[rrd-users] Creating graphs with colored horizontal bands as a background

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Novak" <oldtopos at novacell.com>
To: <rrd-users at lists.oetiker.ch>
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: [rrd-users] Creating graphs with colored horizontal bands as a 
background


>
> I added hard-coded horizontal areas to the graph.  I do not have the
> statements readily available.
>
> I was unable to get alpha working properly and the resulting rrdgraph
> statement had the actual data items obfuscated by the bands.  It was hard
> for a person looking at the graph generation statements to quickly pick 
> out
> the "real data", if you will.

It sounds like you first draw the real data and then the areas. Try it the 
other way around.

Select colors close to white.

Either start with one area and stack some more on top, or start with the 
largest area (redish) and then overlay with the next to largest, then the 
smallest.

> The graphs are displayed on large monitors in a NOC and viewers can be 20 
> or
> more feet from the screens.  The horizontal bands are an attempt to 
> provide
> a quick visual clue that augments threshold alerts from a system such as
> nagios.

You could also experiment with different line widths and/or colors if the 
rate is above some defined threshold.  There's a CDEF example of this in the 
tutorial.

HTH
Alex