Chart display issues

This topic covers display issues using chart visualizations.

Searches with non-transforming commands

You cannot render charts using searches that do not include transforming commands, such as the following options.

chart

timechart

stats

eval

For more information, see About Transforming commands and searches in the Search Manual.

Time charting

You can only plot time-based data using the timechart command, which generates the _time based output. If you try to plot a time-based series using any other transforming search command, or rename the _time value, the chart treats the timestamp data as a series of strings.

Data truncation

To avoid browser performance impacts, Splunk software limits the the amount of data rendered in an individual chart. When search results exceed limits, a message appears with the chart indicating that data was truncated.

Depending on your Splunk instance type and dashboard editing permissions, you can change default rendering behavior using configuration settings and Simple XML.

Users with editing permissions can modify Simple XML data truncation settings for individual charts in a dashboard.

Splunk Enterprise administrators can also add or edit local copies of visualizations.conf and web.conf to configure truncation settings for charts across a Splunk deployment.

Use the following table to compare configuration options.

Rendering limit type	In	Setting	Default	Where to configure
Total data points	One chart in a dashboard	charting.chart.resultTruncationLimit	50000	Simple XML
Data points per series	One chart in a dashboard	charting.data.count	10000	Simple XML
Data points per series	One chart type	data_sources.primary.params.count Replaces the deprecated jschart_results_limit setting in web.conf. When set to a numeric value, overrides charting.data.count Simple XML setting in charts of this type.	1000	visualizations.conf
Total data points	All charts in all browsers	jschart_truncation_limit	No default. Specify to override individual browser settings.	web.conf
Total data points	Charts in an individual browser	One or more of the following settings. jschart_truncation_limit.chrome jschart_truncation_limit.safari jschart_truncation_limit.firefox jschart_truncation_limit.ie11	50000	web.conf
Data series	All charts	jschart_series_limit	100	web.conf

Simple XML data truncation options

You can adjust data truncation in individual charts using Simple XML.

Data point limit for one chart

You can configure the maximum number of points that can be plotted in a specific chart by editing the Simple XML for the chart. In the <chart> element, edit the charting.chart.resultTruncationLimit property as described in Area, bar, column, line, and scatter charts in the Chart Configuration Reference.

Data point limit per series in one chart

You can limit the number of search result data points rendered per series in a chart. Edit the charting.data.count Simple XML setting to override the default value of 10000 data series.

Configuration file data truncation settings

Splunk Enterprise admins can add or edit truncation settings in $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/system/local/web.conf or $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/system/local/visualizations.conf.

Data point limit for all charts in one or more browsers

The web.conf configuration file specifies the maximum number of points that can be plotted for charts in various browsers. All browser limits default to 50000 data points.

You can override individual browser settings or add a jschart_truncation_limit setting in $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/system/local/web.conf to define a limit for all browsers. The jschart_truncation_limit overrides any individual browser settings.

Note: The charting.chart.resultTruncationLimit Simple XML option overrides this limit in an individual chart.

Data series limit for all charts

You can limit the number of data series that charts can render. Add or edit the jschart_series_limit setting in $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/system/local/web.conf to override the default value of 100 data series.

If search results exceed this limit, a chart displays only the number of series that this limit allows. A warning message appears to indicate that the chart is showing truncated search results. For example, if the jschart_series_limit is 40 and a search returns 50 data series, a chart renders only the first 40 series.

Data point limit per series for one chart type

Limit the number of search result data points rendered per series in a specific chart type. Edit the data_sources.primary.params.count setting in visualizations.conf to override the default value of 1000 result rows.

For example, you can set the data point limit per series in pie charts. Edit the [pie] chart type stanza in $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/system/local/visualizations.conf:

[pie]
data_sources.primary.params.count = 10

As of the latest software version, the web.conf jschart_results_limit data point per series setting for all charts is deprecated. Use data_sources.primary.params.count instead.

Data series and data point limit precedence

In the case of an individual chart, if the jschart_series_limit and the charting.data.count Simple XML options combine to indicate a number greater than the jschart_truncation_limit in web.conf, then data points per series are reduced to meet the jschart_truncation_limit setting.

For example, you might have a jschart_series_limit of 10 and a charting.data.count limit of 100 in a chart. When multiplied, these two settings indicate a 1000 total data point limit for the chart. If the js_chart_truncation_limit is 800, however, then data points per series are reduced to meet the 800 total point limit.

To override the js_chart_truncation limit on all charts, you can use charting.chart.resultTruncationLimit Simple XML option to change the limit for an individual chart.

About editing configuration files

For more information about working with the web.conf and visualizations.conf configuration files, see the following topics in the Admin Manual.

• How to edit a configuration file
• web.conf spec file
• visualizations.conf spec file

Category limit

When you are plotting data by category, Splunk software limits chart label display. This limit differs for the horizontal axis (X-axis) and the vertical axis (Y-axis).

The X-axis must have at least 20 pixels available for each label. The Y-axis must have at least 15 pixels available. If the requisite pixels are not available, the labels do not display.

You can zoom into the X-axis to view labels that are hidden by the category limit. See Pan and zoom chart controls for details.