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Generating and Displaying Billing Plots
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The dCache Book > Configuration of dCache > The billing Service > Generating and Displaying Billing Plots

Generating and Displaying Billing Plots

If you have selected to store billing messages to the database, it is also possible to generate and display a set of histograms from the data in these tables. To turn on plot generation, set the property generatePlots to true and restart the domain in which the httpd is running.

Example:

Extract from the layout file: 

[httpdDomain]
        billingToDb=yes
	generatePlots=true
[httpdDomain/httpd]
[httpdDomain/billing]
...

The the frequency of plot refreshing and the type of plot produced can be controlled by:

  • billingPlotsTimeoutInMins (defaults to 30)
  • billingPlotsExportType (defaults to png and can be set to gif)

The plots are linked off of the /webadmin page (itself also linked via New Admin Pages from the static page created by the httpd service). On the menu bar at the top, click Billing Plots to view them. These provide aggregate views of the data for 24-hour, 7-day, 30-day and 365-day periods.

The plot types are:

  • (Giga)bytes read and written for both dCache and HSM backend (if any)

  • Number of transactions/transfers for both dCache and HSM backend (if any)

  • Maximum, minimum and average connection time

  • Cache hits and misses

    Note

    The data for this last histogram is not automatically sent, since it contributes significantly to message traffic between the pool manager and the billing service. To store this data (and thus generate the relevant plots), the poolmanager.cache-hit-messages.enabled property must be set either in dcache.conf or in the layout file for the domain where the poolmanager runs: 

    poolmanager.cache-hit-messages.enabled=true

Each individual plot can be magnified by clicking on it.

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Customizing the plots

As with the database itself, it is expected that the standard/default set-up for plotting will usually be sufficient. In the case where alteration of the look and feel of the plotting is desired, a new plot.properties file needs to be provided. The path to this file, which will override the internal settings, should be indicated using the property billingPlotPropertiesFile.

This configuration file contains settings relevant to the JAIDA/Freehep libraries used to create the graphics. The meaning of most of these properties is rather straightforward. For possible alternatives, it is suggested you consult the Freehep reference pages (note that the histogram.factory property must be included in any custom file but will normally have the same value).

To view the internal plot.properties settings extract the dcache-core-<version>.jar to some temporary directory. 

[root] # ls /usr/share/dcache/classes/dcache-core*
/usr/share/dcache/classes/dcache-core-<version>
[root] # cd /tmp
[root] # jar xf /usr/share/dcache/classes/dcache-core-<version>.jar org/dcache/services/billing/plot/plot.properties
[root] # less org/dcache/services/billing/plot/plot.properties
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