View the history of open/closed problems

The default Dynatrace dashboard includes a tile dedicated to problems. By default, the Problems dashboard tile as well as the Problems feed (select Problems from the navigation menu) provide a rolling 72-hour history of open/closed problems in your environment. 72 hours is used as the default timeframe because this gives DevOps teams adequate time to analyze detected problems, even when they occur on weekends. As always, quick response to detected problems is considered best practice. However, there are instances when custom timeframe analysis of detected problems can be valuable.

Timeframe selector for problems history

Use the timeframe selector in the Dynatrace menu bar to select a custom period of time for problem history analysis, both within your Problems feed and on your Problems dashboard tile.

Timeframe selector controls

The global timeframe selector serves as a time filter that, in most cases, enables you to select a specific analysis timeframe that persists across all product pages and views as you navigate through your analysis.

The Presets tab lists all standard timeframes available. Select one to change your timeframe to that preset.
The Custom tab displays a calendar. Click a start day, click an end day, and then click Apply to select that range of days as your timeframe.
- Selected calendar intervals are set to end on start of the next day (with the time set to 00:00). For example, if you select September 3 to September 4 on the calendar, the timeframe starts on September 3 at time 00:00 and ends on September 5 at time 00:00, so you never miss the last minute of the time range. You can edit these displayed times.
The Recent tab displays recently used timeframes. Select one to revert to that timeframe.
The < and > controls shift the timerange forward or backward in time. The increment is the length of the original timerange. For example, if the current timerange is Last 2 hours (the two-hour range ending now), click < to shift the timerange two hours back, to -4h to -2h (the two-hour range ending two hours ago).
Hover over the timeframe to see the start time, duration, and end time.

Timeframe selector expressions

If you select the current timeframe in the menu bar, an editable timeframe expression is displayed.

Reading from left to right, a timeframe expression has a start time, a to operator, and an end time.
If there is no explicit end time, the to and now are implied. For example, -2h is the same -2h to now.
Supported units: s, m, h, d, w, M, q, y (you can also use whole words such as minutes and quarter)

Example timeframe expressions	Meaning
`today`	From the beginning of today to the beginning of tomorrow.
`yesterday`	From the beginning of yesterday to the beginning of today. Like `-1d/d to today`.
`yesterday to now`	From the beginning of yesterday to the current time today.
`previous week`	The previous seven whole days. If today is Monday, you get the previous Monday through the previous Sunday (yesterday).
`this year`	The current calendar year, from January 1 of this year at `00:00` through January 1 of next year at `00:00`.
`last 6 weeks`	The last 42 days (6 weeks * 7 days) ending now. Equivalent to `-6w to now`.
`-2h`	From 2 hours (120 minutes) ago to the current time (`now` is implied). Equivalent to `Last 2 hours` and `-2h to now`.
`-4d to -1h30m`	From 4 days (96 hours) ago to 1.5 hours ago.
`-1w`	The last 7 days (168 hours), from this time 7 days ago to the current time (`now`). Equivalent to `-7d` and `-168h`.
`-1w/w`	From the beginning of the previous calendar week to the current time (now). If you used `-1w/w` on a Friday afternoon at 3:00, you would get a range of 11 days 15 hours, starting with the beginning of the previous week's Monday, because `/w` rounds down to the beginning of the week. If you used `-1w` without `/w` on a Friday afternoon at 3:00, the start time would be exactly 7 days (168 hours) earlier: the previous Friday at 3:00 in the afternoon. In general, `/` used in combination with a unit (such as `/d`, `/w`, `/M`, and `/y`) means to round down the date or time to the beginning of the specified time unit. For example, `-3d` means exactly 72 hours ago, whereas `-3d/d` means three days ago rounded down to the nearest day (starting at time `00:00`, the beginning of the day). Use `now/d` to mean the start of today.
`-1w/w + 8h`	Starting from the beginning of last week plus 8 hours (8:00 AM Monday). Note that you can use the `+` and `-` operators with units, timestamps, and `now`.
`-1d/d+9h00m to -1d/d+17h00m`	Business hours yesterday, from 09:00 - 17:00 (9 AM to 5 PM).
`2020-08-16 21:28 to 2020-08-19 10:02`	An absolute range consisting of absolute start and end dates and times in `YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm` format. If you provide a date but omit the time (for example, just `2020-08-16`), the time is assumed to be the beginning of day (`00:00`) If you provide a time but omit the date (for example, just `21:28`), the date is assumed to be today
`1598545932346 to 1598837052346`	Unix epoch millisecond timestamps.

As you can see in the example below, the Problems tile includes the number of open problems against the total number of closed problems detected within the Last 72 hours. In this example, 306 problems were detected and resolved during the selected timeframe while 5 problems remain open. By clicking the timeframe selector in the menu bar, it's easy to select an alternative timeframe for analysis. Also, note the alerts indicator in the menu bar. In this example, the alerts indicator shows that 2 problem alerts were sent out during the selected timeframe. Alert levels vary based on your watch settings for different problem categories (applications, services, or infrastructure).

Timeframe selector for Problems feed

Select Problems from the navigation menu to access your Problems feed (or click the Problems tile on your dashboard). The open/closed problems timeline chart reflects your selection in the timeframe selector (see example below). In this example, you can see that there are 6 open problems.

Because it's often not feasible to display all problems that were detected during timeframes longer than 72 hours, the Problems feed displays open/closed problems only for specific time intervals within the selected timeframe. In the example below, the feed shows only those open/closed problems that were detected between 09:00 – 10:00 am. You can select any time interval within the selected timeframe to drill down into the problem metrics for that time period. This approach only applies to timeframes of 72 hours or longer.

By changing the timeframe selector setting to the Last 30 days, you can view problem-detection statistics for the past month. Here again, you can select individual time intervals for deeper analysis (Oct 7, 02:00 to 14:00 in the example below).

Limitations to transaction storage

Complete transaction storage is limited to 14 days. Therefore, you must perform all detailed problem analysis and triage within 14 days of problem detection. For details on how the available granularity of timeseries data diminishes over time, see Data retention periods for timeseries metrics.