CaptiveScript

As Image 1 shows, CaptiveScript is coming along nicely as well. CaptiveScript is a parser and execution engine for a very simple scripting language used for generating command-line utilities and graphs. The graphs in the image above show the individual CPU utilization of multiple hosts and one graph showing the utilization, side-by-side, of all of the hosts. The invocation was

CaptiveScript -h deque,black,st-louis,elrancho,shark gcpus.cs

The simple script that generates this follows.

# CaptiveScript version 1

version 1

# the % Busy metric

var busy

  unix "\Global CPU Metrics\Percent Processor Time"

  windows "\Processor\% Processor Time[_Total]"

  force double

endvar

# the % Idle metric

var idle

  unix "\Global CPU Metrics\Percent Idle Time"

  windows "\Processor\% Idle Time[_Total]"

  force double

endvar

var wait

  unix "\Global CPU Metrics\Percent Wait Time"

# windows -- no wait time in windows

  force double

endvar

# a stacked area graph of utilization, one per host

area per-host cpu

  stacked

  title "$host ($os)"

  points 20

  @busy width=1 color=255,0,0

  @idle width=1 color=0,255,0

  @wait width=1 color=0,0,255

endarea

# a line graph of utilization, for all hosts

line all util

  title "CPU Utilization"

  points 20

  @busy width=3

endline

# open a frame with 2 columns graphing cpu use of all hosts

# individually and the last graph showing utilization of

# all hosts side-by-side

graph columns=2 cpu util

The syntax of the language may change and the looks of the GUI will definitely change before product release. CaptiveScript will be part of the v1.3 release of XE.

CaptiveMonitor

Image 2 shows the XE version of the Perfmon application of Windows. CaptiveMonitor presents a tabbed view of multiple data sets and also has the ability to open multiple windows. In addition to displaying performance metrics sets in either a line, bar or area graph, CaptiveMonitor can also weigh values against threshold values and display either a green, yellow or red state in the table view.

Counters can be loaded from a text file containing counter definitions or the entire state of the application can be saved as a profile, just as the Top application does. CaptiveMonitor also integrates with CaptiveScript. Once a set of counters has been selected for display, CaptiveMonitor can build a CaptiveScript input file using those counters. The script can be either a command line utility or a graphing utility.

Sets of counter data can also be saved in a comma separated values file (csv) for loading into spreadsheet applications. The data can then be graphed further, inserted into a report or analyzed by statistical packages.

CaptiveMonitor will be a separate product and will be available from the Captive Metrics web site www.captivemetrics.com.