Improve visibility and clarity for “Unidentified Entity” Events in Instana

Problem Description

In Instana, some events appear with the entity labeled as “Unidentified Entity”, even though the platform is still able to resolve and navigate to the correct underlying entity (e.g., host) when the user clicks the link.

This creates confusion because:

• The event UI implies the entity is unknown or missing

• However, clicking the link clearly resolves to a valid entity (e.g., a VMware VM host)

• There is no explanation in the UI why the entity is “unidentified”

This leads users to question:

• Whether data is missing or corrupted

• Whether there is an issue with agent instrumentation

• Or whether the event is unreliable

Example Scenario

A VMware VM generates an infrastructure event.
The event shows “Unidentified Entity”, but clicking navigates to the correct host dashboard.

This indicates:

• The entity exists and is known

• But the event UI lacks clear explanation of the binding state

Requested Enhancement

Enhance the handling and display of events with missing or weak entity binding by:

Option A — Improve labeling

Replace “Unidentified Entity” with a more descriptive label, such as:

• “Entity not bound at event creation”

• “Entity inferred (metadata match)”

• “Entity reference unavailable”

Option B — Add UI context / tooltip

Provide a tooltip or expandable detail explaining:

• Why the entity is not identified (e.g., missing entityId, lifecycle change, timing issue)

• That Instana is using metadata to resolve the entity on navigation

Option C — Show inferred entity directly

If Instana can successfully resolve the entity at render time:

• Display the resolved entity name (e.g., hostname)

• Optionally mark it with an indicator (e.g., “inferred”)

Option D — Expose entity binding state

In event details/API:

• Add a field showing whether the entity is:

  • explicitly bound

  • inferred

  • missing

Also an addition supplement this with IBM Documentation that can be referenced as a guide