fix: Inaccurate Bucket Intervals for block_interval_seconds Metric #1307

[jevonearth]

Description

This fix sets appropriate histogram buckets for the celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket Prometheus metric.

It addresses issue #1307

I also took a shot at improving the HELP description of the metric. I don't know if the metric records the time based on when the node sees the block or if it measures the time between blocks based on block timestamps. If it is the latter, I should adjust the HELP description to reflect that.

Here's a screenshot of what a Grafana graph looks like before/after updating this metric. Based on mochanet data.

Metrics before the change look like this;

# HELP celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds Time between this and the last block.
# TYPE celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds histogram
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.005"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.01"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.025"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.05"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.1"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.25"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="0.5"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="1"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="2.5"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="5"} 0
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="10"} 1028
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="celestia",version="1.7.0",le="+Inf"} 29770

Metrics after the fix look like this

# HELP celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds Histogram of time intervals in seconds between consecutive blocks, capturing the distribution of block times as observed by this node.
# TYPE celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds histogram
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="10"} 9
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="11"} 12
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="12"} 830
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="13"} 885
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="14"} 886
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="15"} 886
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="20"} 886
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="25"} 897
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="30"} 897
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="40"} 897
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="50"} 897
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="60"} 897
celestia_consensus_block_interval_seconds_bucket{chain_id="mocha-4",version="1.7.0",le="+Inf"} 897

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PR checklist

I have not completed the checklist tasks. I can do these tomorrow where relevant

• Tests written/updated
• Changelog entry added in .changelog (we use
  unclog to manage our changelog)
• Updated relevant documentation (docs/ or spec/) and code comments

[cmwaters]

I would almost feel like using a gauge is better than a histogram to see the block interval.

[jevonearth]

I would almost feel like using a gauge is better than a histogram to see the block interval.

Hi @cmwaters,

I think Histogram for this metric is overkill, but if we were to change it, I believe a Summary metric type would make more sense. A Gauge is useful for point-in-time status. A Summary metric gives us better visibility of data over time. This makes summaries more suited for understanding trends and variations in block intervals.

I'm open to changing the metric type; it's not hard to do, and the previous state of this metric made the resulting data in Prometheus useless anyway.

But with the change in this PR, the histogram metric type is now also serviceable. :)

(I posted this reply in the wrong place yesterday, reposting it on the main thread instead.)

[cmwaters]

Thanks. I think we'll merge this as is and look to revise it at a later date. We should also keep in mind that if we were to ever make changes to the block time than this would need to be updated