diff --git a/docs-en/02-concept/02-concept.md b/docs-en/02-concept/02-concept.md index 01b308a193f1342349712fe79552eb0fc8e7c1c1..f71674fc0ddc483c1c3371e56bdf17c39506f985 100644 --- a/docs-en/02-concept/02-concept.md +++ b/docs-en/02-concept/02-concept.md @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ title: Concepts --- -In order to explain the basic concepts and show sample code easily, the entire TDengine document takes smart meters as a typical time series data scenario. Assuming that each smart meter collects three metrics of current, voltage, and phase, there are multiple smart meters, and each meter has static attributes like location and group ID, the collected data shall be similar to the following table: +In order to explain the basic concepts and provide some sample code, the TDengine documentation takes smart meters as a typical time series data scenario. Assuming that each smart meter collects three metrics of current, voltage, and phase, there are multiple smart meters, and each meter has static attributes like location and group ID, the collected data will be similar to the following table:
@@ -100,32 +100,32 @@ In order to explain the basic concepts and show sample code easily, the entire T Table 1: Smart meter example data -Each row contains the device ID, timestamp, collected metrics (current, voltage, phase as above), and static tags (Location and groupId in Table 1) associated with the devices. Each smart meter generates a row (data point) in a pre-defined timer or triggered by an external event. It is a sequence of data points like a stream. +Each row contains the device ID, time stamp, collected metrics (current, voltage, phase as above), and static tags (location and groupId in Table 1) associated with the devices. Each smart meter generates a row (measurement) in a pre-defined time interval or triggered by an external event. The device produces a sequence of measurements with associated time stamps. ## Metric -Metric refers to the physical quantity collected by sensors, equipment or other types of data collection devices, such as current, voltage, temperature, pressure, GPS position, etc., which changes with time, and the data type can be integer, float, Boolean, or strings. As time goes by, the amount of collected metric data stored increases. +Metric refers to the physical quantity collected by sensors, equipment or other types of data collection devices, such as current, voltage, temperature, pressure, GPS position, etc., which change with time, and the data type can be integer, float, Boolean, or strings. As time goes by, the amount of collected metric data stored increases. ## Label/Tag -Label/Tag refers to the static properties of sensors, devices or other types of data collection devices, which do not change with time, such as device model, color, fixed location of the device, etc. The data type can be any type. Although static, TDengine allows users to add, delete or update tag values. Unlike the collected metric data, the amount of tag data stored does not change over time. +Label/Tag refers to the static properties of sensors, equipment or other types of data collection devices, which do not change with time, such as device model, color, fixed location of the device, etc. The data type can be any type. Although static, TDengine allows users to add, delete or update tag values at any time. Unlike the collected metric data, the amount of tag data stored does not change over time. ## Data Collection Point -Data Collection Point(DCP) refers to hardware or software that collects metrics based on preset time periods or triggered by events. A data collection point can collect one or multiple metrics, but these metrics are collected at the same time and have the same time stamp. For some complex equipments, there are often multiple data collection points, and the sampling rate of each collection point may be different, and fully independent. For example, for a car, there is a data collection point to collect GPS position metrics, a data collection point to collect engine status metrics, and a data collection point to collect the environment metrics inside the car, so a car has three data collection points. +Data Collection Point (DCP) refers to hardware or software that collects metrics based on preset time periods or triggered by events. A data collection point can collect one or multiple metrics, but these metrics are collected at the same time and have the same time stamp. For some complex equipments, there are often multiple data collection points, and the sampling rate of each collection point may be different, and fully independent. For example, for a car, there could be a data collection point to collect GPS position metrics, a data collection point to collect engine status metrics, and a data collection point to collect the environment metrics inside the car, so in this example the car would have three data collection points. ## Table Since time-series data is most likely to be structured data, TDengine adopts the traditional relational database model to process them with a short learning curve. You need to create a database, create tables, then insert data points and execute queries to explore the data. -To make full use of time-series data characteristics, TDengine adopts a strategy "**One Table for One Data Collection Point**". TDengine requires the user to create a table for each data collection point (DCP) to store collected time-series data. For example, if there are over 10 million smart meters, it means 10 million tables shall be created. For the table above, 4 tables shall be created for devices D1001, D1002, D1003, and D1004 to store the data collected. This design has several benefits: +To make full use of time-series data characteristics, TDengine adopts a strategy of "**One Table for One Data Collection Point**". TDengine requires the user to create a table for each data collection point (DCP) to store collected time-series data. For example, if there are over 10 million smart meters, it means 10 million tables should be created. For the table above, 4 tables should be created for devices D1001, D1002, D1003, and D1004 to store the data collected. This design has several benefits: -1. Since the metric data from different DCP is fully independent, the data source of each DCP is unique, and a table has only one writer. In this way, data points can be written in a lock-free manner, and the writing speed can be greatly improved. +1. Since the metric data from different DCP are fully independent, the data source of each DCP is unique, and a table has only one writer. In this way, data points can be written in a lock-free manner, and the writing speed can be greatly improved. 2. For a DCP, the metric data generated by DCP is ordered by timestamp, so the write operation can be implemented by simple appending, which further greatly improves the data writing speed. 3. The metric data from a DCP is continuously stored in block by block. If you read data for a period of time, it can greatly reduce random read operations and improve read and query performance by orders of magnitude. -4. Inside a data block for a DCP, columnar storage is used, and different compression algorithms are used for different data types. Because the change of the metrics from a DCP is not big in a time range, the compression rate is higher. +4. Inside a data block for a DCP, columnar storage is used, and different compression algorithms are used for different data types. Metrics generally don't vary as significantly between themselves over a time range as compared to other metrics, this allows for a higher compression rate. -If the metric data of multiple DPCs are traditionally written into a single table, due to the uncontrollable network delay, the timing of the data from different DCPs arriving at the server cannot be guaranteed, the writing operation must be protected by locks, and the metric data from one DCP cannot be guaranteed to be continuously stored together. **One table for one data collection point can ensure the best performance of insert and query of a single data collection point to the greatest extent.** +If the metric data of multiple DCPs are traditionally written into a single table, due to the uncontrollable network delay, the timing of the data from different DCPs arriving at the server cannot be guaranteed, the writing operation must be protected by locks, and the metric data from one DCP cannot be guaranteed to be continuously stored together. **One table for one data collection point can ensure the best performance of insert and query of a single data collection point to the greatest extent.** TDengine suggests using DCP ID as the table name (like D1001 in the above table). Each DCP may collect one or multiple metrics (like the current, voltage, phase as above). Each metric has a corresponding column in the table. The data type for a column can be int, float, string and others. In addition, the first column in the table must be a timestamp. TDengine uses the time stamp as the index, and won’t build the index on any metrics stored. Column wise storage is used. @@ -133,27 +133,27 @@ TDengine suggests using DCP ID as the table name (like D1001 in the above table) The design of one table for one data collection point will require a huge number of tables, which is difficult to manage. Furthermore, applications often need to take aggregation operations among DCPs, thus aggregation operations will become complicated. To support aggregation over multiple tables efficiently, the STable(Super Table) concept is introduced by TDengine. -STable is an set for a type of data collection point. A STable contains a set of data collection points (tables) that have the same schema or data structure, but with different static attributes(tags). To describe a STable, in addition to defining the table structure of the metrics, it is also necessary to define the schema of its tags. The data type of tags can be int, float, string, and there can be multiple tags, which can be added, deleted, or modified afterward. If the whole system has N different types of data collection points, N STables need to be established. +STable is a template for a type of data collection point. A STable contains a set of data collection points (tables) that have the same schema or data structure, but with different static attributes (tags). To describe a STable, in addition to defining the table structure of the metrics, it is also necessary to define the schema of its tags. The data type of tags can be int, float, string, and there can be multiple tags, which can be added, deleted, or modified afterward. If the whole system has N different types of data collection points, N STables need to be established. In the design of TDengine, **a table is used to represent a specific data collection point, and STable is used to represent a set of data collection points of the same type**. ## Subtable -When creating a table for a specific data collection point, the user can use a STable as a template and specifies the tag value of this specific DCP to create it. **The table created by using a STable as the template is called subtable** in TDengine system. The difference between regular table and subtable is: +When creating a table for a specific data collection point, the user can use a STable as a template and specifies the tag values of this specific DCP to create it. **The table created by using a STable as the template is called subtable** in TDengine. The difference between regular table and subtable is: 1. Subtable is a table, all SQL commands applied on a regular table can be applied on subtable. -2. Subtable is a table with extension, it has static tags(labels), and these tags can be added, deleted, and updated afterward. But regular table does not have tags. -3. A subtable belongs to only one STable, but a STable may have many subtables. Regular table does not belong to any STable. -4. A regular table could not converted into a subtable, and vice versa. +2. Subtable is a table with extensions, it has static tags (labels), and these tags can be added, deleted, and updated after it is created. But a regular table does not have tags. +3. A subtable belongs to only one STable, but a STable may have many subtables. Regular tables do not belong to a STable. +4. A regular table can not be converted into a subtable, and vice versa. The relationship between a STable and the subtables created based on this STable is as follows: 1. A STable contains multiple subtables with the same metric schema but with different tag values. -2. The schema of metrics or labels cannot be adjusted through subtables, and it can only be changed via STable. Changes to the schema of a STable takes effect immediately for all belonged subtables. +2. The schema of metrics or labels cannot be adjusted through subtables, and it can only be changed via STable. Changes to the schema of a STable takes effect immediately for all associated subtables. 3. STable defines only one template and does not store any data or label information by itself. Therefore, data cannot be written to a STable, only to subtables. -Query can be executed on both table(subtable) and STable. For a query on a STable, TDengine will treat the data in all its subtables as a whole data set for processing. TDengine will first find out the subtables that meet the tag filter conditions, then scan the time-series data of these subtables to perform aggregation operation, which can greatly reduce the data sets to be scanned, thus greatly improving the performance of data aggregation across multiple DCPs. +Queries can be executed on both a table (subtable) and a STable. For a query on a STable, TDengine will treat the data in all its subtables as a whole data set for processing. TDengine will first find the subtables that meet the tag filter conditions, then scan the time-series data of these subtables to perform aggregation operation, which can greatly reduce the data sets to be scanned, thus greatly improving the performance of data aggregation across multiple DCPs. -In TDengine system, it is recommend to use a substable instead of a regular table for a DCP. +In TDengine, it is recommended to use a substable instead of a regular table for a DCP. ## Database @@ -167,4 +167,4 @@ FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) is the full domain name of a specific compute Each node of a TDengine cluster is uniquely identified by an End Point, which consists of an FQDN and a Port, such as h1.tdengine.com:6030. In this way, when the IP changes, we can still use the FQDN to dynamically find the node without changing any configuration of the cluster. In addition, FQDN is used to facilitate unified access to the same cluster from the Intranet and the Internet. -TDengine does not recommend using IP address to access the cluster, which is not good for cluster management. +TDengine does not recommend using an IP address to access the cluster, FQDN is recommended for cluster management.