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Gauge

Gauges are single-value visualizations that allow you to quickly visualize where a value falls within a defined or calculated min and max range. With repeat options, you can display multiple gauges, each corresponding to a different series, column, or row.

You can use gauges if you need to track:

• Service level objectives (SLOs)
• How full a piece of equipment is
• How fast a vehicle is moving within a set of limits
• Network latency
• Equipment state with setpoint and alarm thresholds
• CPU consumption (0-100%)
• RAM availability

Configure a time series visualization

The following video provides beginner steps for creating gauge panels. You’ll learn the data requirements and caveats, special customizations, and much more:

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Supported data formats

To create a gauge visualization you need a dataset containing at least one numeric field. These values are identified by the field name. Additional text fields aren’t required but can be used for identification and labeling.

Example - One value

This dataset generates a visualization with one empty gauge showing the numeric value. This is because the gauge visualization automatically defines the upper and lower range from the minimum and maximum values in the dataset. This dataset has only one value, so it’s set as both minimum and maximum.

If you only have one value, but you want to define a different minimum and maximum, you can set them manually in the Standard options settings to generate a more typical looking gauge.

Example - One row, multiple values

The gauge visualization can support multiple fields in a dataset.

When there are multiple values in the dataset, the visualization displays multiple gauges and automatically defines the minimum and maximum. In this case, those are 3 and 10. Because the minimum and maximum values are defined, each gauge is shaded in to show that value in relation to the minimum and maximum.

Example - Multiple rows and values

The gauge visualization can display datasets with multiple rows of data or even multiple datasets.

By default, the visualization is configured to calculate a single value per column or series and to display only the last row of data. However, it derives the minimum and maximum from the full dataset, even if those values aren’t visible.

In this example, that means only the last row of data is displayed in the gauges and the minimum and maximum values are 1 and 10. The value 1 is displayed because it’s in the last row, while 10 is not.

If you want to show one gauge per table cell, you can change the Show setting from Calculate to All values, and each gauge is labeled by concatenating the text column with each value’s column name.

Example - Defined min and max

You can also define minimum and maximum values as part of the dataset.

If you don’t want to display gauges for the min and max values, you can configure only one field to be displayed as described in the value options section.

Even when minimum and maximum values aren’t displayed, the visualization still pulls the range from them.

Panel options

In the Panel options section of the panel editor pane, set basic options like panel title and description, as well as panel links. To learn more, refer to Configure panel options.

Value options

Use the following options to refine how your visualization displays the value:

Show

Choose how Grafana displays your data.

Calculate

Show a calculated value based on all rows.

• Calculation - Select a reducer function that Grafana will use to reduce many fields to a single value. For a list of available calculations, refer to Calculation types.
• Fields - Select the fields display in the panel.

All values

Show a separate stat for every row. If you select this option, then you can also limit the number of rows to display.

• Limit - The maximum number of rows to display. Default is 5,000.
• Fields - Select the fields display in the panel.

Gauge

Adjust how the gauge is displayed.

Orientation

Choose a stacking direction.

• Auto - Gauges display in rows and columns.
• Horizontal - Gauges display top to bottom.
• Vertical - Gauges display left to right.

Show threshold labels

Controls if threshold values are shown.

Show threshold markers

Controls if a threshold band is shown outside the inner gauge value band.

Gauge size

Choose a gauge size mode.

• Auto - Grafana determines the best gauge size.
• Manual - Manually configure the gauge size.

Min width

Set the minimum width of vertically-oriented gauges.

If you set a minimum width, the x-axis scrollbar is automatically displayed when there’s a large amount of data.

Min height

Set the minimum height of horizontally-oriented gauges.

If you set a minimum height, the y-axis scrollbar is automatically displayed when there’s a large amount of data.

Neutral

Set the starting value from which every gauge will be filled.

Text size

Adjust the sizes of the gauge text.

• Title - Enter a numeric value for the gauge title size.
• Value - Enter a numeric value for the gauge value size.

Standard options

Standard options in the panel editor pane let you change how field data is displayed in your visualizations. When you set a standard option, the change is applied to all fields or series. For more granular control over the display of fields, refer to Configure overrides.

To learn more, refer to Configure standard options.

Data links

Data links allow you to link to other panels, dashboards, and external resources while maintaining the context of the source panel. You can create links that include the series name or even the value under the cursor.

For each data link, set the following options:

• Title
• URL
• Open in new tab

To learn more, refer to Configure data links.

Value mappings

Value mapping is a technique you can use to change how data appears in a visualization.

For each value mapping, set the following options:

• Condition - Choose what’s mapped to the display text and (optionally) color:
  • Value - Specific values
  • Range - Numerical ranges
  • Regex - Regular expressions
  • Special - Special values like Null, NaN (not a number), or boolean values like true and false
• Display text
• Color (Optional)
• Icon (Canvas only)

To learn more, refer to Configure value mappings.

Thresholds

A threshold is a value or limit you set for a metric that’s reflected visually when it’s met or exceeded. Thresholds are one way you can conditionally style and color your visualizations based on query results.

For each threshold, set the following options:

To learn more, refer to Configure thresholds.

Last, gauge colors and thresholds (the outer bar markers) of the gauge can be configured as described above.

Field overrides

Overrides allow you to customize visualization settings for specific fields or series. When you add an override rule, it targets a particular set of fields and lets you define multiple options for how that field is displayed.

Choose from the following override options:

To learn more, refer to Configure field overrides.