Wavefront provides observability for several different metric types including time series metrics, histograms, and traces/spans. This page looks at the anatomy of a time series metric and shows you how to explore it in the metrics browser.
Videos
The following videos get you started:
You can also watch the following videos to learn more about metrics in Wavefront:
- Tagging your Data with Wavefront
- Time Series and Interpolation
- Getting Data Into Wavefront
- Delta Counters in Wavefront
Wavefront Time Series Metric Structure
A Wavefront time series has, at a minimum, the metric name, value/timestamp, and source. In many cases, the metric is ingested with additional information represented as tags.
Simple Time Series
Here’s one example that shows the minimum elements of a time series.
Each time series is a unique combination of:
- Metric name–Describes the metric. There’s often a hierarchy of metrics, each with a corresponding time series.
- Value & Timestamp–Value at the specified time.
- Source–The source of the metric. Host, VM, etc. In contrast to some other observability platforms, this dimension is always part of the metric.
Here’s a screenshot of the time series that is shown in the diagram above in a Wavefront chart.
Time Series with Tags
In most cases, the time series includes one or more tags to allow a more fine-grained analysis. The Wavefront ~sample
data, for example, include point tags for environment and availability zone.
Point tags offer a powerful way of labeling data so that you can slice and dice it in almost any way you can imagine. For example, you can use point tags, to label a point’s datacenter, version, etc. and can then group by datacenter or version.
You use point tags to add extra dimensions to your data, and can then focus your exploration just on that dimension.Fine Tune Queries with Point Tags explains how to use point tags.
Here’s a screenshot of the time series that includes point tags in a Wavefront chart.
How Filtering with Tags Improves Usability
How the point tag filters are useful becomes obvious when the source=
filter is removed. The result of all time series for ~sample.disk.space.used
is visually confusing.
When you add filters for env
and az
, the information makes sense.
Metrics Browser
Select Browse > Metrics to display the Metrics Browser. Use the Metrics Browser to find metrics that sent at least one data point within the last four weeks.
To make search easier, you can
- Drill down and go up the hierarchy.
- Filter by source.
- Hide and redisplay metrics or groups of metrics.
Examine Metrics
To examine metrics
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Hide and Redisplay Metrics
You can manually hide metrics from the Metrics browser. Those metrics become unavailable from the auto-complete menu as well. Manually hiding metrics does not permanently delete a metric or metric namespace.
To hide one or more metrics:
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To view hidden metrics:
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