Visualization

Multimeter brings with it a script for setting up a visualization, that allows to display the measured values. This visualization uses docker-compose to install and run its two components, InfluxDB for storing the measures values and Grafana that displays the values in dashboards.

If the multimeter package is installed using pip, it comes with its own executable mm-visu:

$ mm-visu --help
usage: mm-visu [-h] [-c CONFIG_FILE] {install,remove,start,stop} ...

positional arguments:
  {install,remove,start,stop}
                        sub-command help
    install             Create the necessary docker container and configure
                        them
    remove              Remove docker containers and remove the stored data
    start               Start the visualization
    stop                Stop the visualization

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
                        The file where the config for the visualization is
                        stored. (default:
                        /home/<user>/.multimeter/visu.config.json)

If multimeter is used from source, the visualization script has to be run as a python module:

$ python3 -m multimeter.visualization --help
usage: visualization.py [-h] [-c CONFIG_FILE] {install,remove,start,stop} ...

Install

Before the visualization can be used its components need to be installed. This is done by running the 'install' command of the script:

$ mm-visu install --help
usage: mm-visu install [-h] [-d DATA_DIR] [-o ORG] [-b BUCKET]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d DATA_DIR, --dir DATA_DIR
                        The directory where the data will be stored.
  -o ORG, --org ORG     The organization in influx.
  -b BUCKET, --bucket BUCKET
                        The bucket in influx for storing measurements.

The install command takes some optional arguments: - DATA_DIR: The directory where the measurement data in InfluxDB will be stored. If no directory is given, the data will be stored within the users HOME directory. - ORG: All data in InfluxDB has to be assigned to an organization. The given organization automatically created during installation. It defaults to 'kantai'. - BUCKET: InfluxDB uses the concept of buckets for organizing data. The visualization uses a specific bucket, that be defined during install. If nothing is given, the bucket 'multimeter' is used.

Once mm-visu install is being run, it downloads the required docker images, sets up the containers for running them, configures the applications according to the given values and loads some examples. At the end, it prints out some pointers on how to use the visualization:

...
Visualization successfully set up.
Example dashboard:
http://localhost:3000/d/6V5fU2t7r/multimeter?orgId=1&var-measurementId=example&from=1638479887312&to=1638479894580
Default username/password: admin/admin
Database UI:
http://localhost:8086/
Default username/password: admin/admin123

Stop & Start

Once installed, the visualization is automatically run. It can be explicitly stopped and started again without reinstalling by calling mm-visu stop or mm-visu start.

Remove

Once the visualization is no longer needed, it can completely removed. This is done by calling mm-visu remove. This removes the created docker container and additionally deletes the data directory, where the measured values are stored.

Using the visualization

Once installed, the visualization can be accessed using the URL of example dashboard. The dashboard shows the values that were gathered using the ResourceProbe. New measurements can be automatically stored in the database using the InfluxDBStorage:

    meter = Multimeter(ResourceProbe(), storage=InfluxDBStorage(
        token='<my-token>',
    ))
    with meter.measure(identifier='<my-identifier>') as measurement:
        # code to measure

The measurement identifier is used for loading measurement results in the visualization:

Limiting the time range to the range in which the measurement had happened, can be done by clicking the "Full time range" link:

Troubleshooting

When I run the script, I get an error about missing 'docker-compose'?

The uses docker-compose to install and run the individual container that work together as the visualization. Please follow https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/ to install 'docker-compose' and make sure that the 'docker-compose' binary is available in the $PATH environment variable.

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Last update: 2021-12-19