Adam, here is one of my per-port graphs:
I think the only reason this is more readable, is because there are only 2 elements and so it is easy to figure out which is which. The lines in the legend here are not any more readable than the total traffic
graph. I think boxes would be better, but if you are saying that is not possible, what about thicker lines? To show more color?
From: Adam Armstrong via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2023 10:21 AM
To: Observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Cc: Adam Armstrong <adama@observium.org>
Subject: [Observium] Re: sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do i read traffic graphs???
Both used to be boxes, there's an RRD option to draw the legend as they're used in the graph. Like I said, the legend entries are actually for "fake" lines drawn on the graph which are covered by the areas, and then the outgoing stacked
area is drawn separately without any legend attached to it. This is the only real way to get the legend in the order it's shown.
It might be useful to only turn on the complex legend markers when the graph actually legitimately has a mix of the two elements, like the per-port graph. If you look at a port page, you can see the legends are a little more useful (though often perhaps showing
hte line instead of the box where we draw both elements)
adam.
Tony Guadagno wrote on 27/09/2023 15:16:
Adam, ok, thanks for sticking with me….it never occurred to me that the lines were in the color…it is so hard to tell the difference. I think I like the “stacked” graph (as it is now). I think it would be very helpful for the legend colors on the Tx to be squares as well, I cannot see the color on the line.
From: Adam Armstrong via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2023 10:10 AM
To: Tony Guadagno via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Cc: Adam Armstrong <adama@observium.org>
Subject: [Observium] Re: sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do i read traffic graphs???
Same thing, the colours match (though RRD's legend line is so thin it's hard to see now, it used to be a diagnonal line which was more visible)
I might switch back to using only the area indicator for legend colours, but this graph isn't really intended to be all that readable, it's useless for this purpose on most large devices:
adam.
Tony Guadagno via observium wrote on 27/09/2023 15:04:
Adam, yes, I see that, it’s on the transmit side that it does not make sense to me. So receive (above 0) for gig0/0/0 is lt-green, but transmit(below 0) for gig0/0/0 is what?? Lt-purple? How would I know that? In this particular case, the transmit and receive numbers are roughly equal…but if the traffic was more asymmetric…then how would I know that?
From: Adam Armstrong via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2023 9:58 AM
To: Observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Cc: Adam Armstrong <adama@observium.org>
Subject: [Observium] Re: sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do i read traffic graphs???
The colours do actually match!
Though these graphs aren't really intended for you to be able to pick out individual ports, there are usually too many for that to be possible.
It looks like there's a bug in the colour generating code which is generating one too few colours and the last one is wrapping back to the first colour. The code is supposed to generate $entries number of colours between two points to make a gradient.
adam.
Tony Guadagno wrote on 27/09/2023 14:52:
Adam, I think I am starting to understand, however, here is a snippet of the total traffic graph since 6am and another of gig0/0/0 same time period:
Total: gig0/0/0
On the total graph, the transmits and receives from gig0/0/0 are lt-purple and lt-green. But in the legend for the total traffic, those colors don’t match…I guess that is what I am confused about, how do I know (on the total traffic graph) which interface is contributing if the color on the graph does not match the color on the legend?
From: Adam Armstrong via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2023 8:56 AM
To: Tony Guadagno via observium <observium@lists.observium.org>
Cc: Adam Armstrong <adama@observium.org>
Subject: [Observium] Re: sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do i read traffic graphs???
Hi Tony,
This is a stacked graph for a single device's total traffic, the layers are stacked in the order they're presented on the legend. The legend shows the "out" colours as lines because they're "fake" drawn as lines to get positive values in the legend.
Gi0 and Gi0/0/2 in on this system have no traffic, so aren't really relevant as they aren't visible on the graph. It's a little odd the colours have cycled with only 4 entries, that's likely just a quirk of the colour deciding function.
Anything positive on the axis is in/receive, and anything negative is out/transmit, the same as our other graphs.
adam.
Tony Guadagno via observium wrote on 27/09/2023 13:45:
Hi, after several years of using Observium, it just occurred to me recently that I am not sure how to read the traffic graphs. For example, I always thought that above “0” on the horizontal axis was transmit and below was receive. But as I look closer, that cannot be. Also, the colors on the graph do not seem to line up with the legend…for example in this graph, I see 4 colors, light/dark green and light/dark purple. But the legend seems to have the same color for g0/0/0 as g0.
I guess my questions are:
How are transmits and receives represented on the traffic graphs?
Why are the colors in the graph not lining up with the legend?
What does negative 100M represent?
thanks
Tony Guadagno
O +1 585 577 1003
C +1 585 703 6700
E tonyg@guadagnoconsulting.com
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