[smokeping-users] Any downsides to running less probes more frequently?

[Chris Wilson]

David Tomic wrote:
> Chris Wilson wrote:
>> No, you'll get less information about packet loss and less detailed 
>> smoke. Remember that RRD aggregates this down to 5 pings every x 
>> minutes, 5 pings every hour, etc. regardless of how many potential 
>> data points there are.
>>
>> Cheers, Chris.
> Sorry ... but I don't quite understand that?
> 
> My thinking on all of this is that at the moment I can only narrow down 
> the graph data [packet loss, latency spikes, link outages etc] to within 
> a 5 minute window.
> 
> If I run my probes every 60 seconds [instead of every 5 minutes as are 
> the default settings], then isn't that going to give me a more detailed 
> picture about what's happening on the link(s)?

More detail on the time axis, yes. Less detail on the packet loss and 
latency axes, if you cut the number of pings.

> I must admit that I'm not really clear on how the whole aggregation 
> thing works, or what effect that actually has on the grand scheme of 
> things, so maybe you could explain that a little bit further?  Is there 
> any way of changing that to better suit what I'm wanting to do?

Unfortunately I don't, it would require major customisation of rrdtool 
to enable it to synthesise the level of detail that you currently have 
on packet loss and latency, without polling 20 pings every 60 seconds 
(which is what I normally do).

Cheers, Chris.
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