[mrtg] mrtg.log shows constant value, but myvar.log/graphs show spurious 0s

[Kelly Jones]

I'm hourly monitoring a gauge variable (host9-disk) using rateup (not
rrdtool) that's always close to 2594 w/ a ThreshMinI of 500. mrtg.log
confirms the variable stays near 2594, but:

% I get threshold alerts sometimes anyway.

% My graph doesn't look constant, it looks like a comb.

% My host9-disk.log file has spurious 0 entries:

1188952958 2594 0
1188952958 0 0 0 0
1188949347 0 0 0 0
1188949200 0 0 0 0
1188948900 0 0 0 0
1188948600 0 0 0 0
1188948300 0 0 0 0
1188948000 0 0 0 0
1188947700 0 0 0 0
1188947400 0 0 0 0
1188947100 0 0 0 0
1188946800 0 0 0 0
1188946500 0 0 0 0
1188946200 0 0 0 0
1188945900 1253 0 2594 0
1188945600 2594 0 2594 0

The mrtg.log file looks OK (remember, I'm only monitoring hourly):

2007-09-04 18:42:46 -- --base: Get Current values: in:2594, out:0,
up:, name:host9-disk, time:1188952958

2007-09-04 17:42:33 -- --base: Get Current values: in:2594, out:0,
up:, name:host9-disk, time:1188949347

2007-09-04 16:42:32 -- --base: Get Current values: in:2594, out:0,
up:, name:host9-disk, time:1188945745

2007-09-04 15:42:31 -- --base: Get Current values: in:2594, out:0,
up:, name:host9-disk, time:1188942145

2007-09-04 14:42:43 -- --base: Get Current values: in:2594, out:0,
up:, name:host9-disk, time:1188938554

and mrtg.cfg confirms that I'm monitoring host9-disk as a gauge variable:

# options for all targets
Options[_]: gauge,growright,unknaszero,nolegend,noo

What am I doing wrong? My 2 thoughts:

% Is unknaszero causing a problem? Since none of my results are
"unknown", this shouldn't be an issue?

% Does setting "Interval: 60" break things? The host9-disk.log file
still seems to update every 5m, not every 60m? Is that causing a
problem? Can I fix it?

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