Graphite

For a general overview of how Metrictank relates and compares to Graphite, please see the Readme

Caveats

There are some small behavioral and functional differences with Graphite:

• render API has a 'meta' parameter to request render metadata (such as perf stats and series lineage information)
• render API filters output by "from" (don't include series that haven't been updated)
• Currently no support for rewriting old data; There is a reorder-buffer to support out-of-order writes to an extent. Full archived data rewriting is on the roadmap.
• Will never move observations into the past (e.g. consolidation and rollups will only cause data to get an equal or higher timestamp)
• Graphite timezone defaults to Chicago, we default to server time
• xFilesfactor is currently not supported for rollups. It is fairly easy to address, but we haven't had a need for it yet.
• Graphite supports the following render formats: csv, json, dygraph, msgpack, pickle, png, pdf, raw, rickshaw, and svg. Metrictank only implements json, msgp, msgpack, csv and pickle. Grafana only uses json. In particular, Metrictank does not render images, because Grafana renders great.
• Some less commonly used functions are not implemented yet in Metrictank itself, but Metrictank can seamlessly proxy those to graphite-web (see below for details) At Grafana Labs, 95 to 99 % of requests get handled by Metrictank without involving Graphite.
• perl-style regex (pcre) are not supported in functions such as aliasSub, and if used, will return an error like so "error parsing regexp: invalid or unsupported Perl syntax: '(?!'...". See https://github.com/grafana/metrictank/issues/1776
• Metrictank supports rolling up any given metric by multiple functions and using consolidateBy() to select a rollup
• MovingWindow and variants currently only support the input 'windowSize' specified as a quoted string with length of time and not as number of points. More details in PR #1739. (you can use http.proxy-bad-requests to proxy such requests to graphite)

Processing functions

Metrictank aims to be able to provide as much processing power as it can: we're in the process of implementing Graphite's extensive processing api into metrictank itself.

Below is an overview of all current Graphite functions (as of Aug 15, 2018) and their support in metrictank. There are 3 levels of support:

• No : not implemented yet in metrictank or not applicable (e.g. graphite functions that affect graphical style but not json data)
• Stable : 100% compatible with graphite and vetted
• Unstable: not fully compatible yet or not vetted enough

When you request functions that Metrictank cannot provide, it will automatically, seamlessly proxy requests to graphite. Those requests will not include response metadata, will still use Metrictank as a storage system if Graphite is configured that way, and may return a bit slower. You can also choose to enable unstable functions via process=any See also:

• HTTP api docs for render endpoint
• HTTP api configuration. Note the fallback-graphite-addr setting.

Function name and signature	Alias	Metrictank
absolute		Stable
add		No
aggregate		Stable
aggregateLine		No
aggregateWithWildcards		Stable
alias(seriesList, alias) seriesList		Stable
aliasByMetric		Stable
aliasByNode(seriesList, nodeList) seriesList	aliasByTags	Stable
aliasByTags		No
aliasQuery		No
aliasSub(seriesList, pattern, replacement) seriesList		Stable
alpha		No
applyByNode		No
areaBetween		No
asPercent(seriesList, seriesList, nodeList) seriesList		Stable
averageAbove		Stable
averageBelow		Stable
averageOutsidePercentile		No
averageSeries(seriesLists) series	avg	Stable
averageSeriesWithWildcards		Stable
cactiStyle		No
changed		No
color		No
consolidateBy(seriesList, func) seriesList		Stable
constantLine		No
countSeries(seriesLists) series		Stable
cumulative		Stable
currentAbove		Stable
currentBelow		Stable
dashed		No
delay		No
derivative(seriesLists) series		Stable
diffSeries(seriesLists) series		Stable
divideSeries(dividend, divisor) seriesList		Stable
divideSeriesLists(dividends, divisors) seriesList		Stable
drawAsInfinite		No
events		No
exclude(seriesList, pattern) seriesList		Stable
exp		No
exponentialMovingAverage		No
fallbackSeries		Stable
filterSeries(seriesList, func, operator, threshold) seriesList		Stable
grep(seriesList, pattern) seriesList		Stable
group		Stable
groupByNode		Stable
groupByNodes		Stable
groupByTags(seriesList, func, tagList) seriesList		Stable
highest(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
highestAverage(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
highestCurrent(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
highestMax(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
hitcount		No
holtWintersAberration		No
holtWintersConfidenceArea		No
holtWintersConfidenceBands		No
holtWintersForecast		No
identity		No
integral		Stable
integralByInterval		No
interpolate		No
invert		Stable
isNonNull(seriesList) seriesList		Stable
keepLastValue(seriesList, limit) seriesList		Stable
legendValue		No
limit		No
linearRegression		Stable
linearRegressionAnalysis		No
lineWidth		No
logarithm	log	Stable
logit		No
lowest(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
lowestAverage(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
lowestCurrent(seriesList, n, func) seriesList		Stable
mapSeries	map	No
maximumAbove		Stable
maximumBelow		Stable
maxSeries(seriesList) series	max	Stable
minimumAbove		Stable
minimumBelow		Stable
minMax		Stable
minSeries(seriesList) series	min	Stable
mostDeviant		No
movingAverage(seriesLists, windowSize) seriesList		Stable
movingMax		Stable
movingMedian		Stable
movingMin		Stable
movingSum		Stable
movingWindow		Stable
multiplySeries(seriesList) series		Stable
multiplySeriesWithWildcards		Stable
nonNegatievDerivative(seriesList, maxValue) seriesList		Stable
nPercentile		No
offset		No
offsetToZero		Stable
percentileOfSeries		No
perSecond(seriesLists) seriesList		Stable
pieAverage		No
pieMaximum		No
pieMinimum		No
pow		No
powSeries		No
randomWalkFunction	randomWalk	No
rangeOfSeries(seriesList) series		Stable
reduceSeries	reduce	No
removeAbovePercentile(seriesList, n) seriesList		No
removeAboveValue(seriesList, n) seriesList		Stable
removeBelowPercentile(seriesList, n) seriesList		No
removeBelowValue(seriesList, n) seriesList		Stable
removeBetweenPercentile		No
removeEmptySeries		Stable
removeZeroSeries		Stable
round		Stable
scale(seriesList, num) series		Stable
scaleToSeconds(seriesList, seconds) seriesList		Stable
secondYAxis		No
seriesByTag		No
setXFilesFactor	xFilesFactor	No
sigmoid		No
sinFunction	sin	No
smartSummarize		No
sortBy(seriesList, func, reverse) seriesList		Stable
sortByMaxima(seriesList) seriesList		Stable
sortByMinima		No
sortByName(seriesList, natural, reverse) seriesList		Stable
sortByTotal(seriesList) seriesList		Stable
squareRoot		No
stacked		No
stddevSeries(seriesList) series		Stable
stdev		No
substr		Stable
summarize(seriesList) seriesList		Stable
sumSeries(seriesLists) series	sum	Stable
sumSeriesWithWildcards		Stable
threshold		No
timeFunction	time	No
timeShift		Stable
timeSlice		No
timeStack		No
transformNull(seriesList, default=0) seriesList		Stable
unique		Stable
useSeriesAbove		No
verticalLine		No
weightedAverage		No