[collectd] Using an output plugin to produce CSV files usable by Windows Performance Monitor

[Sebastian Harl]

Hi again,

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 04:49:29PM +0100, Florian Forster wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 04:30:19PM +0100, Sebastian Harl wrote:
> >   <Plugin "text"> # I couldn't come up with a better name yet ;-)
> 
> I think `output_text' or something like that would be more intuitive ;)

Agreed ;-)

.oO( AFV - arbitrarily formatted values ... ;-))

> >     BaseDir "/var/lib/collectd/text"
> >     FileName "%h/%p-%i/%t-%j-%Y-%M-%D.txt"
> >     Header "epoch;%n"
> >     Content "%e;%v\n"
> >     ValueSeparator ","
> >     Rotation daily
> 
>       CounterFormat "counter: %llu"
>       GaugeFormat "!%10g!"
>     -- or --
>       ConvertToRate true
>       ValueFormat "%g"

Good point!

Instead of using 'ValueFormat' in the latter case, 'GaugeFormat' could
be used for that as well - I'm not sure which version might be more
intuitive to the user ...

> >  * BaseDir: Self-explanatory. The base directory for all files, just
> >    like in the csv and rrdtool plugins.
> 
> Actually, `csv' and `rrdtool' use ``DataDir'' ;)

Oops, right - that's what I meant ;-)

> >  * FileName: Name of the file to be created for a dispatched value list
> 
> >  * Rotation: When to start a new file, like "hourly", "daily",
> >    "monthly", "yearly", "never", ...
> 
> Why do you think we need both, date and time components as placehold in
> the filename and rotation?

Well, the rotation could also be "calculated" from the placeholders
within the filename. However, I could imagine that providing both
options might be slightly more powerful - e.g. one could automatically
overwrite old values that way or something like that (I'm sure, some
user might come up with crazy use cases ... ;-)). OTOH, that's somewhat
more error prone ...

> > ... and, at least, the following placeholders:
> > 
> >  * %h: hostname
> 
> I'd be in favor of more descriptive placeholders, such as %{host} or
> %{ds_values}. Those placeholders are used in the `notification' target,
> for example. The short placeholders, such as %Y could then be used for
> strftime(3).

Ack! Thinking about it again, it would make sense to provide generic
placeholders for any time-related values (like %{epoch} or %{date}) and
then specify a strftime() format string for each of those placeholders.

> > Frankly, my idea sounds rather crazy (even to myself) and I'm not sure
> > if it will be useful to anybody else - however, I'd be really powerful
> > ... ;-)
> 
> Maybe I lost touch with reality again, but why's that crazy? Sounds
> perfectly reasonable to me ;)

Well, I don't expect a lot of users using a plugin like that, so it
might not be worth the effort. OTOH, history has actually proven me
wrong already ... ;-)

Cheers,
Sebastian

-- 
Sebastian "tokkee" Harl +++ GnuPG-ID: 0x8501C7FC +++ http://tokkee.org/

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.         -- Benjamin Franklin

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