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;

Python SYNOPSIS

       from pcp import pmi

DESCRIPTION

       The  Performance  Co-Pilot  Log  Import (LOGIMPORT) API is a library (with Perl and Python wrappers) 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),  pmiPutValueHandle(3),  pmiPutText(3),  and/or
          pmiPutLabel(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),  pmiPutText(3),  pmiPutLabel(3),
       pmiSetHostname(3), pmiSetTimezone(3), pmiStart(3) and pmiWrite(3).