SystemDashboard

Unified telemetry ingestion + dashboards for Windows events, syslog, and LAN activity, powered by PowerShell and Flask.

Highlights

• Ingests Windows events, syslog, and router telemetry into PostgreSQL.
• Serves a lightweight legacy UI (PowerShell) and a richer Flask analytics UI.
• Provides device inventory, timeline charts, and anomaly-friendly summaries.
• Includes automation for database setup, scheduled tasks, and health checks.

Architecture (high level)

• Collectors (PowerShell + services) -> PostgreSQL -> Dashboard UI(s)
• Legacy UI: Start-SystemDashboard.ps1 serving wwwroot/
• Flask UI: app/app.py with direct Postgres queries

Quick start

1. Optional: create config.local.json for your machine (preferred over config.json).

2. Set required secrets (see .env.example).

3. Import the scripting module:

   Import-Module .\scripting\SystemDashboard.Scripting.psm1 -Force

4. Install dependencies:

   Install-SystemDashboard -ConfigPath .\config.json

5. Initialize the database:

   • Local Postgres: Initialize-SystemDashboardDatabase
   • Docker Postgres: Initialize-SystemDashboardDockerDatabase

6. Launch the dashboard:

   pwsh -NoProfile -File .\Start-SystemDashboard.ps1 -Mode Legacy

Screenshots

See docs/screenshots/README.md for naming and capture guidance.

Legacy UI density notes

• Density strategy: keep primary KPIs in the System Health strip, push verbose telemetry into compact tables with sticky headers, and collapse low-signal panels by default.
• Adding KPIs: extend the System Health tiles in wwwroot/index.html and wire values/deltas in wwwroot/app.js (kpiHistory + updateKpiTile).
• Empty-state collapsing: setPanelEmptyState() marks cards is-empty and collapses their body; the Show empty panels toggle (stored as system-dashboard-show-empty in localStorage) reveals them.

Operational commands (from the module)

• Apply-SystemDashboardLanSchema -ConfigPath .\config.json – add LAN observability tables.
• Install-SystemDashboardScheduledTask – register the telemetry scheduled task.
• Manage-SystemDashboardServices -Install|-Uninstall|-Status – manage the scheduled-task based services.
• Ensure-SystemDashboardLanDependencies – download LAN collector dependencies.
• Invoke-SystemDashboardControl – open the interactive operations menu.
• Invoke-SystemDashboardAutoHeal – run the one-time health probe with optional AI suggestions.
• Test-SystemDashboardTelemetryDatabase – verify reader connectivity to Postgres.

Resiliency & diagnostics

• Listener degrades gracefully when assets/config are missing; check /api/status for startup issues and last error.
• Database calls use connect/query timeouts plus a circuit breaker; tune with SYSTEMDASHBOARD_DB_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, SYSTEMDASHBOARD_DB_STATEMENT_TIMEOUT, and SYSTEMDASHBOARD_DB_CIRCUIT_*.
• Dashboard layout persistence stores to var/ui/layouts.json (override with Service.Ui.LayoutPath or Ui.LayoutPath) and falls back to localStorage if the endpoint is unavailable.
• Local Postgres port auto-detection checks configured port first, then fallbacks via SYSTEMDASHBOARD_DB_PORT_FALLBACKS or Database.PortFallbacks.
• Service restart backoff and crash history live in var/log/dashboard-crash-history.log; adjust with SYSTEMDASHBOARD_RESTART_*.
• Listener/service logs: var/log/dashboard-listener.log, var/log/dashboard-ui.log, and per-run stdout/stderr dashboard-listener-*.out.log / dashboard-listener-*.err.log.
• Optional structured logs and rotation via SYSTEMDASHBOARD_LOG_FORMAT, SYSTEMDASHBOARD_LOG_MAX_MB, SYSTEMDASHBOARD_LOG_MAX_FILES, SYSTEMDASHBOARD_SERVICE_LOG_MAX_MB, and SYSTEMDASHBOARD_SERVICE_LOG_MAX_FILES.

Documentation

• Deployment guide: DEPLOYMENT.md
• Current working configuration: CURRENT_CONFIGURATION.md
• Lessons learned: LESSONS_LEARNED.md
• Portfolio summary: PORTFOLIO.md
• Change log: CHANGELOG.md
• Legacy and in-depth references are preserved under docs/_Archive/ and docs/archive/legacy/.
• Retired helper scripts remain available under scripting/_Archive/.