Knowing your data

Knowing your data is paramount when creating dashboards and views. Being familiar with your data gives you a deeper understanding of the context and a greater insight into the different nuances of data visualization. For example, you will never use time series data in a pie chart, right? Knowing that you have time series data before trying to create a chart will speed up the process of designing and creating the dashboards you will need in your App. Another very valid thought process entails you to think about which data fits which data visualization; it's more than just the typical pie versus time-based line charts. This can include such things as choosing between bar and column charts, when to use stacked bars, or whether you should use 100 percent stacked bars. Some of these will be answered only once you work with the visualization previews available in Splunk.

Let's start with a quick exercise. Let's assume that you are collecting Kbps metrics for your...