Is there any way to fill in missing data in graphite when using statsD?

Question

I'm using statsD to report counter data to graphite; sends a tick everytime I get a message. This works great, except in the situation when statsD has to restart for whatever reason. Then I get huge holes in my graphs, since statsD is now no longer sending '0' every 10 seconds for periods when I didn't get any messages.

I'm reporting for various different message types and queues, and sometimes I don't get a message for a particular queue for a long time.

Is there any existing way to 'fill-in' the missing data with a default value I specify (in my case this would be 0)?

I thought about sending a '0' count for a given metric so that statsD starts sending 0's for it, but I don't always know the set of metrics I'll be reporting in advance.

Answer 1

If you just want to "fill in" the visual graph with zeros, look at "Graph Options -> Line Mode -> Draw Null as Zero". This won't let you set a value other than 0, and it won't cause 0's to show up if you get the data in json or csv format, but it's often what you want if you just want to see a graph with some stretches where no data gets recorded.