Custom charts
This help page describes deprecated functionality.
- What: We have set a date to remove Custom charts from Dynatrace. If you use Custom charts, it's time to plan for upgrading your charts and dashboards to the Data explorer.
- When:
- Dynatrace version 1.251+ offers web UI and API options for upgrading your charts and dashboards
- Dynatrace version 1.252+ offers a dashboard filtering option for quickly identifying dashboards that still need to be upgraded
- Dynatrace version 1.265, which is planned for release in Q2 2023, will be the last Dynatrace release to support Custom charts.
- Why: With the Data explorer, we have significantly improved Dynatrace charting and dashboarding capabilities, and now have reached a stage where you can seamlessly move from the classic Custom charts to the Data explorer.
- How: You can upgrade tile by tile, dashboard by dashboard, or all dashboards at once using the Dynatrace API.
For important information on upgrading Custom charts to Data explorer visualizations, see Upgrade your dashboards and tiles
Custom charts enable you to analyze any combination of monitoring metrics directly on your dashboards.
For a charted metric, a chart shows the top 15 entities. The table beneath the chart contains up to 85 more entities, bringing the total of entities available for charting to 100.
You can apply splitting and filters to available entities to fine-tune the metric dimensions that appear in custom charts and to filter for only those monitored entities that are relevant to your analysis. As soon as an entity reaches one of the top 15 rows in the result table, that entity is displayed in the chart.
Create a custom chart
Remember that the custom chart functionality described in this topic is deprecated. We do not recommend creating custom charts.
To create a custom chart
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In the Dynatrace menu, go to Data explorer and select Switch to old charts.
Alternatively, you can select the Custom chart tile from the Tiles tab when you edit a dashboard. -
optional Select the category of the metric you want to analyze from the Category list on the Custom chart page.
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From the Metric list on the Custom chart page, select the metric. You can just start typing the metric name to filter the list. For this example, we've selected the metric Web applications - Action count (by Apdex category).
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optional Select the chart type at the top of the page.
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Expand the table row of the newly added chart metric to access the available charting options of the newly added chart metric.
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Available charting options and metric dimensions vary based on the selected metric. Some charts have a Chart type list that provides options for different chart types. Some charts provide a list with options for the data Aggregation method (for example, Minimum, Slowest 10%, and Median). Select appropriate values for your custom chart.
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optional See Splitting and filtering below to fine-tune the data that appears in your chart.
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optional Add additional metrics to your chart by selecting the Add metric button. Only the Timeseries chart can display multiple metrics.
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Select Edit and type an intuitive name for your custom chart.
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Once you're satisfied with your new chart, save it. Select Pin to dashboard. Select the dashboard where you want to place the new chart or type in the name of a new dashboard, then select Pin. To open the updated dashboard, select Open dashboard.
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Drag the chart tile to the required position on your dashboard and resize as required.
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Select Done.
Splitting and filtering
By default the chart shows all the data available for the metric within the current timeframe and management zone. You can narrow down the scope of the chart by applying splitting and filtering.
Splitting
Many of the available metrics provided by Dynatrace are comprised of multiple dimensions. By default the chart shows aggregated data from all available dimensions as one series. You can split these metrics, so each dimension is displayed as a separate series on the chart. Additionally you can filter the results by certain values of some dimensions.
For example, the Action count (by Apdex category) metric for web applications can be split by application that delivered data and Apdex category of user actions. Also you can filter out some Apdex values to focus only on those you're interested in.
To split a metric, just select the dimension you want to use. If you want to additionally filter by dimension values, start typing the values into the input field. The list of available values is displayed automatically as you type. Dynatrace renders all changes immediately and automatically saves your changes.
Filtering
Apart from splitting you can apply filtering by entity tags. It filters the data only to data points, delivered by entities with matching tags.
Filtering works independently from splitting. You don't have to apply splitting to be able to filter your data. However if splitting is applied, the result of splitting becomes the starting point of filtering.
Start typing in the input field to see the available tags.
Custom chart limit
Custom charts can support up to 5,000 entities per chart. If applied splitting and filtering result in more than 5,000 entities for all charted metrics combined, the chart displays an informational message, prompting you to reduce the number of entity results by specifying a management zone, applying filters, or by changing the analysis time frame.
The Data explorer uses the Metrics v2 API. All API limitations also apply to the Data explorer. Using the Data explorer, you can avoid the 5,000-entity limit if:
- You have access to everything in the environment
- There is no management zone filter set in the global selector
Metric rates
Some metrics can be visualized in different formats. By default, metrics are aggregated in total, meaning that charts show the total aggregate for each time slot. To instead show a specific metric aggregated per second, per minute, or per hour, use the rate switcher.
Axis configuration
You can adjust the unit type of both the left-hand and right-hand Y-axes of your charts. Select 
to make your changes.
