[rrd-users] Absolute values..

[Gavin Landon]

I'm having a few problem which has interrupted my train of thought to
the point I'm starting to doubt myself.   

(Problem 1)
I've been writing a monitoring system for software we have written that
report back to us on a minute by minute bases.  I'm only in the
development stages so the data is small and in one case it always
returns 1.  I find the chart that's looking at this stat is in flux as
if the values are more than 1.  I've deleted the RRD file then recreated
it with data I have in SQL, logging everything that goes into RRD and I
never put in anything greater than 1.  Yet my chart still has spikes at
the same place up to 20.

(Problem 2)
The answer to this one may fix problem 1..  I can't seem to find the
balance in the configuration so that the numbers on the side of the left
side of the chart match up with the data that is actually in the RRD
file.   Since I'm also storing the data in SQL at the same time it's
being placed into RRD, I know I have an exact match up.  However, when I
tell SQL to give me the MIN and MAX of a specific time frame, then tell
RRD to do the same, I get two different values.

I do have 5 archives.  
Min = .Steps = 1            
24 hours = .Steps = 60	 'Minutes per Hour
Week = .Steps = 1440     'Minutes per Day
Month = .Steps = 10080    'Minutes per Week
Year = .Steps = 43829    '525948.766/12  'Minutes Per Month

I'm using Gauge when creating it since Absolute, Counter, and Derive all
seem to skew the charts as well.  On my archives I'm using MAX function
because I found that Average was throwing me way off..  Since this is a
monitoring interface, I need it to be exact. 

Maybe it's me and I just don't have it configured correctly..  If so,
can someone tell me the configuration needed to show what is exactly in
RRD, because showing my clients 189 for SQL, but looking at a chart that
doesn't go over 40 is only going to prompt questions I can't answer.

Thanks for your time,

Gavin