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 ingested 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 ingestion, 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),   PMAPI(3),   pmiAddInstance(3),    pmiAddMetric(3),    pmiEnd(3),
       pmiErrStr(3),    pmiGetHandle(3),    pmiPutLabel(3),    pmiPutMark(3),    pmiPutResult(3),
       pmiPutText(3), pmiPutValue(3), pmiPutValueHandle(3), pmiSetHostname(3), pmiSetTimezone(3),
       pmiStart(3) and pmiWrite(3).