Interface & navigation¶
How you move around in Vesana: the sidebar on the left, the quick search Jump and the user menu. Everything here applies to the web interface on the desktop; differences on the phone are in the section Phone.
Sidebar¶
The main navigation sits on the left edge. It has three resting states and is configured in one place — the "Sidebar" panel.
The "Sidebar" panel¶
You open it via
- the button next to the Vesana mark at the top of the sidebar,
- right-click on the sidebar (or anywhere on the page → "Sidebar …"),
- the user menu bottom left → "Sidebar …",
- or via Jump: type "Sidebar".
It holds two questions and one matter of taste:
| Setting | Options | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| At rest | Full · Rail · Hidden | What you see when you are not using the sidebar: the full column with names, only the icon rail, or nothing but a narrow grip at the edge |
| Expand on hover | on / off | Whether rail or grip expand to the full sidebar when you hover with the mouse. Expanded, it always lies over the content, never pushes it. With "Full" the switch is disabled |
| Shape | Flush · Docked · Floating | Pure looks: a flush column over the full height, docked to the left edge with air above and below, or an island floating on all sides |
Reset restores the factory setting: rail, expand on hover, floating. On touch devices without a mouse the sidebar starts as a full, flush column.
Every change takes effect immediately. The setting belongs to the browser, not the account — the right width on a big monitor is not the right one on a notebook.
Everyday use¶
- Ctrl/⌘+B toggles the sidebar between "Full" and the last chosen compact state — except in input fields, where Ctrl+B stays "bold" (wiki editor).
- The round icon on the edge expands the sidebar only briefly — pointer away, and it is back as before. It appears only while the sidebar is closed and does not change the resting state.
- In the Hidden state the narrow grip at the edge is the only control: a click or tap expands the sidebar.
- Drag the width at the right edge (180–380 px). Dragging all the way left snaps to rail or hidden.
- In the icon rail a click on an icon is a navigation click — the sidebar does not expand. The names are shown as tooltips. Categories cannot be collapsed accidentally in the rail.
- The floating sidebar collapses automatically after clicking a menu item so the new page is fully visible; the full column stays put.
- Clicking the Vesana mark leads to the start page.
Customising menu items¶
Via the user menu → "Customize sidebar" (or right-click on a menu item) you can
- mark menu items as favorites — they appear in their own section at the very top,
- hide menu items — they move into a collapsible section "Hidden (n)" and can be shown again from there,
- collapse whole categories.
That is tidiness for you personally (per browser): hidden items are still found by Jump. Distinct from that is the instance-wide hiding of whole areas under Admin → Instance & maintenance → Portal layout — which also locks the page itself.
The main menu¶
At the very top sits the Jump trigger "Search" with its keyboard shortcut. Below, four categories; what you see of them depends on permissions, licence and portal layout:
| Category | Entries |
|---|---|
| Monitoring | Summary · Error Overview · Hosts · Tenants · Discovery · Dashboards · Wiki · Downtimes · Global Log · Maps |
| Reporting | Reports · Status Pages |
| Configuration | Profiles · Alerting (expandable: Overview, Rules, Channels, Active alarms — the entry itself opens the overview) · Scripts · Policies · Icons |
| Administration | Users · Roles · Admin · Updates |
The active item carries a marker — in the collapsed icon rail as well.
User menu¶
Bottom left, opens upwards: Settings, switch Light / Dark, Community Hub, Personal Trash (if you may see deleted items), Sidebar …, Customize sidebar, Log out. On the phone, Send feedback and AI assistant are here as well. Next to it, admins get a download button leading to the Downloads page (agent/collector installers).
Right-click on the page¶
A right-click on free space opens a small menu: Refresh, Back to top, Sidebar …. In input fields and on selected text the browser menu remains.
Jump (quick search)¶
Jump is the one search window for the whole instance. Open it with Cmd/Ctrl+K, via "Search" at the top of the sidebar, or on the phone via the magnifier in the header.
What is found (from two characters):
- Pages — all menu items, including those you hid, plus Settings, Trash, Downloads
- Settings — the tabs of your settings (Profile, 2FA, Sessions, Preferences) and the "Sidebar" panel
- Administration — every admin tab, tab-exact
- Data: Hosts, Checks, Tenants, Folders, Dashboards, Maps, Wiki, Scripts, Profiles, Icons, Alert Rules, Channels, Collectors, Users, Roles
Pages, settings and admin tabs appear instantly; the data hits follow from the server. Hits are grouped by kind, and on the right of each row you see where the jump lands (for a device the path "Tenant › Folder"). If there are more hits than the window shows, it says "More matches — refine your search". Without input, Jump shows "Recently visited".
Menu items are keyworded in both languages: "Wartung" finds Downtimes, "Karte" finds Maps — regardless of the configured language.
Controls: ↑/↓ selects, Enter jumps, Esc closes. Hits land precisely — "2FA" opens the matching settings tab, a profile expands, an icon opens its detail view, a check its panel, a folder the hosts page with exactly that section.
In the admin area Jump starts narrowed to "Administration". Remove the filter with "Remove filter — search everywhere".
Permissions: Everyone sees only what they have access to — no objects of other tenants, no areas without permission. Pages hidden instance-wide (portal layout) do not show up.
Phone¶
On the phone the sidebar is a drawer: the header shows the menu button on the left, the name of the current page in the middle and the magnifier for Jump on the right. The menu closes after every jump. Feedback and AI assistant do not float over the content but sit in the user menu. More on using the phone under Mobile app.
"First steps" card¶
On the start page (Summary) a card "First steps" shows the four typical first steps: create your first host, install an agent or connect a collector, scan your network (Discovery), set up a notification channel.
- Items tick themselves off automatically as soon as Vesana detects they are done — or you tick them off by hand (click again to undo). The ticks are tied to the user account, not the browser.
- When everything is ticked, the card disappears. Dismiss hides it in this browser only.
- Only users who may create hosts see the card.