Windows Performance

Ship your Windows Performance Metrics via Telegraf to your Logit.io Stack

Follow the steps below to send your observability data to Logit.io

Metrics

Configure Telegraf to ship Windows Performance metrics to your Logit.io stacks via Logstash.

Install Integration

Please click on the Install Integration button to configure your stack for this source.

Install Telegraf

This integration allows you to configure a Telegraf agent to send your metrics, in multiple formats, to Logit.io.

Choose the installation method for your operating system:

When you paste the command below into Powershell it will download the Telegraf zip file. Once that is complete, press Enter again and the zip file will be extracted into C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.31.2.

wget https://dl.influxdata.com/telegraf/releases/telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip -UseBasicParsing -OutFile telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip 
Expand-Archive .\telegraf-1.31.2_windows_amd64.zip -DestinationPath 'C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf'

Configure the Telegraf input plugin

The configuration file below is pre-configured to scrape the system metrics from your hosts, add the following code to the configuration file /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf from the previous step.

###############################################################################
# Windows Performance Counters plugin.
# These are the recommended method of monitoring system metrics on windows,
# as the regular system plugins (inputs.cpu, inputs.mem, etc.) rely on WMI,
# which utilize more system resources.
#
# See more configuration examples at:
#   https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/win_perf_counters
[[inputs.win_perf_counters]]
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Processor usage, alternative to native, reports on a per core.
    ObjectName = "Processor"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "% Idle Time",
      "% Interrupt Time",
      "% Privileged Time",
      "% User Time",
      "% Processor Time",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_cpu"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Disk times and queues
    ObjectName = "LogicalDisk"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "% Idle Time",
      "% Disk Time","% Disk Read Time",
      "% Disk Write Time",
      "% User Time",
      "Current Disk Queue Length",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_disk"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    ObjectName = "System"
    Counters = [
      "Context Switches/sec",
      "System Calls/sec",
    ]
    Instances = ["------"]
    Measurement = "win_system"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Example query where the Instance portion must be removed to get data back,
    # such as from the Memory object.
    ObjectName = "Memory"
    Counters = [
      "Available Bytes",
      "Cache Faults/sec",
      "Demand Zero Faults/sec",
      "Page Faults/sec",
      "Pages/sec",
      "Transition Faults/sec",
      "Pool Nonpaged Bytes",
      "Pool Paged Bytes",
    ]
    # Use 6 x - to remove the Instance bit from the query.
    Instances = ["------"]
    Measurement = "win_mem"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false
 
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Example query where the Instance portion must be removed to get data back,
    # such as from the Paging File object.
    ObjectName = "Paging File"
    Counters = [
      "% Usage",
    ]
    Instances = ["_Total"]
    Measurement = "win_swap"

Read more about how to configure data scraping and configuration options for Windows Performance Counters (opens in a new tab)

Configure the output plugin

Once you have generated the configuration file, you need to set up the output plug-in to allow Telegraf to transmit your data to Logit.io in Prometheus format. This can be accomplished by incorporating the following code into your configuration file:

[[outputs.http]]
  url = "https://@metricsUsername:@metricsPassword@@metrics_id-vm.logit.io:@vmAgentPort/api/v1/write"
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"
 
  [outputs.http.headers]
    Content-Type = "application/x-protobuf"
    Content-Encoding = "snappy"

Start Telegraf

From the location where Telegraf was installed (C:\Program Files\InfluxData\telegraf\telegraf-1.31.2) run the program providing the chosen configuration file as a parameter:

.\telegraf.exe --config telegraf-demo.conf

Once Telegraf is running you should see output similar to the following, which confirms the inputs, output and basic configuration the application has been started with: Powershell Telegraf information

View your metrics

Data should now have been sent to your Stack.

View My Data

If you don't see take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

How to diagnose no data in Stack

If you don't see data appearing in your stack after following this integration, take a look at the troubleshooting guide for steps to diagnose and resolve the problem or contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

Telegraf Windows Performance metrics Overview

To effectively monitor and analyze Windows performance metrics in a distributed environment, organizations require a reliable and efficient metrics management solution. Telegraf, an open-source metrics collection agent, is the ideal tool for gathering Windows performance metrics from various sources, including CPU usage, memory consumption, disk I/O, and network traffic.

With its wide range of input plugins, Telegraf empowers organizations to collect diverse Windows performance metrics, such as processor queue length, page file usage, disk read/write speeds, and network packet details. These metrics provide valuable insights into the operational health and efficiency of Windows-based systems, enabling organizations to optimize their infrastructure management processes.

For storing and querying the collected Windows performance metrics, Prometheus, a powerful open-source monitoring and alerting tool, is the preferred choice. Prometheus supports a flexible querying language and graphical visualization capabilities, allowing organizations to gain actionable insights from Windows performance metrics. By configuring Telegraf to output Windows performance metrics in the Prometheus format and setting up Prometheus to scrape the metrics from the Telegraf server, seamless integration is achieved.

This process involves configuring Telegraf to collect Windows performance metrics, formatting them in the Prometheus format, and setting up Prometheus to scrape the metrics from the Telegraf server. Leveraging Prometheus's advanced querying and visualization features, organizations can gain deep insights into system performance, identify potential bottlenecks, and troubleshoot issues effectively.

By leveraging Telegraf to ship Windows performance metrics to Prometheus, organizations establish a reliable and efficient metrics management solution for their distributed environments. This empowers them to monitor system performance, optimize infrastructure management processes, and make data-driven decisions to ensure optimal system health and performance.

If you need any further assistance with shipping your log data to Logit.io we're here to help you get started. Feel free to get in contact with our support team by sending us a message via live chat & we'll be happy to assist.

Windows Windows Services