Incremental vs Total Values

An incremental value is defined as the change to the metric you are measuring, while a total is simply the value of the metric after that change.

Hence when defining meters, you can additionally specify whether the values are incremental or represent a running total.

Example

Suppose you created a meter that tracks the number of API requests to a service. When the first request is processed, the service sends a measurement with the value 1.

Now, when the second request is processed, you can either send the total value which is 2 or the new change which is 1.

Octane supports both scenarios - you can set the is_incremental field to match your desired behavior. The critical requirement is that the sources of measurements are consistent with the meter definition.