Raw data in SLI charts

Reading time: 0 minute(s) (0 words)

When investigating the cause of a burning or unstable SLO, it is crucial to rely on correct input information. Nobl9 allows you to review the input SLI data used to calculate SLOs in a line chart. Because SLOs are typically created to cover an extended period, such as a month, the data presented on a month-long graph must be downsampled. That’s not ideal when investigating a specific occurrence of a budget burn or a spike in the SLI.

To help you in such cases, we’ve introduced the possibility to view the raw SLI data used for our SLO calculations and export it to a CSV file for a more thorough investigation.

By raw data, we mean the data that hasn't been subjected to downsampling or any form of data aggregation.

Currently, if you zoom an SLI chart in to a time period of 1 hour or less, you will see the raw data (provided there are 900 data points or less). Zooming the chart out will always show you only downsampled data.

Feature overview

For a specific SLO, the raw data feature is:

• Available only if the time window is set to one hour or less and there are 900 data points (or less).
• Capable of showing raw data directly in the SLI chart.
• Capable of exporting raw data to a CSV file.
• Inactive if you set the time window to a value higher than one hour (note that the Export Raw Data button will be grayed out) or there are more than 900 data points.

While data downsampling and aggregation may provide you with a better overall image of the performance of your SLOs, the possibility to display raw data for a specific time window can often be beneficial too.

Such an approach gives you information that hasn’t been processed in any way which means that you can see every piece of data regardless of its importance or size. If you want to focus on a small time window and analyze it thoroughly, raw data can give you highly detailed SLO-related information about a specific point in time.

Prerequisites

To be able to view and export raw data, you’ll need to set the time window to 1 hour or less in the detailed view of a specific SLO:

Image 1: Setting the time window in an SLO to display raw data

Note that if there are more than 900 data points, we won’t be able to show you raw data. In such a case, the Export Raw Data button won’t be active either.

However, if you’ve set the time window to one hour or less and there aren’t more than 900 data points available, you will see the following changes in your SLO view:

• The Raw Value label will appear above the charts.
• The Export Raw Data button will become active.

Image 2: Raw data is available when the time window is one hour or less

note

If you’ve zoomed the chart in to one hour, but you still can’t see raw data, try zooming the chart in a bit more until the data is no longer in the downsampled form.

Viewing and exporting raw data

To view and export raw data:

1. Open an SLO detailed view of your choice:

Image 3: Detailed view of an SLO

2. Zoom an SLI chart in or select a time window of one hour or less:

Image 4: Setting the time window to one hour or less

3. Click the Export Raw Data button as it’s active now:

Image 5: Active Export Raw Data button

4. Open the downloaded CSV file on your computer.

Output schema

Schema of the exported raw data

Column name	Data type	Description	Nullable?
Timestamp	DATETIME	Event time in UTC	N
Value	DOUBLE	Numeric value that has been measured	N
Measurement	STRING	Type of measurement: Threshold for a Threshold metric Good, Bad or Total for a Ratio metric	N
Metric Type	STRING	Type of metric: Threshholdfor a Threshold metric Ratio for a ratio metric	N
Organization	STRING	Identifier of the organization	N
Project	STRING	Name of the project	N
SLO	STRING	Name of the SLO	N
Objective Name	STRING	Name of an objective	Y
Objective Operator	STRING	The operator used with raw metrics. It's one of the following values: lte - less than or equal lt - less than gte - greater than or equal gt - greater than (note that this column will be empty for the Ratio metric type)	Y
Objective Value	DOUBLE	Value of an objective (note that this column will be empty for the Ratio metric type)	Y

CSV file

Your exported CSV file with raw data will look like this:

Image 6: The exported CSV file with raw data

Objectives without data

It’s noteworthy that the Export Raw Data button becomes inactive if all the selected objectives of an SLO haven’t been collecting data over a specified period.

For example, such a situation may occur if you created an SLO with Objective 1 in the past and then you modified that very SLO by adding an Objective 2. The Objective 2 will have no data then.

If this is the case, you have the following options:

• Objective 2 only: If you choose the Objective 2 only, the Export Raw Data button will remain grayed out (inactive), regardless of the time window you select, since there is no data that can be exported.

• Objective 1 and Objective 2: If you select the Objective 1 and Objective 2, the Export Raw Data button will be active, making it possible to partially export the raw data to a CSV file. However, note that you will only find the data from the Objective 1 in the exported CSV file (since the Objective 2 has no data).

• Objective 1 only: If you choose the Objective 1 only, the Export Raw Data button will be active, and you’ll be able to export the raw data (from the selected objective).

Examples of similar scenarios in the Nobl9 user interface:

Image 7: Two objectives selected. Since there’s data, the Export Raw Data button is available.

Image 8: One objective selected. With no data associated with that objective, the Export Raw Data button is grayed out.