# Weathermap style lines in NagVis (New in 1.5.)

By default NagVis can only visualize the normal states in lines using red, yellow and green coloured lines. Did you ever wanted NagVis to display nice weathermap style lines?

## More colourful lines

Since NagVis 1.5 it is possible to draw such weathermap style lines which can have more than three colours depending on the current load of e.g. the network interface you like to visualize. There can be a wide colour range of e.g. seven different colours. Take a look at the example image - isn't that beautiful?.

## Focus on bandwidth visualization

The new lines are focused on bandwidth visualization. Since NagVis needs to parse the performance data to gather the current colour for the line there are special requirements on the performance data contents. There is a bandwidth measurement plugin for Nagios which comes with the correct performance data information out of the box. It is downloadable from Nagios Exchange.

## Weathermap line types

The weathermap style lines currently provide two types of lines:

- `---%--><--%----`: Arrows with percentage labels in the middle of the line.
- `---%+BW--><--%+BW---`: Arrows with percentage labels in the middle of the line and additional labels which display the current bandwidth usage.

## How to create weathermap lines?

To create weathermap style lines in NagVis you need services which send the correct performance data to Nagios. If you got some then simply place a line service object on the map and choose the correct line type. Now take a look at your map - it should work now.

You may want to have a legend which shows you the meaning of the different colours. No problem. Simply add a shape to your map and choose the "demo_traffic_load_legend" shape which is delivered with the NagVis core package.

Thanks to gjfrater for implementing these lines!