[rrd-users] Re: choosing an RRA for graph generation

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 04:14:32PM -0500, Chris Robb wrote:

> I upsized the RRD files about two weeks ago. This inserts empty 5 minute
> data for the prior 2 years. When RRD chooses the RRA to look at when doing
> a yearly graph, it appears to be looking at the 5 minute data, solely, and
> not the daily averages. This makes it look like there's no data collected
> before the day I upsized, which isn't true.

Oh yes it is true.  Well, it is *unknown* data.

*You* ask for data that isn't there yet.  RRDtool does NOT know what
the rates were say 1 year ago.  It does know what the average rate was
in a 1-day resolution but *you* ask for daily averages.

How do you do that?  RRDtool tries to do a >>>best match<<<.

In case you query the database at 00:00 UTC (!) exactly (!) and ask
for a time period that exactly (!) matches the number of pixels in
your graph, RRDtool *will* use the "yearly" RRA.


- Determine which RRA you want to use
- Detemine the number of seconds per CDP in this RRA (the "yearly" RRA
  will have 86400 seconds, the "weekly" will have 1800 per CDP). Let's
  call this number "t".
- Determine how much of those CDPs you want to show.  For instance,
  400 would be a nice number.  You'd be displaying 400 days, or 400
  half hours.  Let's call this number "w".
- Set "--width" to "w"  ("--width 400").
- Set "--start" to "end" - w * t (so: 400*86400: "--start end-34560000")
- Determine the current time in seconds since the epoch, then find the
  nearest time which is stored in the RRA.  For instance:
    current time:              1039868723
    integer divide by 86400:        12035
    multiply by 86400:         1039824000
  (yes: this is "now - (now modulo 86400)"
- Use this time for "--end":  "--end 1039824000"

Now RRDtool tries to find a best match for
"--end 1039824000 --start 1005264000 --width 400"
and it will find an exact match for it in the available RRAs.

You are asking for "--end now --start end-1y" (or similar) and
RRDtool will search for "--end 1039868723".  The nearest available
row in a CDP is at (now - (now modulo 300)) which is best matched
by the "daily" RRA.


-- 
Much of what looks like rudeness in hacker circles is not intended to give
offence. Rather, it's the product of the direct, cut-through-the-bullshit
communications style that is natural to people who are more concerned about
solving problems than making others feel warm and fuzzy.

http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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