An article discussing the importance of time series databases and data visualization tools like Grafana for managing and interpreting streams of data in various applications.
The author mentions several time series databases (TSDs) and visualization tools, focusing on their features, advantages, and some limitations. The article also provides an example of a Building Management and Control (BMaC) project that uses InfluxDB and Grafana for data visualization.
| Database | Description | Notable Features |
|-------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| InfluxDB | Partially open source, with version 3 being an edge data collector. | Shard-based storage, compaction levels, time series index, optional retention. |
| Apache Kudu | Column-based database optimized for multidimensional OLAP workloads. | Part of the Apache Hadoop ecosystem. |
| Prometheus | Developed at SoundCloud for metrics monitoring. | Written in Go, similar to InfluxDB v1 and v2. |
| RRDTool | All-in-one package with a circular buffer TSD that also does graphing. | Language bindings for various programming languages. |
| Graphite | Similar to RRDTool but uses a Django web-based application to render graphs. | Web-based graphing. |
| TimescaleDB | Extends PostgreSQL, supporting typical SQL queries with TSD functionality and optimizations. | Supports all typical SQL queries. |
The article also discusses Grafana as a popular tool for creating dashboards to visualize time series data, mentioning its compatibility with multiple TSDs and SQL databases. It concludes by highlighting the importance of understanding one's specific needs before choosing a TSD and visualization solution.
Grafana Labs have launched Grafana 12, bringing significant updates to its visualisation and dashboarding platform. Several new key features are now generally available, including Git Sync, dynamic dashboards, and improvements to Drilldown. A central feature is a new collection of observability-as-code tools, designed to help teams automate observability workflows.
This article describes how to use GNU Emacs for quick data visualization in combination with Gnuplot. It provides a command that can be used to visualize the correlation of data without needing any setup or specific files. The article also includes an example of a command for generating a graph using a data range selected with a rectangle command copy-rectangle.