Observe
Dashboards
Panels
Bar chart

Visualize relative data with bar charts

Classic dashboards have their own panels and methods of configuring them. For details on bar charts in classic dashboards, see Classic dashboard panels.

A bar chart visualizes numeric data returned by a query. The chart depicts a specified value, such as the last numeric value in a time series or the result's sum, average, or minimum or maximum value, as a bar.

You can visualize the results of multiple queries in a single bar chart panel to visually compare them. This can help you quickly compare relative values from related queries, such as resource usage of different services, a single service at different points in time, or cumulative failure and error counts.

This feature isn't available to all Chronosphere users and might not be visible in your app. For information about enabling this feature in your environment, contact Chronosphere Support.

For details about the configuration options common to all panels, see Panels.

Add a bar chart to a dashboard

To add a bar chart panel to a standard dashboard:

  1. Add a panel to a dashboard.
  2. In the Add Panel interface, click the Type dropdown and select Bar Chart.
  3. Add a query to the panel.
  4. Click the Add button to add the panel to the dashboard and close the Add Panel interface.
  5. Optional: On the dashboard, click Save to save the new panel to the dashboard.
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Queries that return an extremely large number of data points or invalid results can result in panel errors. For example, a query might return an error for exceeding server resource limits, or it might have so many points to render that rendering could degrade your web browser's performance.

Chronosphere reports these errors with an icon that appears in the corner of the Preview pane of the Create Panel or Edit Panel interfaces, or on the panel when viewing it on the dashboard. Hover the cursor over the icon to view the error message.

Use a bar chart's tooltip

When you hover the cursor over a bar in a bar chart, Chronosphere displays a tooltip that displays the bar's full label and value.

Configure a bar chart

You can configure a bar chart by modifying its Settings.

Any changes you make in the panel's Settings tab are immediately reflected in the Preview pane, but take effect only when you click Apply in the Edit Panel interface and then Save the dashboard.

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Chronosphere doesn't fully support directly editing a panel's JSON representation and recommends configuring panels in the user interface. Use the JSON representation only for managing your configuration as code with tools such as Chronoctl and Terraform.

To modify a bar chart's settings using its Settings tab:

  1. Edit the bar chart panel.
  2. In the Edit Panel interface, click the Settings tab.

The tab contains these settings under a section labeled Misc:

  • Abbreviate: Toggles whether to abbreviate units on the Y axis. For example, if enabled, Chronosphere renders a value of 100000000 as 100M. You can toggle this setting only if you set the Unit to Decimal or Bytes; Time units are always abbreviated and Percent values don't require it. Defaults to true.
  • Unit: Defines the unit used to render the Y axis. This has the most significant effect when you enable Abbreviate. Defaults to Decimal.

    • Decimal: Base 10 values. Chronosphere renders a value of 1000000 as 1M.

    • Bytes: As decimal multiple-byte units. Chronosphere renders a value of 1000000 as 1MB.

    • Time: Determines the unit of time that Chronosphere uses to interpret a numeric value. The unit you select isn't necessarily the unit Chronosphere displays.

      For example, if you select Nanoseconds, Chronosphere interprets a numeric value of 120 as 120 nanoseconds and renders it as 120ns. If you select Days, Chronosphere interprets the same value as 120 days and renders it as 4 months.

      Supported time units are Nanoseconds, Microseconds, Milliseconds, Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years.

    • Percent: Interprets the value as a percentile, representing 0% to 100% on a range of either 0.0 to 1.0 (Percent (0.0-1.0)) or 0 and 100 (Percent (0-100)).

      For example, Chronosphere renders a value of 1.0 in Percent (0.0-1.0) as 100%, and in Percent (0-100) as 1%.

  • Decimals: Defines how many decimal places Chronosphere renders for values. Default renders decimal places only if necessary and rounds to the nearest value. Numeric values from 0 to 4 render the corresponding number of decimal places.
  • Calculation: Defines which data point or calculation to use as the bar's value, such as its average, minimum, maximum, or total values. Defaults to the last numeric value in a series (Last *).
    • First: The series' first value.
    • Last: The series' last value.
    • First *: The series' first numeric value.
    • Last *: The series' last numeric value.
    • Avg: The series' mean value, excluding null values.
    • Total: The sum of all values in the series.
    • Min: The series' minimum value.
    • Max: The series' maximum value.
  • Sort: Determines how the bar chart sorts the rendered bars.
    • Default sorts the bars in their original data order.
    • Ascending sorts the bars from the lowest value at the top to the highest value at the bottom, and Descending sorts in the opposite direction.
  • Mode: Determines whether the panel depicts a bar's numeric value as its literal Value or as a Percentage of the sum of all bars in the chart.

Modify a bar chart's colors

The Advanced tab in a bar chart's Edit Panel interface contains a Color Overrides section where you can add, remove, and configure colors. You can apply color overrides to a specific series or all series that match a regular expression.

Time seriesTable