Can confirm its not showing in the index. I do notice there are some default user entries too.

you could put a filter on the widget with Exact Username and then leave it empty and put the filter on the NOT section

then the widget will only show entries where there is a username

I seem to be getting the usernames but not the “app_launch_time_ms” metrics

I don’t think answering “why is the metric missing values” will be helpful in any way. It will still be missing even if we find out why….
I think it makes sense that it’s because that exe starts before sipagent, like Alex suspects.
There seems to be a bit of a difference between the process_stops and builtin_process_stop indices, I notice more values with username in builtin_process_stop, but the launch time is not there at all.

yeah i checked builtin_process_stops is Mac and process_stops is Windows might be some difference there

is this a known issue; when clicking on the Stat widget, a new page will open with a temporary view. This is working fine.

But.. only a max of 500 devices are shown. For example, when you have a stat with 2000 unique device ids, clicking on it results in a overview with only 500 devices instead of 2000.

And.. it should be fine if we can disable the click option for the stat card.

For example in the new dashboard template ‘Device Registration Failure Tracking Dashboard’, clicking on the ‘# of Devices Failing to Registrr’ stat, ending in an empty devices page. Which is ofc logical, since this are devices which are not registered yet.

CC I thought the limit was higher then 500? Do you know this.

are there scenarios where you would want to perform a action on 2000 devices? The idea is to go from stat to action. I don’t think we will make a option to disable it because not clicking it is still an option. Or am I wrong? Please let me know all feedback is good for the team

There should not be this limit. I’ll need to investigate this.

I do not want to perform an action indeed. But when I click on a stat which tell me 2000 devices, I expect 2000 devices.

Haha ofc not clicking on it, is a way to go.

Yeah we will look at the limitation

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