vCO - get performance data from VM & build graph

Retrieving performance data from an entity is a little bit complex not only because of the nested parameters. To reduce code and make it easier for starters to step in, we just grab the average CPU in MHz from a VM about the last hour and build a graph like this:

For this example the code is placed in one scriptable task. For production purpose it is mor sensible to split it in several actions & workflows.

• Input Parameter: VM [VcVirtualMachine]

Part I - retrieve performance data

setting interval:

var end = new Date(); // now
var start = new Date();
start.setTime(end.getTime() - 3600000); // 1h before end
System.log (end.toUTCString());
System.log (start.toUTCString());

Look at the logged time stamps. They are in UTC and later on also in graph. If you want to adjust this to client time, you have to recalc the time stamp for CSV using Date.getTimezoneOffset().

create querySpec (here for only one VM)

var querySpec = new Array();
querySpec.push(new VcPerfQuerySpec());
querySpec[0].entity = VM.reference;
querySpec[0].startTime = start;
querySpec[0].endTime = end;
querySpec[0].intervalId = 20; //or use 300 for 5 minute stepping

create perfMetricId for one metric (CPU average in MHz) and call perfManager

var PM = new VcPerfMetricId();
PM.counterId = 6; //6 = cpu.usagemhz.average
PM.instance = ""; // no instances
var arrPM = new Array();
arrPM.push(PM);
querySpec[0].metricId = arrPM; //assign PerfMetric to querySpec
querySpec[0].format = "csv";

var CSVs = VM.sdkConnection.perfManager.queryPerf(querySpec);

Now the array CSVs contains one VcPerfEntityMetricCSV object - we only called one - nevertheless i will iterate over CSVs so you can reuse the code

Part II - join data and time stamps in a CSV file

for (i in CSVs)
{
    var CSV = CSVs[i];
    var Temp = CSV.sampleInfoCSV.split(",");
    var Sample = Array();
    for (j in Temp)
    {
        if (j % 2 != 0)
        //only use odd entries, they contain the sample time - even ones contain interval
        {
            Sample.push(Temp[j]);
        }
    }
    var Values = CSV.value[0].value.split(","); // the MHz values

    var BaseName = "C:/Test/" + workflow.id;
    var CSVname = BaseName + ".csv";
    var ControlName = BaseName +  ".control";
    var PNGname = BaseName + ".png";
    var FW = new FileWriter(CSVname);
    FW.open();
    FW.lineEndType = 1;
    for (j in Sample)
    {
           FW.writeLine(Sample[j] + "," + Values[j]);
    }
    FW.close;

Using workflow.id to build the file names makes them individual. So you can call the workflow parallel without having duplicate file names.

Part III - generate graph

To do this there are some requirements:

• enable local execution for vCO
• download gnuplot and unzip - in this example it is unzipped to C:\test\gnuplot

First we have to build the control file for gnuplot for manipulate graph rendering. I've changed only some basic parameter - if you are familiar with gnuplot, just add more parameters to get a better look. At the end we just call gnuplot with our control file.
Pay attention on the single quotation marks. We have to mix them up to get the double ones in control file.

    var FW = new FileWriter (ControlName);
    FW.open();
    FW.lineEndType = 1;
    FW.writeLine ('set datafile separator ","');
    FW.writeLine ('unset key');
    FW.writeLine ('set title "performance data ' + VM.id + ' [' + VM.name + ']' + '"');
    FW.writeLine ("set terminal png");
    FW.writeLine ('set output "' + PNGname + '"');
    FW.writeLine ("set xdata time");
    FW.writeLine ('set timefmt "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"');
    FW.writeLine ('set format x "%H:%M:%S"');
    FW.writeLine ("set xtics rotate");
    FW.writeLine ('set ylabel "MHz"');
    FW.writeLine ('plot "' + CSVname + '" using 1:2 wi li');
    FW.writeLine ("quit");
    FW.close;
    var cmd = "cmd.exe /c C:\\Test\\gnuplot\\binary\\gnuplot.exe " + ControlName;
    System.log (cmd);
    var CMD = new Command(cmd) ;
    var Result = CMD.execute(true);
    System.log ("GNUplot: " + Result);
}

That's all - feel free to leave a comment - regards, Andreas