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[[ml-buckets]]
=== Buckets

The {xpackml} features use the concept of a bucket to divide the time
series into batches for processing. The _bucket span_ is part of the
configuration information for a job. It defines the time interval that is used
to summarize and model the data. This is typically between 5 minutes to 1 hour
and it depends on your data characteristics. When you set the bucket span,
take into account the granularity at which you want to analyze, the frequency
of the input data, the typical duration of the anomalies, and the frequency at
which alerting is required.