NAME

       LOGIMPORT - introduction to the library for importing data and creating a PCP archive

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>
       #include <pcp/import.h>

       cc ... -lpcp_import -lpcp

Perl SYNOPSIS

       use PCP::LogImport;

DESCRIPTION

       The  Performance  Co-Pilot  Log  Import (LOGIMPORT) API is a library (and Perl wrapper) that supports the
       creation of PCP archives from external sources of performance data, either in the form of historical logs
       and  spreadsheets or from real-time sources that are not integrated as a Performance Metrics Domain Agent
       (PMDA) under the control of pmcd(1).

       The typical usage for LOGIMPORT would involve:

       •  An initial call to pmiStart(3).

       •  Optional calls to pmiSetHostname(3) and/or pmiSetTimezone(3) to set the hostname and timezone for  the
          source of the performance data.

       •  One or more calls to pmiAddMetric(3) to define performance metrics.

       •  One or more calls to pmiAddInstance(3) to define instances associated with the metrics.

       •  Optional calls to pmiGetHandle(3) to defined convenience handles for metric-instance pairs.

       •  A  main  loop in which performance data is injested and for each sample time interval, the PCP archive
          record is constructed by calls to pmiPutValue(3) and/or pmiPutValueHandle(3), followed by  a  call  to
          pmiWrite(3)  to  flush  all  data  and any associated new metadata to the PCP archive.  Alternatively,
          pmiPutResult(3) could be used to package and process all the data for one sample time interval.

       •  Once the input source of data has been  consumed,  calling  pmiEnd(3)  to  complete  the  PCP  archive
          creation and close all open files.

       If  new  metrics  and/or  instances  are  discovered  during  the  data  injestion, these can be added by
       subsequent calls to pmiAddMetric(3) and/or pmiAddInstance(3), provided all the metrics and instances have
       been  defined  before  a  call to pmiGetHandle(3), pmiPutValue(3)or pmiPutResult(3) that references those
       metrics and instances.

SEE ALSO

       pmcd(1),  pmlogger(1),  pmiGetHandle(3),  pmiAddInstance(3),  pmiAddMetric(3),  pmiEnd(3),  pmiErrStr(3),
       pmiPutMark(3),      pmiPutResult(3),     pmiPutValue(3),     pmiPutValueHandle(3),     pmiSetHostname(3),
       pmiSetTimezone(3), pmiStart(3) and pmiWrite(3).