Graphite vs StatsD

Overview

StatsD

Stacks373

Followers293

Votes31

Graphite

Stacks383

Followers419

Votes42

GitHub Stars6.0K

Forks1.3K

Graphite vs StatsD: What are the differences?

Introduction

Here, we will discuss the key differences between Graphite and StatsD.

Data Storage Model: Graphite is a time-series database system used for storing and analyzing metrics data, while StatsD is a network daemon that listens to metrics and aggregates them before sending them to other systems for storage. Graphite stores data in Whisper files, which are fixed-size, circular buffers, while StatsD sends data to a backend storage system like Graphite or InfluxDB.
Data Collection Approach: Graphite primarily collects data by pulling metrics from sources, which means it actively fetches data from various applications, servers, or devices on a regular basis. On the other hand, StatsD relies on a passive data collection approach, where applications and services push metrics to StatsD using UDP packets.
Granularity: Graphite offers a higher level of granularity in terms of data retention and querying. It allows for the storage of metrics at different resolutions, enabling users to analyze data at various time intervals with different levels of detail. StatsD, on the other hand, does not provide built-in granularity support and typically sends aggregated metrics with pre-defined intervals.
Metrics Types: Graphite supports various metric types, including gauge, counter, timer, and set, providing flexibility in measuring different aspects of a system. StatsD, on the other hand, primarily focuses on counting and timing metrics, making it ideal for monitoring and alerting purposes.
Visualization and Dashboards: Graphite provides a web-based interface for visualizing metrics data through a feature called Graphite Web. It allows users to create rich dashboards, custom graphs, and apply functions to visualize and analyze data. StatsD, being a metrics aggregation component, does not offer built-in visualization capabilities and typically relies on third-party services or tools for data visualization.
Integration and Ecosystem: Graphite has a large ecosystem of integrations and extensions, making it highly extensible and adaptable to various monitoring and data analysis needs. It offers integrations with popular tools such as Grafana, Collectd, and Prometheus. StatsD, on the other hand, is typically used as a part of a larger monitoring stack and integrates well with systems like Graphite, InfluxDB, and Datadog.

In Summary, Graphite and StatsD differ in terms of their data storage model, data collection approach, granularity, supported metric types, visualization capabilities, and integration ecosystem.

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CLI (Node.js)

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Advice on StatsD, Graphite

Susmita

Senior SRE at African Bank

Jul 28, 2020

Needs adviceon

Grafana

Looking for a tool which can be used for mainly dashboard purposes, but here are the main requirements:

Must be able to get custom data from AS400,
Able to display automation test results,
System monitoring / Nginx API,
Able to get data from 3rd parties DB.

Grafana is almost solving all the problems, except AS400 and no database to get automation test results.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

StatsD	Graphite
It is a network daemon that runs on the Node.js platform and listens for statistics, like counters and timers, sent over UDP or TCP and sends aggregates to one or more pluggable backend services (e.g., Graphite).	Graphite does two things: 1) Store numeric time-series data and 2) Render graphs of this data on demand
Network daemon; Runs on the Node.js platform; Sends aggregates to one or more pluggable backend services	carbon - a Twisted daemon that listens for time-series data;whisper - a simple database library for storing time-series data (similar in design to RRD);graphite webapp - A Django webapp that renders graphs on-demand using Cairo
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 6.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.3K
Stacks 373	Stacks 383
Followers 293	Followers 419
Votes 31	Votes 42
Pros & Cons
Pros 9 Open source 7 Single responsibility 5 Efficient wire format 3 Handles aggregation 3 Loads of integrations Cons 1 No authentication; cannot be used over Internet	Pros 16 Render any graph 9 Great functions to apply on timeseries 8 Well supported integrations 6 Includes event tracking 3 Rolling aggregation makes storage managable
Integrations
Node.js Docker	Sensu Nagios Logstash Windows Server Netdata Riemann Diamond Telegraf collectd Ganglia

What are some alternatives to StatsD, Graphite?

Grafana

Grafana is a general purpose dashboard and graph composer. It's focused on providing rich ways to visualize time series metrics, mainly though graphs but supports other ways to visualize data through a pluggable panel architecture. It currently has rich support for for Graphite, InfluxDB and OpenTSDB. But supports other data sources via plugins.

Kibana

Kibana is an open source (Apache Licensed), browser based analytics and search dashboard for Elasticsearch. Kibana is a snap to setup and start using. Kibana strives to be easy to get started with, while also being flexible and powerful, just like Elasticsearch.

Prometheus

Prometheus is a systems and service monitoring system. It collects metrics from configured targets at given intervals, evaluates rule expressions, displays the results, and can trigger alerts if some condition is observed to be true.

Nagios

Nagios is a host/service/network monitoring program written in C and released under the GNU General Public License.

Netdata

Netdata collects metrics per second & presents them in low-latency dashboards. It's designed to run on all of your physical & virtual servers, cloud deployments, Kubernetes clusters & edge/IoT devices, to monitor systems, containers & apps

Zabbix

Zabbix is a mature and effortless enterprise-class open source monitoring solution for network monitoring and application monitoring of millions of metrics.

Sensu

Sensu is the future-proof solution for multi-cloud monitoring at scale. The Sensu monitoring event pipeline empowers businesses to automate their monitoring workflows and gain deep visibility into their multi-cloud environments.

Lumigo

Lumigo is an observability platform built for developers, unifying distributed tracing with payload data, log management, and real-time metrics to help you deeply understand and troubleshoot your systems.

Jaeger

Jaeger, a Distributed Tracing System

Telegraf

It is an agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics. Design goals are to have a minimal memory footprint with a plugin system so that developers in the community can easily add support for collecting metrics.

Related Comparisons

Graphite vs StatsD: What are the differences?

Introduction

Here, we will discuss the key differences between Graphite and StatsD.

Data Storage Model: Graphite is a time-series database system used for storing and analyzing metrics data, while StatsD is a network daemon that listens to metrics and aggregates them before sending them to other systems for storage. Graphite stores data in Whisper files, which are fixed-size, circular buffers, while StatsD sends data to a backend storage system like Graphite or InfluxDB.
Data Collection Approach: Graphite primarily collects data by pulling metrics from sources, which means it actively fetches data from various applications, servers, or devices on a regular basis. On the other hand, StatsD relies on a passive data collection approach, where applications and services push metrics to StatsD using UDP packets.
Granularity: Graphite offers a higher level of granularity in terms of data retention and querying. It allows for the storage of metrics at different resolutions, enabling users to analyze data at various time intervals with different levels of detail. StatsD, on the other hand, does not provide built-in granularity support and typically sends aggregated metrics with pre-defined intervals.
Metrics Types: Graphite supports various metric types, including gauge, counter, timer, and set, providing flexibility in measuring different aspects of a system. StatsD, on the other hand, primarily focuses on counting and timing metrics, making it ideal for monitoring and alerting purposes.
Visualization and Dashboards: Graphite provides a web-based interface for visualizing metrics data through a feature called Graphite Web. It allows users to create rich dashboards, custom graphs, and apply functions to visualize and analyze data. StatsD, being a metrics aggregation component, does not offer built-in visualization capabilities and typically relies on third-party services or tools for data visualization.
Integration and Ecosystem: Graphite has a large ecosystem of integrations and extensions, making it highly extensible and adaptable to various monitoring and data analysis needs. It offers integrations with popular tools such as Grafana, Collectd, and Prometheus. StatsD, on the other hand, is typically used as a part of a larger monitoring stack and integrates well with systems like Graphite, InfluxDB, and Datadog.

In Summary, Graphite and StatsD differ in terms of their data storage model, data collection approach, granularity, supported metric types, visualization capabilities, and integration ecosystem.

Graphite vs StatsD

Overview

Graphite vs StatsD: What are the differences?