Charting Metric Data

Charting Metric Data

A metric chart is a graphical representation of the metric data that Hyperic HQ collects for each resource. Different resources support different types of metric data, so different charts are available for different resources. You can use charts to see trends in resource behavior over time. This can be useful for capacity planning, cost analysis, and other operational decision-making.

A metric chart includes the option to chart the metric data values along with peak, low, average, and high values. If you are charting a single metric for a resource, you can also set and chart baseline values. Depending on the timeframe over which you are charting the metric data, the values may be averaged. A chart can contain up to 60 points.

For dynamic metric data (such as CPU time, free memory, load average), each point on the chart (representing a time, such as 1:00pm, 12/22) represents the average value for a period. The time listed is the end of the period. For a display range of 8 hours of data collected, each charted point represents the average of an 8 minute period, because 8 hours divided by 60 is 8 minutes. If you were to collect data every 60 seconds and then set the display range of your chart to be 60 minutes, you would see the actual raw value for each data point.

The values for data that is cumulative (trending up or down), such as bytes served, uptime, minimum response time, number of transactions, and similar metric data are not averaged. A point charted for this kind of data shows the maximum (or minimum) value for the period that the point represents.

Chart Types

There are three different kinds of charts.

Single Metric Single Resource

To chart any metric for a single resource, navigate to the tab of that resource in the monitor visibility pages. The displayed page lists all metrics currently being collected for the selected resource. To view a chart of a metric, click its name or the icon next to that metric.

Another way to view the chart page for a metric for a single resource is from the tab on the monitor visibility pages. If an indicator chart represents a metric for a single resource, clicking on its name will also display the full chart page for that metric and resource.

Multiple Metrics Single Resource

You can chart a maximum of ten metrics at a time for a resource. To chart multiple metrics for a single resource, navigate to the tab of that resource in the monitor visibility pages. The displayed page lists all metrics currently being collected for the selected resource. Check the checkbox next to each of the names of the metrics you want to chart and click the button.

Single Metric Multiple Resources

To chart the values of a specific metric for multiple resources at once, those resources must be part of a compatible group/cluster, or a set of resources of the same subtype (autogroup) running on the same parent. You can chart a maximum of ten resources at a time.

To chart a metric for multiple members of a compatible group/cluster, navigate to the tab of that group.

To chart a metric for multiple members of an autogroup, first navigate to the parent resource that contains the autogroup. Then from the parent resource's monitor visibility pages, click on the subtype, which leads you to the monitor visibility pages of the autogroup of that subtype. Click on the tab of that group.

To view a chart of a metric, click its name or the icon next to that metric.

Another way to view the chart page for a metric of an autogroup of resources is from the tab on the monitor visibility pages. If an indicator chart represents a metric for an autogroup of resources, clicking on its name will also display the full chart page for that metric and the autogroup.

If there are more than 10 resources in the group, you can select different resources to graph from the Participating resources section at the bottom of the page.

Chart Legend

From the chart legend, select one or more items you want to graph:

• Actual
• Peak
• Average
• Low
• Low Range
• High Range
• Baseline
• Control Actions

To update the chart based on your selections, click the button.

Metric Baseline & Expected Range *

Click Change Value next to the Baseline, High Range, or Low Range field. You can either accept the calculated value, or simply enter the value that you desire and click on Save Value. The chart is automatically redrawn with the Baseline chart option selected.

Next Steps

• Get more details about monitoring HQ including how to monitor specific resources in the Monitoring Visibility document.
• Learn about metric data in Managing Metric Data.
• Working with Baselines shows you how to use baselines to manage your resources.
• See how to define alerts using your metrics in Defining Alerts.