This package sends metrics to the Graphite monitoring tool which collects, stores, and displays time-series data in real time. The package is written for the open-source statistics and econometrics software (gretl).
Gretl calls through shell commands the unix tool (netcat) -- hence, this package is only working under linux or some other unix system but not Windows.
The package's main function is GretlGraphiteConnector(). The function takes the following arguments:
GretlGraphiteConnector (const string use_case_name "Name of use case to build metric prefixes",
const string identifier[null] "Identifier, e.g. team name",
const string GRAPHITE_HOST_DEV[null] "Server URL for dev-runmode",
const string GRAPHITE_HOST_PRD[null] "Server URL for prd-runmode",
const string INSTANCE_NAME_DEV[null] "Instance name of the dev-runmode",
const string INSTANCE_NAME_PRD[null] "Instance name of the prd-runmode",
const bool dev[0] "Current run mode: 0=prd (default), 1=dev",
const bool netcat[1] "Use netcat: 0=use socket (unsupported), 1=use netcat (default)")
The user can also specify default values for GRAPHITE_HOST_DEV, GRAPHITE_HOST_PRD, INSTANCE_NAME_DEV and INSTANCE_NAME_PRD which are internally set by the defaultGC() function:
function bundle defaultGC (void)
/* Set default property and connection value */
bundle self = null
string self.identifier = "MyTeam"
string self.use_case_name = ""
string self.GRAPHITE_HOST_DEV = "some_server-dev.openshift.foo.com"
string self.GRAPHITE_HOST_PRD = "some_server-prd.openshift.foo.com"
string self.INSTANCE_NAME_DEV = "test"
string self.INSTANCE_NAME_PRD = "prod"
return self
end function
This function simply sends the current Unix time-stamp to Graphite for a given metric name:
function void sendTimestampNow (bundle *self, const string metric_name "name of the metric")
This function allows you to set a metric name, a metric value and a date string. Optionally, the metric can be appended for bulk load:
function void sendWithDate (bundle *self, const string metric_name,
const string metric_value "Value of the metric",
const string send_date "Date string: either Unix timestamp or use the format %Y-%m-%d",
const bool buffer[0] "Append metric to bulk load (default: No)")
clear
set verbose off
# Set working dir
string wd = "/home/at/git/graphite_gretl_connector/src/
# Load the gretl script file
include "@wd/graphite.inp" --force
# Set up the GC struct (in gretl terms aka bundle) with default
# connection settings
string use_case_name = "SomeUseCase"
bundle GC = GraphiteConnector(use_case_name)
# Example 1: Send the current timesampt as the metric
string metric_name = "current_ts_new"
sendTimestampNow(&GC, metric_name)
# Example 2: Set some metric value with some date string
string metric_name = "SomeImportantMetric"
string some_value = "22"
string date_string = sprintf("%d", $now[1])
sendWithDate(&GC, metric_name, some_value, date_string)
# Bulk load data
string metric_name = "bulk"
loop i=1..3 -q
# This is actually just the filling of the buffer
sendWithDate(&GC, metric_name, sprintf("%d", $i^2), sprintf("%d", $now[1]), 1) # use the current timestamp
if i<3
sleep(2) # artifical delay
endif
endloop
buffer = GC.buffer
buffer # Buffer stored
sendBuffer(&GC) # Actual sending of the bulk-load