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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-NZ link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Use a GAUGE when the metric is already a rate (such as: current speed, flow rate, network transmit rate) or is not a continuously increasing count (such as: CPU percentage usage, number of currently active sessions).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Use a COUNTER when the metric is a continuously rising total that can be converted into a rate by RRDtool (such as: total pages printed, total bytes transmitted)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Use DERIVE when the rate could be negative (eg: current bank balance if you want to see avg outgoings in $/sec, distance from home and you want to see speed)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If you have the option, then it is preferable to use a COUNTER to a GAUGE because you will get more accurate totals over time when summarising over multiple intervals. IE, use “total bytes transmitted” as a COUNTER in preference to using “bytes per sec transmission rate” as a GAUGE if both values are available.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So, “CPU Busy %” and “# active jobs” are both GAUGEs. “Total bytes written to tape” is a COUNTER (assuming it is constantly increasing and you want to store bytes/sec written)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Steve<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Steve Shipway<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>s.shipway@auckland.ac.nz<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 4.0pt'><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> stevensim@principal-systems.com [mailto:stevensim@principal-systems.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Steven Sim<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, 10 June 2014 2:42 p.m.<br><b>To:</b> Steve Shipway<br><b>Cc:</b> rrd-users@lists.oetiker.ch<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [rrd-users] If input is already in text format and I craft a perl script to parse the text format and update rrd database, what should the step and heartbeat be?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Steve;<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks for your reply!<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Just to clarify, a metric like CPU Busy, Number of JOBS etc would be better off as a COUNTER?<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Deepest Regards<br>Steven Sim<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>