[rrd-users] gauges

[Sam Umbach]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM, Joe Loiacono <jloiacon at csc.com> wrote:
>
> I think the chief difference between COUNTER and GAUSE is simply in
> the retrieval of the information.

Actually, the difference is the storage of the data.  RRDs store
rates, period.  With a COUNTER or DERIVE DS, the rate is calculated
based on the difference between the new value and the previous value
and the elapsed time between the updates.  With a GAUGE DS, the value
given to rrdtool is assumed to be a rate and stored as is, without
regard to the previous value or the time delta.  To my knowledge, this
is the only difference between these DS types.

-Sam