Graphs

Graphs in NetXMS display collected DCI data as line charts over time. They provide detailed historical views of any collected metric, with interactive controls for time range selection, zooming, and comparison.

Viewing Graphs

To view a graph for a DCI:

  1. Navigate to a node in the object tree

  2. Open the Data Collection view

  3. Right-click on a DCI and select Line chart, or simply double-click the DCI

Double-click opens the chart only when edit mode is off; with edit mode on, double-click opens the DCI editor instead.

The graph displays the DCI’s collected values over the default time range. The same context menu also offers raw data and real-time line chart variants, as well as Bar chart and Pie chart views of current values.

Time Interval

The graph time range can be adjusted using:

  • Presets — quick selection of common ranges: last 10 or 30 minutes; last hour; 2, 4, or 12 hours; last day; 2 or 5 days; last week, month, or year

  • Custom range — open the graph properties dialog to set specific start and end dates

  • Zoom — the Zoom in (Ctrl+]) and _Zoom out_ (kbd:[Ctrl-) toolbar actions adjust the chart axes

Right-click on the chart opens its context menu. Selecting a region with the mouse to zoom is not available on historical graphs; this selection zoom exists only on dashboard line charts with the Interactive option enabled.

Auto-Refresh

Automatic refresh is controlled by the Refresh automatically checkbox in the view menu (also available in the chart context menu). The refresh interval is set by the Refresh interval property in the graph configuration.

When auto-refresh is enabled, the graph shifts its time window forward at each refresh, always showing the most recent data.

Customizing Appearance

Graph appearance is customized in the graph Properties dialog:

  • Colors — change the line color for each data source

  • Line width — configure the line thickness, applied to the whole graph

  • Area chart — toggle filled area under the lines

Predefined Graphs

Frequently used graph configurations can be saved as predefined graphs for quick access.

To save a predefined graph:

  1. Configure the graph with desired DCIs, time range, and appearance

  2. Select Save as…​ from the graph menu

  3. Enter a name for the graph

An already saved graph is updated with Save, and Save as template…​ saves the graph as a template graph (see Template Graphs).

Naming and Organization

Predefined graph names support hierarchical organization using the -> separator. For example:

  • Server Performance->CPU Usage

  • Server Performance->Memory Usage

  • Network->Bandwidth->WAN Links

This creates a tree structure in the predefined graphs browser.

Access Control

Each predefined graph has its own access control list (ACL):

  • Read — allows viewing the graph

  • Modify — allows modifying the graph configuration

Access is granted per user or per group.

Template Graphs

Template graphs extend predefined graphs with automatic DCI matching. Instead of referencing specific DCIs on specific nodes, template graphs define DCI patterns that are matched automatically when applied to any node.

Template Graph vs. Predefined Graph

Feature Predefined Graph Template Graph

DCI binding

Fixed to specific DCIs on specific nodes

Pattern-matched per node

Reusability

Single configuration

Works across all matching nodes

Configuration

Manual DCI selection

DCI matching rules + optional filter

Template Graph Configuration

To create a template graph:

  1. Open Configuration > Template Graphs

  2. Click Create new template graph

  3. Configure the following properties

General Properties

Property Description

Title

Graph title (supports macros)

Show grid lines

Display horizontal/vertical grid

Stacked

Stack multiple data series

Show legend

Display the legend

Legend position

Placement of the legend on the chart

Show extended legend

Show additional statistics in the legend

Show host names

Include host names in data source labels

Translucent

Semi-transparent area fill

Area chart

Fill area under lines

Line width

Line thickness

Show 95th percentile

Display the 95th percentile line

Use multipliers

Scale displayed values with multiplier suffixes

Logarithmic scale

Logarithmic Y-axis scaling

Refresh automatically

Enable automatic refresh

Refresh interval

Refresh interval in seconds

Time Period

Configure the default time range displayed when the graph opens. Options match the standard graph time interval controls.

Y-Axis Range

Set manual Y-axis range values in the From and To fields, or leave as automatic for auto-scaling based on data values. The From and To fields accept multiplier suffixes K, M, G, T, P (decimal) and Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti (binary), validated as you type.

Additional axis options: Axis label (leave empty to hide) and Set Y base to min value.

Filter Properties

The filter determines on which nodes the template graph is available. It is not an NXSL script — it uses the same filter model as object tools:

Filter Description

Capability requirements

Node must have specific capabilities (e.g., NetXMS agent, SNMP)

SNMP OID match

Node’s SNMP sysObjectID must match the given OID pattern

OS name match

Comma-separated list of OS name patterns the node’s platform must match

Template match

Comma-separated list of template name patterns; a matching template must be applied to the node

Custom attributes

Comma-separated list of custom attribute names that must be set on the node

Data Sources

Define matching rules for data sources. Each source matches DCIs on the target node by metric name, display name, or tag:

Property Description

Metric

Metric name to match

DCI display name

DCI display name to match

DCI tag

DCI tag to match

Label (Leave empty to use DCI display name)

Display label (supports macros like %n for node name)

Color

Line color

Use regular expressions for DCI matching

Treat the match fields as regular expressions

Multiple match

Allow one source definition to match multiple DCIs on the same node

Matching multiple DCIs with a single source definition requires the Multiple match checkbox, independent of regular expression matching. Combined with regular expressions, for example, the metric pattern FileSystem\.Used\(.*\) matches all filesystem usage DCIs regardless of mount point.

Sources can also be imported directly from existing DCIs on a reference node.

Historical Data View

The Historical Data view displays collected DCI data in tabular (text) form rather than graphical. This provides exact values with timestamps, useful for detailed analysis.

To view historical data:

  1. Navigate to a node’s data collection view

  2. Right-click on a DCI and select History (Ctrl+H)

The table shows the timestamp and value of each collected sample.

DCI Summary Tables

DCI summary tables provide a cross-node comparison where each row represents a different node and columns show specific DCI values.

Configuration

To create a DCI summary table:

  1. Open Configuration > DCI Summary Tables

  2. Select Create new summary table…​ (or Create new summary table for table DCIs…​ for a table based on table DCIs)

  3. Configure the following:

Property Description

Menu path

Placement of the table in the Summary tables context submenu

Title

Display name for the summary table

Columns

DCI definitions for each column (name pattern, display name)

Multiple instances (one row per instance)

Adds an Instance column and produces one row per DCI instance; available only for summary tables not based on table DCIs

Filter script

NXSL script to filter which nodes appear in the table

Usage

DCI summary tables are accessed from container context menus:

  1. Right-click on a container (subnet, container, zone) in the object tree

  2. Select the summary table from the Summary tables submenu

The table populates with all child nodes of the selected container that have matching DCIs.