Previously, sum updates were reported as gauge increments/decrements. However, this sort of metric updates do not allow to view the sum of measurements in the DataDog dashboard, because with gauges, only the last measurement in the flush interval is shown.
With counter, it is possible to view the total sum of measurement values in a flush interval. To make sure that the actual sum and not a rate is displayed in the DataDog dashboard, the as_count() modifier should be used.
While this is a breaking change, the previous behaviour was simply wrong.
Previously, sum updates were reported as gauge increments/decrements. However, this sort of metric updates do not allow to view the sum of measurements in the DataDog dashboard, because with gauges, only the last measurement in the flush interval is shown.
With counter, it is possible to view the total sum of measurement values in a flush interval. To make sure that the actual sum and not a rate is displayed in the DataDog dashboard, the
as_count()modifier should be used.While this is a breaking change, the previous behaviour was simply wrong.