Custom Metrics

Custom Metrics are enabled by Windows plugins. There are two types of Windows plugins: Read (which allow our Windows agent to read data) and Write (which allow our Windows agent to write data). The following plugins are enabled by default:

• ReadWindowsPerfCounters
• ReadWindowsAttributes
• ReadWindowsEvents
• WriteNetuitive

This configuration is recommended for monitoring a Windows server with CloudWisdom. Other Read/Write plugins are available as documented below (note that the Write Console plugin has no configuration settings).

Enable/Disable

To change which plugins are enabled, edit the CollectdWin.config file.

Read Windows Performance Metrics plugin

This plugin uses the Windows Performance Count component to collect configured metrics. Each performance counter can be mapped to its Collectd equivalent metadata via configuration.

1. Open the Add Counters window

1. Open perfmon (Performance Monitor) on your computer.
2. Click Performance Monitor in the Monitoring Tools folder. A graph generates.
3. Click Add above the graph. An “Add Counters” window opens. Leave the window open.

2. Prepare a new Counter

1. Navigate to the ReadWindowsPerfCounters file (C:\Program Files\CollectdWin\config) and open it.
2. Optionally, at the top of the file but below the tag, place a comment to section off your new custom category of counters. <!-- CustomCategoryName -->
3. Add a blank Counter tag template:

<Counter
  Category=""
  Name=""
  Instance=""
  CollectdPlugin=""
    CollectdType=""
    CollectdTypeInstance=""
/>

Values

Value	Required/Optional	Description
ReloadInterval	Required	The period in seconds before rescanning for new/changed instances (defaults to 3600). This is configured once in the ReadWindowsPerfCounters element.
Category	Required	The name of the performance counter category.
Name	Required	Comma-separated performance counter names.
Instance	Required	This can be set to a specific instance or a regular expression to filter the instances. Some counter categories do not have instances; in this case, this field should be left blank.
CollectdPlugin	Required	Collectd plugin name.
CollectdPluginInstance	Required	Where the configuration is for a single instance, this value can be used to override the instance name. Where there are multiple instances, this value is automatically set for each instance.
CollectdType	Required	Metric type and units. This must be a value in types.db, which can be found in the deployment folder.
CollectdTypeInstance	Required	Name for the metric instance.
Multiplier	Optional	Float scale factor to be applied to the value.
DecimalPlaces	Optional	Integer number of decimal places for rounding.

3. Fill in Counter information

1. Follow the diagram below to fill out the Category, Name, and Instance fields (case sensitive) in the blank counter template you added in step 2.3. The picture outlines the expanded Processor counter category.

2. Navigate to the types.db file (C:\Program Files\CollectdWin) and open it.

3. Use your best judgment to match a type in types.db to the category you selected in step 3.1. Input the type (case sensitive) you wish to use into the CollectdType field.

4. Create a metric category for the CollectdPlugin field. This category displays in the Metrics tree and search field (squared in green).

5. Create a metric name using the** CollectdTypeInstance** field. This field is used as the metric’s name in CloudWisdom, but be sure to make it entirely unique.

6. Save the ReadWindowsPerfCounters file.

About Categories

Not all categories have instances available. In the above example, the instances correlate to the processor’s cores, where _Total would calculate the metric selected for all four cores. Options you can use for the Instance field:

• “” for no specific instances.
• _Total for an aggregate of all instances.
• .* to make a branch for each instance.
• {specific_instance_name} for only a specific instance.

Read Windows Event plugin

This plugin reads from the Windows event logs on the server the agent is installed. The WriteNetuitive plugin will process the values it collects, but no other write plugins are able to do so.

1. Navigate to the ReadWindowsEvents.config file.
2. Add as many entries as you desire using the table below:

Value	Required/Optional	Description
Title	Required	A descriptive title for the events captured by this configuration entry. This is shown as the event title in CloudWisdom.
Log	Required	The windows log (e.g., Application, System, Security).
Source	Required	The source of the event (this is the source field in the event viewer). This value can be left blank for any source.
MinLevel	Optional	The minimum log level to collect. Defaults to 1. Possible values (in order): 1 = critical, 2 = error, 3 = warning (warn), 4 = information, and 5 = verbose.
MaxLevel	Required	The maximum log level to collect. Offers the same levels as the MinLevel setting. Set to the same value as MinLevel to restrict to just one level.
MinEventId	Optional	The minimum event ID to collect between 0 and 65535. Defaults to 0.
MaxEventId	Optional	The maximum event ID to collect between 0 and 65535. Defaults to 65535. Set to the same as MinEventId to restrict collection to a single event.
FilterExp	Optional	A regular expression applied to the log message. Messages that do not match are disregarded.

• Here’s a default entry in the ReadWindowsEvents.config file:

<Event Title="Error 99 occurred in MyApp"
Log="Application" Source="MyApp"
MinLevel="2" MaxLevel="2" MinEventId="99"
MaxEventId="99" />

3. Save the file.

Read Windows Attribute plugin

This plugin reads non-numeric attributes of the server. The WriteNetuitive plugin will process the values it collects, but no other write plugins are able to do so. Three attributes are available by default:

Name	Description
os	The operating system version.
cpus	The number of CPUs.
ram bytes	Total system RAM.

If the server is hosted on an AWS EC2 and the ReadEC2InstanceMetadata attribute on the ReadWindowsAttributes element is set to true, the plugin will read metadata from the host EC2 instance as attributes (e.g., instanceId, instanceType, etc.) and also record the relationship between the two elements in CloudWisdom.

Any environment variable can be read as an attribute by adding it to the configuration section:

1. Navigate to the ReadWindowsAttributes.config file.
2. Following the format of the other available attributes, add as many attributes as you desire.

<EnvironmentVariable Name="architecture"
Value="PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE"/>

3. Save the file.

Write Netuitive plugin

This plugin is already configured to send all data gathered by the read plugins to CloudWisdom via its REST API in step 2 of the installation instructions. The following are additional, advanced settings that should only be changed in discussion with Virtana support.

Name	Description
Url	CloudWisdom ingest API URL.
PayloadSize	(Optional) The number of metrics that are batched into a single POST. Set to -1 to send all metrics at once; the default is 25.
Location	(Optional) Sets element location attribute.
Type	(Optional) Overrides the element type in CloudWisdom; the default is WINSRV.

Configure

1. Navigate to the WriteNetuitive.config file.
2. Add any of the optional configuration attributes to the line in the file.

Example with API Key

<WriteNetuitive
 Url="https://api.us.cloudwisdom.virtana.com/ingest/windows/de2b497468d863accb9c402dfff22689"/>

3. Save the file.