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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2021-02-07 11:49:00 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2021-02-07 12:42:05 +0000
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+<!--
+title: "Interact with dashboards and charts"
+description: "Zoom, highlight, and pan through time on hundreds of real-time, interactive charts to quickly discover the root cause of any anomaly."
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/visualize/interact-dashboards-charts.md
+-->
+
+# Interact with dashboards and charts
+
+You can find Netdata's dashboards in two places: locally served at `http://NODE:19999` by the Netdata Agent, and in
+Netdata Cloud. While you access these dashboards differently, they have similar interfaces, identical charts and
+metrics, and you interact with both of them the same way.
+
+> If you're not sure which option is best for you, see our [single-node](/docs/quickstart/single-node.md) and
+> [infrastructure](/docs/quickstart/infrastructure.md) quickstart guides.
+
+Netdata dashboards are single, scrollable pages with many charts stacked on top of one another. As you scroll up or
+down, charts appearing in your browser's viewport automatically load and update every second.
+
+The dashboard is broken up into multiple **sections**, such as **System Overview**, **CPU**, **Disk**, which are
+automatically generated based on which [collectors](/docs/collect/how-collectors-work.md) begin collecting metrics when
+Netdata starts up. Sections also appear in the right-hand **menu**, along with submenus based on the contexts and
+families Netdata creates for your node.
+
+## Choose timeframes to visualize
+
+Both the local Agent dashboard and Netdata Cloud feature time & date pickers to help you visualize specific points in
+time. In Netdata Cloud, the picker appears in the [Overview](/docs/visualize/overview-infrastructure.md), [Nodes
+view](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/nodes), [new
+dashboards](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/dashboards), and any single-node dashboards you visit.
+
+Local Agent dashboard:
+
+![Time & date picker on the local Netdata
+dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/101512538-5875d080-3938-11eb-8daf-0fbd0948a04b.png)
+
+Netdata Cloud:
+
+![Time & date picker on Netdata
+Cloud](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/101512689-86f3ab80-3938-11eb-8abc-12171a9b8a5e.png)
+
+Their behavior is identical. Use the Quick Selector to visualize generic timeframes, or use the calendar or inputs to
+select days, hours, minutes or seconds. Click **Apply** to re-render all visualizations with new metrics data, or
+**Clear** to restore the default timeframe.
+
+See reference documentation for the [local Agent dashboard](/web/gui/README.md#time--date-picker) and [Netdata
+Cloud](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/war-rooms#time--date-picker) for additional context about how the time &
+date picker behaves in each environment.
+
+## Charts, dimensions, families, and contexts
+
+A **chart** is an interactive visualization of one or more collected/calculated metrics. You can see the name (also
+known as its unique ID) of a chart by looking at the top-left corner of a chart and finding the parenthesized text. On a
+Linux system, one of the first charts on the dashboard will be the system CPU chart, with the name `system.cpu`.
+
+A **dimension** is any value that gets shown on a chart. The value can be raw data or calculated values, such as
+percentages, aggregates, and more. Most charts will have more than one dimension, in which case it will display each in
+a different color. You can disable or enable showing these dimensions by clicking on them.
+
+A **family** is _one_ instance of a monitored hardware or software resource that needs to be monitored and displayed
+separately from similar instances. For example, if your node has multiple partitions, Netdata will create different
+families for `/`, `/boot`, `/home`, and so on. Same goes for entire disks, network devices, and more.
+
+A **context** groups several charts based on the types of metrics being collected and displayed. For example, the
+**Disk** section often has many contexts: `disk.io`, `disk.ops`, `disk.backlog`, `disk.util`, and so on. Netdata uses
+this context to create individual charts and then groups them by family. You can always see the context of any chart by
+looking at its name or hovering over the chart's date.
+
+See our [dashboard docs](/web/README.md#charts-contexts-families) for more information about the above distinctions
+and how they're used across Netdata to meaningfully organize and present metrics.
+
+## Interact with charts
+
+Netdata's charts are fully interactive to help you find meaningful information about complex problems. You can pan
+through historical metrics, zoom in and out, select specific timeframes for further analysis, resize charts, and more.
+Whenever you use a chart in this way, Netdata synchronizes all the other charts to match it.
+
+| Change | Method #1 | Method #2 | Method #3 |
+| ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **Stop** a chart from updating | `click` | | |
+| **Reset** charts to default auto-refreshing state | `double click` | `double tap` (touchpad/touchscreen) | |
+| **Select** a certain timeframe | `ALT` + `mouse selection` | `⌘` + `mouse selection` (macOS) | |
+| **Pan** forward or back in time | `click and drag` | `touch and drag` (touchpad/touchscreen) | |
+| **Zoom** to a specific timeframe | `SHIFT` + `mouse selection` | | |
+| **Zoom** in/out | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `mouse scrollwheel` | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `two-finger pinch` (touchpad/touchscreen) | `SHIFT`/`ALT` + `two-finger scroll` (touchpad/touchscreen) |
+
+![Animated GIF of interacting with Netdata
+charts](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/102652236-051b3380-412b-11eb-8f7c-a2372ed92cd0.gif)
+
+These interactions can also be triggered using the icons on the bottom-right corner of every chart. They are,
+respectively, `Pan Left`, `Reset`, `Pan Right`, `Zoom In`, and `Zoom Out`.
+
+You can show and hide individual dimensions by clicking on their names. Use `SHIFT + click` to hide or show dimensions
+one at a time. Hiding dimensions simplifies the chart and can help you better discover exactly which aspect of your
+system is behaving strangely.
+
+You can resize any chart by clicking-and-dragging the icon on the bottom-right corner of any chart. To restore the chart
+to its original height, double-click the same icon.
+
+![Resizing a chart and resetting it to the default
+height](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/102652691-24b25c00-412b-11eb-9e2c-95325fcedc67.gif)
+
+### Composite charts in Netdata Cloud
+
+Netdata Cloud now supports composite charts in the Overview interface. Composite charts come with a few additional UI
+elements and varied interactions, such as the location of dimensions and a utility bar for configuring the state of
+individual composite charts. All of these details are covered in the [Overview
+reference](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/overview) doc.
+
+## What's next?
+
+Netdata Cloud users can [build new dashboards](/docs/visualize/create-dashboards.md) in just a few clicks. By
+aggregating relevant metrics from any number of nodes onto a single interface, you can respond faster to anomalies,
+perform more targeted troubleshooting, or keep tabs on a bird's eye view of your infrastructure.
+
+If you're finished with dashboards for now, skip to Netdata's health watchdog for information on [creating or
+configuring](/docs/monitor/configure-alarms.md) alarms, and [send notifications](/docs/monitor/enable-notifications.md)
+to get informed when something goes wrong in your infrastructure.
+
+### Related reference documentation
+
+- [Netdata Agent · Web dashboards overview](/web/README.md)
+- [Netdata Cloud · War Rooms](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/war-rooms)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Overview](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/overview)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Nodes](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/nodes)
+- [Netdata Cloud · Build new dashboards](https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/cloud/visualize/dashboards)
+
+[![analytics](https://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&aip=1&t=pageview&_s=1&ds=github&dr=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnetdata%2Fnetdata&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fmy-netdata.io%2Fgithub%2Fdocs%2Fvisualize%2Finteract-dashboards-charts&_u=MAC~&cid=5792dfd7-8dc4-476b-af31-da2fdb9f93d2&tid=UA-64295674-3)](<>)