From 841395dd16f470e3c051a0a4fff5b91efc983c30 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 14:33:27 +0200
Subject: Adding upstream version 1.31.0.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+---
+title: "Chart dimensions, contexts, and families"
+description: "Netdata organizes charts into dimensions, contexts, and families to automatically and meaningfully organize thousands of metrics into interactive charts."
+type: explanation
+custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/dashboard/dimensions-contexts-families.mdx
+---
+
+# Chart dimensions, contexts, and families
+
+While Netdata's charts require no configuration and are [easy to interact with](/docs/dashboard/interact-charts.mdx),
+they have a lot of underlying complexity. To meaningfully organize charts out of the box based on what's happening in
+your nodes, Netdata uses the concepts of **dimensions**, **contexts**, and **families**. 
+
+Understanding how these work will help you more easily navigate the dashboard, [write new
+alarms](/docs/monitor/configure-alarms.md), or play around with the [API](/web/api/README.md).
+
+For a refresher on the anatomy of a chart, see [dashboards and charts](/docs/dashboard/how-dashboard-works.mdx).
+
+## Dimension
+
+A **dimension** is a value that gets shown on a chart. The value can be raw data or calculated values, such as the
+average (the default), minimum, or maximum. These values can then be given any type of unit. For example, CPU
+utilization is represented as a percentage, disk I/O as `MiB/s`, and available RAM as an absolute value in `MiB` or
+`GiB`.
+
+Beneath every chart (or on the right-side if you configure the dashboard) is a legend of dimensions. When there are
+multiple dimensions, you'll see a different entry in the legend for each dimension.
+
+The **Apps CPU Time** chart (with the [context](#contexts) `apps.cpu`), which visualizes CPU utilization of
+different types of processes/services/applications on your node, always provides a vibrant example of a chart with
+multiple dimensions.
+
+![An example apps.cpu chart with many
+dimensions](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/114207816-a5cb7400-9911-11eb-8800-06f60b745f9c.png)
+
+The chart shows 13 unique dimensions, such as `httpd` for the CPU utilization for web servers, `kernel` for anything
+related to the Linux kernel, and so on. In your dashboard, these specific dimensions will almost certainly be different.
+
+Dimensions can be [hidden](/docs/dashboard/interact-charts.mdx#show-and-hide-dimensions) to help you focus your
+attention.
+
+## Context
+
+A **context** is a way of grouping charts by the types of metrics collected and dimensions displayed. It's kind of like
+a machine-readable naming and organization scheme.
+
+For example, the **Apps CPU Time** has the context `apps.cpu`. A little further down on the dashboard is a similar
+chart, **Apps Real Memory (w/o shared)** with the context `apps.mem`. The `apps` portion of the context is the **type**,
+whereas anything after the `.` is specified either by the chart's developer or by the [**family**](#family). 
+
+By default, a chart's type affects where it fits in the menu, while its family creates submenus.
+
+Netdata also relies on contexts for [alarm configuration](/docs/monitor/configure-alarms.md) (the [`on`
+line](/health/REFERENCE.md#alarm-line-on)).
+
+## Family
+
+**Families** are a _single instance_ of a hardware or software resource that needs to be displayed separately from
+similar instances.
+
+For example, let's look at the **Disks** section, which contains a number of charts with contexts like `disk.io`,
+`disk.ops`, `disk.backlog`, and `disk.util`.  If your node has multiple disk drives at `sda` and `sdb`, Netdata creates
+a separate family for each.
+
+Netdata now merges the contexts and families to create charts that are grouped by family, following a
+`[context].[family]` naming scheme, so that you can see the `disk.io` and `disk.ops` charts for `sda` right next to each
+other.
+
+Given the four example contexts, and two families of `sda` and `sdb`, Netdata will create the following charts and their
+names:
+
+| Context        | `sda` family       | `sdb` family       |
+| :------------- | ------------------ | ------------------ |
+| `disk.io`      | `disk_io.sda`      | `disk_io.sdb`      |
+| `disk.ops`     | `disk_ops.sda`     | `disk_ops.sdb`     |
+| `disk.backlog` | `disk_backlog.sda` | `disk_backlog.sdb` |
+| `disk.util`    | `disk_util.sda`    | `disk_util.sdb`    |
+
+## What's next?
+
+With an understanding of a chart's dimensions, context, and family, you're now ready to dig even deeper into Netdata's
+dashboard. We recommend looking into [using the timeframe selector](/docs/dashboard/select-timeframes.mdx).
+
+If you feel comfortable with the [dashboard](/docs/dashboard/how-dashboard-works.mdx) and interacting with charts, we
+recommend learning about [configuration](/docs/configure/nodes.md). While Netdata doesn't _require_ a complicated setup
+process or a query language to create charts, there are a lot of ways to tweak the experience to match your needs.
+
+### Further reading & related information
+
+- Dashboard
+  - [How the dashboard works](/docs/dashboard/how-dashboard-works.mdx)
+  - [Interact with charts](/docs/dashboard/interact-charts.mdx)
+  - **[Chart dimensions, contexts, and families](/docs/dashboard/dimensions-contexts-families.mdx)**
+  - [Select timeframes to visualize](/docs/dashboard/select-timeframes.mdx)
+  - [Import, export, and print a snapshot](/docs/dashboard/import-export-print-snapshot.mdx)
+  - [Customize the standard dashboard](/docs/dashboard/customize.mdx)
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