Question about graphing vs frequency of sample

[Kerrygeek]

I'm using snmp to monitor bandwidth utilization on a router interface. When I check it at 30 second intervals I see peaks of around 14 megs but when I monitor it at 10 second intervals I'm seeing lower peaks, around 6-8 megs. I expected to catch some higher peaks, can somebody explain to my foggy old brain why I'm seeing lower bandwidth when I sample more often? I'm getting the opposite result of what I expected, I'm sure I'm just missing something.

I'm comparing my results to AT&T's Business Direct web site. I understand they look for the highest peak in a 5 min period, I was hoping to catch that peak but instead mine are going down instead of up. My graphs trend more or less the same as theirs but they show higher bandwidth than I do.

Thanks,
Kerry

[Kerrygeek]

Nevermind, I figured out what the graphs are doing. I'm getting more samples but they have short spikes of higher bandwidth so the graphing program is showing a lower average because I have more samples and most of them are low.

Is there a ways to graph a shorter period than 1 hour? I'm on 1.6.4 if it matters. My other alternative is to try to get the data out of the database and dump it into a spreadsheet to find the peak utilization and graph it.

Thanks,
Kerry

[richlv]

regarding minimal graph period, you might be interested in this thread : http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14745

[Kerrygeek]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it. Looks like I'll need to upgrade to 1.8 to get the dynamic option.

Thanks,
Kerry