Exploring charted data

Charts are used in many places in Cloud Monitoring. For example, dashboards contain charts, and individual charts appear in Metrics Explorer and in the interface for configuring alerting conditions.

This page describes how to use the chart toolbar and how to interact with the charted data.

For information on creating charts, see the following:

Using the chart toolbar

The chart toolbar, when available, provides a set of controls that apply only to the chart. When the dashboard toolbar contains the same control, a setting applied by using the chart toolbar overrides the dashboard toolbar setting:

  • Toggle Legend

    Click this button to hide or display the legend below the chart. For more information, see Showing and hiding legends.

    When the chart width isn't sufficient to display the legend toggle in the chart's toolbar, this option is accessible by using chart's Other options menu.

  • Fullscreen

    To enlarge a single chart on a dashboard, click Fullscreen .

    To exit full-screen mode, click Esc.

  • Other options

    Note that the options available for a particular chart is context dependent. For example, the edit option isn't available for charts on a predefined dashboard.

    Click this button to do any of the following:

    • Change the Chart mode.
    • Edit the chart.
    • Download a PNG image of the chart.
    • View the chart in Metrics Explorer.

    • View associated logs in the Cloud Logging Viewer. See Viewing logs for information on using the Cloud Logging interface.

      This option is available when an alerting policy is configured to monitor any of the metrics being displayed by the chart. For more information, see Alerting, incidents, and logs.

For distribution charts, the chart toolbar might include additional buttons that you can use to change the view of the chart.

  • Trace exemplars

    Click this button to hide or show Cloud Trace exemplars. This button is displayed only when the data can contain an exemplar. For information, see How to create Cloud Trace exemplars and Exemplar in the Cloud Monitoring API pages.

    The following screenshot illustrates a heat map with Cloud Trace exemplars displayed. The exemplars are shown by the light-blue circles on the chart. This data was written by OpenCensus and is for the custom metric type custom.googleapis.com/opencensus/grpc.io/server/server_latency.

    A heatmap with Cloud Trace exemplars displayed.

    When Cloud Trace exemplars are displayed, if you select a specific trace then a trace details pane opens. The details include a waterfall graph that illustrates the trace spans and a table. For more information, see Viewing trace details.

  • Percentile lines

    Click this button to enable or disable the overlay of the 50th, 95th, and 99th percentile lines. By default, the percentile lines are displayed.

    The following screenshot illustrates the chart with the percentile lines displayed:

    A heatmap with Cloud Trace percentile lines displayed.

  • Heatmap

    Click this button to hide or show the heatmap.

    The following screenshot shows the chart when the percentile lines are displayed but the heat map itself has been hidden:

    A heatmap with Cloud Trace percentile lines displayed and heatmap hidden.

Highlighting data on the chart

You can examine individual time series by manipulating either the chart itself or the legend below it.

For example, suppose you see a spike on a chart in a specific time series, and you want to determine the value of that particular time series at the time of the spike. You can accomplish this in several different ways:

  • Place the pointer on the graph line at a specific point in time:

    • The selected line is highlighted, and the others are dimmed.
    • A tooltip lists a timestamp, each time series, and the value at that timestamp.

  • Place the pointer on the graph anywhere except on a specific graph line. In this case, the tooltip is displayed but no lines are highlighted or dimmed.

To view information at a different time, move your pointer horizontally to the desired time. When your chart is on a dashboard, holding the pointer over one graph results in all graphs displaying a dashed line at the same X-axis position.

The following screenshot illustrates the effect of holding the pointer over the halyard time series:

Display a chart with one line highlighted.

Setting a reference time

To select a reference time on a graph, you set a pin at the reference time. An unset pin appears on the graph when you place your pointer on the numbers along the X-axis. The unset pin is a light-gray line with an oval at its base that displays a time and a pin symbol.

When you set a pin the following occur:

  • A blue line with an oval at its base appears on the graph. The base displays the reference time and a Dismiss button. To remove the pin, click Dismiss.
  • The legend field Value displays the value of the time series at the reference time.
  • When the chart is on a dashboard, a pin is set on every chart on the dashboard.

You can only set one pin on a chart and you can either set the pin at the current time or at a specific time:

  • To set the pin at the current time, click Value in the legend heading of the chart.

  • To set the pin at a specific time, place your pointer at that time along the X-axis and then click the gray oval.

For example, the following screenshot illustrates a chart with a pin at 3:30 PM and a pointer at time 3:42 PM. The tooltip displays the timestamp that corresponds to the pointer position. The tooltip displays 440ms, which is the value of the time series server_latency at 3:42 PM. The legend displays 1.505ms, which is the value of the time series server_latency at 3:30 PM:

Display a chart with a time pin.

Focusing on a time series

To focus on a particular time series, click the corresponding row in the table or click the line in the graph. When you select a specific time series the following occur:

  • The graph is redrawn with the Y-axis determined by the range of values of the selected time series.
  • The selected time series is highlighted on the graph and in the legend.
  • Time series that aren't selected are dimmed and are drawn at the same scale as the selected time series.
  • The tooltip contains a section titled Selected Lines. This section displays the values of all selected lines at the top of the display.

For example, in the following screenshot, the halyard time series has been selected:

Display a rescaled chart with one line highlighted.

You can focus on more than one time series. To focus on another time series, click its row in the legend or click the corresponding line in the graph.

To stop focusing on a time series, click on its row in the legend or click on its line in the graph.

Changing the graph resolution

You can magnify a portion of the graph, either in the X or the Y direction, by using your pointer. After you have completed your analysis, you can revert the chart to its original state by clicking the dashboard control Reset zoom . When you select a time period or a range of values, auto-refresh is automatically disabled.

To magnify the graph in a specific time interval, follow these steps:

  1. Place your pointer in the graph area at one end of the time interval that you want to view in more detail.

  2. Drag your pointer horizontally to the other end of the interval. This creates a gray region between two time selectors.

    After you release the pointer button, the graph is redrawn using the range of X-axis values that you selected. The Y-axis range is automatically adjusted based on the values in the time period you selected.

To magnify an interval of values, follow these steps:

  1. Place your pointer in the graph area at one end of the value range that you want to view in more detail.

  2. Drag your pointer vertically to the other end of the range. This creates a gray region between two values on the Y-axis.

    After you release the pointer button, the graph is redrawn using the Y-axis range that you selected.

To magnify a time interval and a range of values, perform a sequence of actions. For example, magnify the time interval and then select the range of values. You can perform these actions in any order.

To reset the X-axis and Y-axis to their values prior to your magnification actions, click Reset zoom .

Setting the display period

The chart can display data for a range of periods, typically from 1 hour to 6 weeks.

On a dashboard, you can also specify a custom display period on the dashboard toolbar. This display period applies to all the charts on the dashboard. You can set the display period for isolated charts, like those in Metrics Explorer, as well.

Changing the time range on a chart changes the range of data shown; this can result in realignment of the time-series; see Alignment period for more information.

To change the range, select one of the Time options:

Show the dashboard toolbar.

For a new project, data may not be available for all parts of the range.

The following screenshot shows two charts from a dashboard. Note that the display period, on the X-axis, is shared across charts on a dashboard.

Show that all dashboard charts have the same X-axis.

Selecting dynamic or static data

Charts display data within a window of time. By default, this window advances, with “now” always at the right edge of the chart. The width of the window into the past is determined by the time selection, for example, 1 hour. The data on the chart is dynamic; as new data is generated, it appears at “now”, and old data moves out of the window. By default, this behavior is enabled.

You can keep the time window from changing by turning off Auto-Refresh, . This static option is useful when you want to study an event in the past and not be distracted by new data. If you turn off Auto-Refresh, the button turns gray and is labeled OFF.

Dashboards provide a single Auto-Refresh control that applies all charts on the dashboard. When building a chart on the Metrics Explorer page, auto-refresh is always on.

What's next