Choosing a Metrics Server

If you don't already have a stats platform, this is a great opportunity for you to start learning more about what is going on in your system.

A graphing tool allows you to identify both long-term bottlenecks and short-term issues in your software, at very little hands-on cost.

There are two major graphing and storage platforms in the OS world right now: Graphite (often with statsd) and OpenTSDB.

Choosing a Platform

Graphite Advantages

• It's more popular and has been around longer
• It has a larger collection of functions
• It doesn't require setting up HBase

OpenTSDB Advantages

• It can handle more data
• It stores every datapoint, not aggregations

Graphite Install

There are install instructions on the Graphite Wiki.

Next, you'll want to install statsd to support aggregation of metrics.

It's a good idea to take a peek at the Graphite config

Put the hostname/port of your statsd install in the Bucky config.

OpenTSDB Install

You can find OpenTSDB instructions here.

Plug the hostname/port of your install in the Bucky config.