Data explorer

Data explorer greatly enhances your abilities to query and chart metrics.

• Analyze multidimensional metrics, whether built in to Dynatrace or ingested from StatsD, Prometheus, Telegraf, and others channels.
• Choose from several visualization types:
  • Graph
  • Pie
  • Single value
  • Table
  • Top list
  • Heatmap
• Add your visualization right to your dashboards for easy access and sharing.
• Provides a foundation for metric calculation in charts on dashboards.

Quick start

If you prefer to skip the technical details and learn by doing, try the Data explorer quick start. You'll learn how to:

• Create a simple chart in the Data explorer
• Use the chart in the Data explorer
• Pin the chart to a dashboard as a tile

But if you want the technical details now, read on.

Query components and concepts

Every metric query is composed of multiple optional components:

Limitations

• 10 metrics maximum per chart
• 100 series per metric

Examples

Table with two metrics (split)

In this example, we select metrics CPU usage % and Memory used %, break it down by host for both, and display it as a table, so that the rows are hosts and the columns show the metric values per host.

• A: CPU usage % (builtin:host.cpu.usage), Average, Split by Host
• B: Memory used % (builtin:host.mem.usage), Average, Split by Host
• Visualization: Table

The complete query should look like this:

Example tile:

Graph with two metrics

In this example, we select the same metrics and display them as a graph.

When you set Visualization to Graph, the Visual settings are displayed, where you can select how to graph each metric. In this case, CPU usage % is an area chart (the area between 0 and the value of the metric is filled in) and Memory used % is a line chart (a single line representing the value of the metric over time).

• A: CPU usage % (builtin:host.cpu.usage), Average, Split by Host
• B: Memory used % (builtin:host.mem.usage), Average, Split by Host
• Visualization: Graph
• Visual settings:
  • A = Area
  • B = Line

The complete query should look like this:

Example tile:

Visual settings

The selection of visual settings available depends on the query and visualization type. Dynatrace offers the following visualization types:

• Graph
• Pie
• Single value
• Table
• Top list
• Heatmap

Entity linking

For better drilldown capabilities, we have added links to entities.

In this example, the visualization was showing a host behaving erratically. We selected it to see details about the host in a pop-up, and we can select the View host button to drill down directly to the Dynatrace page for that host.

Fold transformations and trendlines

(Applies only to value visualizations such as single value, pie, top list, and table.)

In certain cases, you need to see the last reported value for a metric, not the total aggregate over the time span. To do this, you can change Fold transformation from Total to Last value.

This will help you understand the current state and not the aggregated state over the time period. To also be able to determine if the current state is the common behavior of the time period, you can turn on Show trendline.

Advanced query editor

To fully utilize the power of the Metrics API v2 queries from within the web UI, switch to the Code tab.

The Code tab enables you to create metric expressions, timeframe shifts, and much more directly in the web UI and, of course, use this power to create vizualizations for your dashboards. Start by checking out metric expression examples.

For Code tab details, see Data explorer Code tab (advanced query editor).

Share your results

If you are doing analysis in the Data explorer and find some interesting results that you want to share with other authenticated users, or if you want to be able to revisit the same results yourself using a later timeframe

1. Select Share link in the upper-right corner of the Data explorer
2. Determine the timeframe to associate with the link:
   • To share the link with the current timeframe, turn on Use the current timeframe.
   • Otherwise, the shared query link will specify the current query and settings except the timeframe.
3. Select Copy to copy the link to your clipboard.
4. Share the link with any other authenticated Dynatrace user or keep a copy for your own use.

Sort

By default, results are sorted in descending order based on the aggregation chosen.

To explicitly set the sort order through the query editor

1. Select the + button.
2. Select Sort by.
3. Set Sort by to Ascending or Descending.

Limit

By default, the number of metrics you see if they are split by a dimension is 10.

To explicitly set a limit through the query editor

1. Select the + button.
2. Select Limit.
3. Set Limit to 1, 10, 20, or 100.

Migration from custom charts

If you have created custom charts in the past, your old charts are still supported, but you will now see a small warning icon in the upper-right corner of each custom chart tile on your dashboard. Hover over the warning icon to see an explanation.

To migrate a custom chart to the new Data explorer chart format

1. Review Migration limitations below.
2. Display the dashboard containing your custom chart and then select Edit to edit the dashboard.
3. Select the custom chart and then select Configure custom chart to open it on the Custom chart page.
4. In the You're missing out on better charts message box, select Preview upgraded chart.
   This loads your custom chart in Data explorer, where you can review and adjust chart settings.
5. When you are satisfied with the chart appearance, save it to a dashboard.
   • If you no longer need the original chart and you want to replace it with the new (converted) chart on the same dashboard, select Save changes to dashboard.
   • If you want to keep a copy of the original chart for now, select Pin to dashboard to pin the converted chart as a new chart to the same dashboard or another dashboard.

Migration limitations

The chart migration process has the following limitations:

• While the Data explorer offers more powerful filtering capabilities, it does not support some custom chart filters. When migrating charts, these filters are skipped.
• The Data explorer does not support some metrics configured before Summer 2019. These metrics have been deprecated for two years and cannot be imported over the API. When migrating custom charts with these metrics to Data explorer, Dynatrace will display an empty Data explorer page.
• In some cases, a migrated chart configuration can only be viewed on the Code tab and not on the Build tab.