Configure and use a single-value visualization in Dynatrace

Dashboards Classic

The dashboards discussed here are classic dashboards created using the dashboarding functionality integrated with previous Dynatrace.

  • For more about classic dashboards, see Dashboards Classic.
  • For more about dashboards created with the Dashboards app in the latest Dynatrace, see Dashboards.
  • To improve your dashboard experience, you can upgrade existing dashboards from Dashboards Classic to the Dashboards app in the latest Dynatrace.

To visualize your query results as a single-value chart or tile, select Single value from the list above the query definition, in the upper-left corner of the page.

  • This visualization shows one metric as a single-value chart or tile
  • It merges all dimensions to a single aggregate.

Example in Data Explorer

Data Explorer: Single value visualization

Example dashboard tile

Example single value tile

Change visualization

When switching between visualizations, be aware that some visualization settings are visualization-specific.

  • If you select a visualization and configure Settings for that visualization, and then you switch to a different visualization, some of your settings for the first visualization may be ignored because they don't apply to the newly selected visualization. An information icon in the list of visualizations will alert you to the possibility.

    Data Explorer: Visualization switch warning

  • If you switch back to the original visualization, you may need to reconfigure some visualization settings.

Change metric selection

By default, this visualization shows the first metric of a multi-metric query.

To select a different metric from a multi-metric query, you can select the letter next to the metric you want to visualize, or you can select the eye icon .

Data Explorer: Toggle metric

Settings

The Settings section is one of the expandable sections in the right panel of Data Explorer. The contents of the Settings section may vary depending on the visualization you have selected.

Data Explorer: Settings section

Show trend

Determines whether the tile displays the trend (based on the first and last datapoints of the selected timeframe). In this example, there are two identical tiles, one with Show trend turned off, and then the same tile with Show trend turned on (trending down).

Trend turned off (left) and trend turned on (right)

Show sparkline

Determines whether the tile displays a sparkline. In this example, there are two identical tiles, one with Show sparkline turned off, and then the same tile with Show sparkline turned on.

Sparkline off (left) and on (right)

Threshold background

Determines whether the threshold color is reflected in the background color of the tile. In this example, there are two identical tiles, one with Threshold background turned off, and then the same tile with Threshold background turned on.

Threshold background off (left) and on (right)

Fold transformation

The fold transformation combines a data points list (a timeseries: a collection of data points over the time period) into a single data point.

  • The default fold transformation is Auto, which automatically selects the most appropriate time aggregation based on the metric.
  • You can manually override Auto with any of the following: Last value, Average, Count, Maximum, Minimum, Sum, Median, Value, Percentile 10th, Percentile 75th, Percentile 90th.
  • If you need to see the last reported value for a metric (rather than an aggregation), select Last value.
Fold transformation and resolution

Be aware that the Fold transformation setting affects the resolution.

  • If Fold transformation is set to Auto for visualization Table, Single value, Top list, or Honeycomb, the Inf (infinity) resolution is used to maintain backward compatibility. If the chosen metric selector doesn't support the Inf resolution, the fold transformation is automatically added to the end of the query.

  • If Fold transformation is set to a value other than Auto, fold is used.

Because all metric selectors are queried using the same total value mechanism (either fold or Inf), adding a new selector that requires fold might change the result of the other selectors.

To inspect the actual query used by Data Explorer, go to the Result section in Data Explorer and select > Copy request.

Settings per metric

The Settings section also displays visualization options per metric selected for the query.

Rename a metric

You can change the name of a metric as it is displayed on the chart and in the chart legend. The query definition retains the metric's original name.

  1. In the Settings section, select for the metric you want to rename.
  2. Edit the name, and then select the checkmark to save the new name.

Unit and Format

Use the Unit and Format settings to determine how your data is displayed. If you export to a CSV file, the Unit and Format settings are also reflected in the exported values.

Unit

Use the Unit setting to set the unit in which the metric is displayed.

  • None = No unit displayed
  • Auto = Dynatrace selects an appropriate display unit
  • Other selections specify the exact unit to display. The options here depend on the metric's unit. A time metric, for example, offers alternative units for displaying time.
  • To add a custom unit/suffix string, type the custom string in the Unit box and then select it from the list.
  • In Advanced mode, you can use :setUnit(<unit>) to select from a wider range of units.

Examples of order-of-magnitude notation in Dynatrace:

Notation

Factor

Meaning

k

10^3

kilo, thousand

M

10^6

mega, million

G

10^9

giga, billion

T

10^12

tera, trillion

Format

Use the Format setting to configure the number of decimal places displayed for the selected metric.

  • None = No formatting.
  • Auto = Dynatrace selects an appropriate format. For example, where None would display 5.062357754177517 %, Auto would display 5.06 %.
  • Other selections specify the number of decimal places to display: 0, 0.0, 0.00, 0.000

Examples

When the basic unit of the metric is bytes:

  • If you set Unit to Auto, Dynatrace automatically expresses the results in a human-readable unit, which in this case could be GiB.

    A byte-based unit can have either a binary or decimal base, which will determine whether Dynatrace selects, for example, GiB or GB. If no base is defined in the metric itself, a decimal base is used.

  • If the automatically selected unit isn't suitable in your case, you can force Dynatrace to express the same values in a specific unit (Unit = B, KiB, MiB, or GiB).

  • If you want to see raw data (no conversion), you can set Unit to None and see the results in the basic unit of the metric (which in this case is bytes).

When the basic unit of a metric is dollars and cents:

  • For smaller values, to see the results expressed in exact dollars and cents: set Unit to Auto, and set Format to 0.00 (to have two decimal places for the cents).
  • For larger values, to see the results expressed in thousands, millions, or billions of dollars and no cents: set Unit to k (thousand), M (million), G (billion), and set Format to 0 (to see nothing after the decimal point).

When the basic unit for the metric is a count:

  • To see an exact count:

    • Set Unit to Auto
    • Set Format to None

  • To see a rough count:

    • Set Unit to k (thousand), M (million), G (billion), or T (trillion), depending on the magnitude of your values
    • Set Format to 0.0, 0.00, or 0.0000, depending on how many decimal places make sense in combination with the selected Unit setting

When setting threshold values:

  • If you select a Unit (for example, MiB), the Threshold settings are then prepared to match the selected unit, so you just need to enter threshold values without specifying MiB.
  • If you set Unit to Auto (to let Dynatrace automatically scale the displayed output), you still need to set Threshold values in a specific unit such as bytes.

Threshold

The Threshold section is one of the expandable sections in the right panel of Data Explorer. The contents of this section may vary depending on the visualization you have selected. Use threshold settings to enhance your visualizations and tiles.

Data Explorer: Threshold section

Set threshold values after you set Unit:

  • If you set Unit first, the threshold settings are prepared to match the selected unit.
  • If you change Unit after you set threshold values, the threshold values are not automatically adjusted to match the new unit setting.

Set thresholds

  1. In the Thresholds section, enter threshold values

    Set threshold values

  2. Adjust threshold colors optional

    Adjust the threshold colors

Hide or show threshold colors

To hide or show threshold colors without deleting the threshold settings, in the Thresholds section, select .

Hide or show thresholds