Kibana: Timelion "auto" interval doesn't work with default Metricbeat settings

[tsg]

Kibana version: 5.1.1
Elasticsearch version: 5.1.1
Server OS version: macOS
Browser version:Chrome
Browser OS version:54
Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.):download page
Description of the problem including expected versus actual behavior:

With the default settings of Metricbeat and Kibana/Timelion, the charts for a simple metric are empty. Metricbeat data comes by default every 10s, and it looks like the "auto" interval picked up by Timelion for the default 15m span doesn't work well with that.

IMO, the fact that on the wrong interval the chart is empty without any other error is at least an usability issue.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start metricbeat with the default settings on your computer
2. Open timelion, with the default 15m time span and "auto" interval, enter: .es(metric='avg:system.network.in.bytes')
3. An empty chart shows up:

1. If you add points() to the expression, then it works, and you can see that the data is there:

1. Also if you change the interval to 10s or 1m, it works:

cc @monicasarbu @ruflin

[tbragin]

@ppisljar @rashidkpc do you guys have thoughts on how this might be addressed?

[dzepp2020]

I am using 5.4.1 and this is still and issue. I also noticed that using using "auto" as a panel option when in Visual Builder causes similar problems - just doesn't work.

[dzepp2020]

Sorry but I believe my issue is different. I was having an issue graphing a derivative ... I had to tweak the scale_interval (settled on 5m) to ensure it would render correctly when I dropped it into a Kibana dashboard.

[rajamadhavan]

I am observing the same issue. For shorter time range like 15 min, "auto" interval makes timelion to send elasticsearch requests with 1 sec interval("interval": "1s"). This results in timelion getting loads of null values in response from ES since my index gets data only every 3 min. I find other kibana visualizations using 30 secs interval while sending queries to ES when set to "Auto" for 15 min time range.

[horacejin0903]

I am aslo hit the same issue. i am using Kibana 5.5.2. Is there any plan to fix it ? @tbragin

[kevin86713]

I am aslo hit the same issue.I'm using Kibana 5.4.1