in 2.0.0 the new dashboards were introduced. Most of our users would still prefer the classic Problem Dashboard as their start view. I configured this under Settings → Global Settings → Start URL to display in main frame: dashboard.py?name=problems
However, this does not work for the existing users. Upon login, the new “Main Dashboard” is still shown. Pressing the checkmk logo now brings up the Problem Dashboard as configured, but users would prefer to see this right away after login. I noticed that for freshly created accounts, it works as expected and directly starts with the configured view after login. It seems like this global setting is only queried once, when a new account is created, but not for existing accounts when modified afterwards. (local accounts)
Does anyone know, where this setting is stored in the .mk files so I could manually fix this for the existing users?
These settings are stored for every user inside “~/var/check_mk/web/”
I think that the existing users have there an entry pointing to an not existing dashboard and that then not your configured dashboard is enforced but the default system dashboard is shown.
But this is just a guess as i cannot test it at the moment
That’s what I thought, too. But unfortunately I cannot find any setting, which defines the default dashboard in these stored user settings.
It’s not stored in the user configuration under ~/etc/check_mk/conf.d/wato/contacts.mk either.
Does anyone have any other ideas, where else to look for individual user settings, which might explain, why the global default start URL only applies to new users, not the legacy ones?
Note: the legacy users of course were created with 1.6, not 2.0. But the parameter for a default start URL has already been around in 1.6, too and I it was left at default in our 1.6 configuration.
I’m looking for a way to fix this issue without deleting all existing users along with their individual passwords and settings.
I found the file “start_url.mk” inside the user folders “~/var/check_mk/web/username/”.
But now some strange findings
The setting inside this file is not respected by the GUI. In my test i could enter any URL what i want but every time i get the global settings start URL.
Result on my side is - only the global settings URL is respected and not the user specific settings.
This file does not exist for any users at our site. I’d guess that this file stores the setting, when the user changes it in his personal settings with User → edit profile.
But if this file is ignored, too, it looks like the “start URL” feature in general has some minor bugs.
Another strange finding: The problem only occurs, if you log in for the first time after opening your browser. If you then log out, but keep the browser open, upon next login the start URL will work as configured in the global settings
It still is a problem for us, because users, who shut down their PC each night, will be annoyed if they always get the wrong dashboard each morning after the first login.
I’ll probably open an incident for that. It does not seem like something we can figure out in the forum.
Thanks for your input, Andreas!
Bye,
Dirk.
Edit: So my tests were wrong. The problem exists for all users upon the first login, when the browser was started.
Of course I tested the login with the test accounts by using the “logout” feature without closing the browser. I tested again with a freshly started browser and the new accounts show exactly the same behaviour.
So it’s not a bug, which behaves differently for different users.
Summary: When freshly starting your browser in the morning and logging in, the “start URL” setting will not work as expected. You will always see the new “Main Dashboard” at first. Strangely enough, after any user has logged in, if you then log out and log in with a different user, the start URL will always work correctly.
LOL, I feel stupid right now. It was a simple user error on my side (and probably on the side of a colleague, who confirmed the problem, too).
I had set the login pages of our checkmk instances as startup page in the browser. (MS Edge, because that’s defined as our company standard). Of course the setting was created, when the dashboard was still the main dashboard.
Stupid error, but I didn’t think about the bookmark, because a colleague reported the same problem.
Summary: Global start URL works. Take care to update your bookmarks after changes!
However: User settings for start URL are ignored. So that part seems to be a bug, as you confirmed, too.
Edit: Actually the bookmark was still from checkmk 1.6. As they changed, what the “main dashboard” is in 2.0, any old links, which users might have saved, will point to this new dashboard instead and need to be updated, if you intend to continue using the old “problem dashboard”. So it’s a useful hint, which I’ll include in our internal user training.
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