Types of Metrics

This topic introduces you to the types of metrics in Sysdig Monitor.

Default Metrics

Default metrics include various kinds of metadata which Sysdig Monitor automatically knows how to label, segment, and display.

For example:

  • System metrics for hosts, containers, and processes, such as CPU used

  • Orchestrator metrics, such as those collected from Kubernetes or Mesos.

  • Network metrics, such as network traffic

  • HTTP

  • Platform metrics (in some cases)

Default metrics are collected mainly from two sources: syscalls and Kubernetes.

Custom Metrics

About Custom Metrics

Custom metrics generally refer to any metrics that the Sysdig Agent collects from some third-party integration. The type of infrastructure and applications integrated determine the custom metrics that the Agent collects and reports to Sysdig Monitor. The supported custom metrics are:

Each metric comes with a set of custom labels, and you can add more labels manually. Sysdig Monitor collects and reports them with minimal or no internal processing.

Use the metrics_filter option in the dragent.yaml file to remove unwanted metrics or to choose the metrics to report when hosts exceed their limit. See View Metric Limits

Unit for Custom Metrics

Sysdig Monitor detects the default unit of custom metrics automatically with the delimiter suffix in the metrics name. For example, custom_expvar_time_seconds results in a base unit set to seconds. The supported base units are byte, percent, and time. Custom metrics name should carry one of the following delimiter suffixes in order for Sysdig Monitor to identify and configure the accurate unit type.

  • second

  • seconds

  • byte

  • bytes

  • total (represents accumulating count)

  • percent

Custom metrics will not be auto-detected and the unit will be incorrect unless this naming convention is followed. For instance, custom_byte_expvar will not yield the correct unit (MiB).

Edit the Unit Scale

You can edit the unit scale of your metric in Dashboard and Explore.

Explore

To edit the unit scale of your metric in Explore:

  1. Select a custom metric.

  2. In the panel underneath the graph, click the unit scale in the Options box.

    A new panel will open.

  3. Select the desired unit scale from the drop-down under Unit of Value Returned by Query.

Dashboard

To edit the metric scale in Dashboard:

  1. Select the Dashboard Panel associated with the custom metrics you want to modify.

  2. In the Query tab under the graph, select the Options drop-down.

  3. An extra panel will appear, where you can use a drop-down to change the Unit of Value Returned by Query.

Display Missing Data

Data can be missing for a few different reasons:

  • Problems such as faulty network connectivity in the communication channel between your infrastructure and Sysdig metrics store.

  • Metrics or StatsD batch jobs are submitted sporadically.

You can configure how Sysdig displays missing data in Dashboards and Explore. Use the No Data Display drop-down in the Query tab:

The options for No Data Display are:

  • gap: The default option for form-based timechart panel, where a query metrics selection does not contain a StatsD metric. This is the best visualization type for most use cases because it is easy to spot a problem.

  • show as zero: The best option for StatsD metrics which are only submitted sporadically. For example, batch jobs and count of errors. This is the default display option for StatsD metrics in form-based panels.

    We do not recommend this option as setting zero could be misleading. For example, this setting will report the value for free disk space as 0% when the disk or host disappears, but in reality, the value is unknown.

  • connect - solid: Use for measuring the value of a metric, typically a gauge, where you want to visualize the missing samples flattened.

    The leftmost and rightmost visible data points can be connected as Sysdig does not perform the interpolation.

  • connect - dotted: Use it for measuring the value of a metric, typically a gauge, where you want to visualize the missing samples flattened.

    The leftmost and rightmost visible data points can be connected as Sysdig does not perform the interpolation.