Whisper

Overview

Whisper is one of three components within the Graphite project:

1. Graphite-Web, a Django-based web application that renders graphs and dashboards
2. The Carbon metric processing daemons
3. The Whisper time-series database library

Whisper is a fixed-size database, similar in design and purpose to RRD (round-robin-database). It provides fast, reliable storage of numeric data over time. Whisper allows for higher resolution (seconds per point) of recent data to degrade into lower resolutions for long-term retention of historical data.

Installation, Configuration and Usage

Please refer to the instructions at readthedocs.

Whisper Scripts

rrd2whisper.py

Convert a rrd file into a whisper (.wsp) file.

``` Usage: rrd2whisper.py rrd_path

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --xFilesFactor=XFILESFACTOR The xFilesFactor to use in the output file. Defaults to the input RRD's xFilesFactor --aggregationMethod=AGGREGATIONMETHOD The consolidation function to fetch from on input and aggregationMethod to set on output. One of: average, last, max, min, avg_zero, absmax, absmin --destinationPath=DESTINATIONPATH Path to place created whisper file. Defaults to the RRD file's source path.

```

whisper-create.py

Create a new whisper database file.

``` Usage: whisper-create.py path timePerPoint:timeToStore [timePerPoint:timeToStore]* whisper-create.py --estimate timePerPoint:timeToStore [timePerPoint:timeToStore]*

timePerPoint and timeToStore specify lengths of time, for example:

60:1440 60 seconds per datapoint, 1440 datapoints = 1 day of retention 15m:8 15 minutes per datapoint, 8 datapoints = 2 hours of retention 1h:7d 1 hour per datapoint, 7 days of retention 12h:2y 12 hours per datapoint, 2 years of retention

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --xFilesFactor=XFILESFACTOR --aggregationMethod=AGGREGATIONMETHOD Function to use when aggregating values (average, sum, last, max, min, avg_zero, absmax, absmin) --overwrite --estimate Don't create a whisper file, estimate storage requirements based on archive definitions ```

whisper-dump.py

Dump the whole whisper file content to stdout.

``` Usage: whisper-dump.py path

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --pretty Show human-readable timestamps instead of unix times -t TIMEFORMAT, --time-format=TIMEFORMAT Time format to use with --pretty; see time.strftime() -r, --raw Dump value only in the same format for whisper-update (UTC timestamps) ```

whisper-fetch.py

Fetch all the metrics stored in a whisper file to stdout.

``` Usage: whisper-fetch.py [options] path

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --from=FROM Unix epoch time of the beginning of your requested interval (default: 24 hours ago) --until=UNTIL Unix epoch time of the end of your requested interval (default: now) --json Output results in JSON form --pretty Show human-readable timestamps instead of unix times -t TIMEFORMAT, --time-format=TIME_FORMAT Time format to use with --pretty; see time.strftime() --drop=DROP Specify 'nulls' to drop all null values. Specify 'zeroes' to drop all zero values. Specify 'empty' to drop both null and zero values. ```

whisper-info.py

Dump the metadata about a whisper file to stdout.

``` Usage: whisper-info.py [options] path [field]

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --json Output results in JSON form ```

whisper-merge.py

Join two existing whisper files together.

``` Usage: whisper-merge.py [options] frompath topath

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit ```

whisper-fill.py

Copies data from src in dst, if missing. Unlike whisper-merge, don't overwrite data that's already present in the target file, but instead, only add the missing data (e.g. where the gaps in the target file are). Because no values are overwritten, no data or precision gets lost. Also, unlike whisper-merge, try to take the highest-precision archive to provide the data, instead of the one with the largest retention.

``` Usage: whisper-fill.py [options] srcpath dstpath

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit ```

whisper-resize.py

Change the retention rates of an existing whisper file.

``` Usage: whisper-resize.py path timePerPoint:timeToStore [timePerPoint:timeToStore]*

timePerPoint and timeToStore specify lengths of time, for example:

60:1440 60 seconds per datapoint, 1440 datapoints = 1 day of retention 15m:8 15 minutes per datapoint, 8 datapoints = 2 hours of retention 1h:7d 1 hour per datapoint, 7 days of retention 12h:2y 12 hours per datapoint, 2 years of retention

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --xFilesFactor=XFILESFACTOR Change the xFilesFactor --aggregationMethod=AGGREGATIONMETHOD Change the aggregation function (average, sum, last, max, min, avg_zero, absmax, absmin) --force Perform a destructive change --newfile=NEWFILE Create a new database file without removing the existing one --nobackup Delete the .bak file after successful execution --aggregate Try to aggregate the values to fit the new archive better. Note that this will make things slower and use more memory. ```

whisper-set-aggregation-method.py

Change the aggregation method of an existing whisper file.

``` Usage: whisper-set-aggregation-method.py path

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit ```

whisper-update.py

Update a whisper file with 1 or many values, must provide a time stamp with the value.

``` Usage: whisper-update.py [options] path timestamp:value [timestamp:value]*

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit ```

whisper-diff.py

Check the differences between whisper files. Use sanity check before merging.

``` Usage: whisper-diff.py [options] patha pathb

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --summary show summary of differences --ignore-empty skip comparison if either value is undefined --columns print output in simple columns --no-headers do not print column headers --until=UNTIL Unix epoch time of the end of your requested interval (default: now) --json Output results in JSON form ```

License

Whisper is licensed under version 2.0 of the Apache License. See the LICENSE file for details.