Select time ranges

Many features in Chronosphere Observability Platform share a common interface and methods for selecting a time range. Tools such as monitors, dashboards, service pages, and explorers use time ranges to segment or scope queries, charts, tables, and graphs. In these tools, the time range selector displays the defined time range and provides multiple methods to select a new time range.

• Click the time range selector as a dropdown menu to select a range relative to the current time from a list of predefined options, such as Last 30 minutes.
• Click the time range selector as a dropdown menu and click Custom date range to interactively select a time and date range using a calendar.
• Click the time range selector as a text field and enter a custom relative range, such as Last 2 weeks, 2 weeks, or 2w.
• Click the time range selector as a text field and enter a custom absolute time and date range using a MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss AM/PM format.

Some time range selectors also provide additional controls to shift, expand, refresh, or pin the selected time range.

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Use the time range selector

The time range selector provides options for defining a date and time range. The selector also displays the currently applied time range, including the abbreviated time zone applied to the range.

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Select a predefined relative time range

To select a predefined time range:

1. Click the time range selector as a dropdown menu.
2. Select a time range in the list.

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Select a custom time and date range

To interactively select a custom time and date range from a calendar:

1. Click the time range selector as a dropdown menu.
2. Select Custom time range.
3. Navigate to the month of the start date. To go forward or backward one month at a time, click Previous month and Next month.
4. Optional: Instead of using the calendar, you can also click the From and To date fields and enter the date, using the format MM/DD/YYYY.
5. Click the From and To time fields to select the time range’s starting and ending times.
6. Optional: Instead of using the dropdown selector, you can click the time fields and enter the times, using the format HH:MM:SS followed by AM or PM.
7. Optional: You can set the To fields to the current date and time by clicking Set to now.
8. Click Apply to confirm the set time range, or Cancel to discard it.

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Enter a custom relative time range

To enter a custom relative time range:

1. Click the time range selector as a text field.
2. Enter a custom relative time range using Observability Platform’s time units. The time range selector accepts any of these formats, where 1 in the quantity and week and w represent the time unit:
   • Last 1 week
   • 1 week
   • 1w

You can enter any integer quantity greater than zero. Relative ranges support only millisecond and larger time units, and convert units smaller than a second to decimal values of a second.

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Enter a custom absolute time range

To enter a custom absolute time range:

1. Click the Time range selector as a text field.
2. Enter a custom absolute time range using a MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss AM/PM format, separated by a dash (-).

Absolute times apply your account’s configured time zone, which is displayed as an abbreviation in the time range selector. For example, the value 01/01/2025 09:00:00 AM - 01/05/2025 09:00:00 PM selects a range from January 1, 2025, at 9:00 AM (09:00) to January 5, 2025 at 9:00 PM (21:00) in your account’s configured time zone.

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Shift a time range

To shift the defined time range forward or backward in time while retaining the same duration, click the previous and next time range buttons. Shifting a relative time range also converts it to an absolute time range.

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Expand a time range

To expand the defined time range’s duration while retaining the same point in time at the range’s center, click the zoom out button. Expanding a relative time range also converts it to an absolute time range. On data visualization tools, there is no control to shrink, or “zoom in,” for a time range. Instead, click and drag within a panel visualization to select a time range.

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Set a refresh interval

To manually refresh the current point in time for a relative time range, or to update a visualization’s contents within an absolute time range, click the time range selector’s Refresh button. To manually refresh, click the Refresh button. To set how often a data refreshes:

1. Next to Refresh, click the down arrow. Defaults is Off.
2. Select an interval from the list, which ranges from five seconds (5s) to one hour (1h).

To disable automatic refresh:

1. Click the dropdown arrow of the Run button.
2. Select Off.

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Pin a time range

You can pin a time range to specify a default range for a time range selector. When you return to a feature where you’ve pinned time range, that feature applies the pinned range as the new default. To pin a time range:

1. In the time range dropdown, click the pin time range icon.
2. If a relative time range is selected, select whether to pin the relative time range, or an absolute custom time range of the same duration that ends at the current time.

To unpin a time range, click the Unpin time range icon in the time range dropdown.

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Compare current data to past data

Comparison mode, sometimes called week-over-week view, is an Observability Platform feature that overlays historical data on your current data in dashboards. This feature provides additional context for comparing your current metrics with historical trends and expectations, or identifying recurring trends and outliers. To compare current data to past data:

1. Click Compare.
2. Select a past period to overlay onto the dashboard’s panels. The Preceding period option overlays the immediately preceding period of the same length as the selected time range. An additional query runs to pull historical (“offset”) time series into your graph, which returns data with the same resolution as your current data. Depending on the time period you select and your data retention settings, the result might include a gap for your most recent data, such as the last 10 minutes. Observability Platform matches the current and historical data queries using tag logic, with _offset_:true on the offset query and _series_:series<num> for all of the series. This associates data from the offset time series to the current series for similar presentation, so the results in comparison mode contain labels that resemble __chrono_offset__: offset_7d1h or __chrono_series__: "series1".

For details, see the Chronosphere blog. To disable the overlay, click Compare and select Off.