Collection times of items

[blipi]

Zabbix stores the collection time of items in the history database ("clock" and "ns" columns). Is this information available for calculations somehow?

I'm getting raw counter values from the monitored server, and I need to calculate a time sensitive delta. A calculated item like the following for instance:

({server:disk_total_queue_length.last(#1)} - {server:disk_total_queue_length.last(#2)}) / ({server:disk_total_queue_length.collection_time(# 1)} - {server:disk_total_queue_length.collection_time(#2 )})

This would give the average queue length of the disk over the period.

[BDiE8VNy]

Why not storing the item value as 'Delta (speed per second)'?

[blipi]

There are multiple counters involved which need to be used in calculating a result. To get an accurate result I need to know the time each counter was collected.

If I use speed per second, then the actual collection interval for one counter may be 30 seconds and another may be 28 seconds but I have no way of knowing this. In short, this wouldn't allow for truly accurate data.

[CeeEss]

True - something like queue-execution grouping at template item level would be very useful. For long busy queues with multiple remote devces being polled over slow networks, the time differential blipi describes could be much worse. Essentially, quue grouping would assure that a group of items would be polled as simultaeously as possible (and certainly sequentially if not concurrently), ensuring time-aligned results.

There are multiple counters involved which need to be used in calculating a result. To get an accurate result I need to know the time each counter was collected.

If I use speed per second, then the actual collection interval for one counter may be 30 seconds and another may be 28 seconds but I have no way of knowing this. In short, this wouldn't allow for truly accurate data.