IBM Cloud Docs
Metrics Usage

Metrics Usage

The Metrics Usage function in IBM Cloud® Monitoring helps you understand how metrics are used in your IBM Cloud Monitoring environment.

With Metrics Usage, you can:

  • Get a comprehensive view of the number of time series (cardinality) that your IBM Cloud Monitoring instance is ingesting.

    This information, coupled with the ability to search for a metric within your entire infrastructure or within a scope, lets you quickly access the time series information you need when you need it.

  • Obtain the time series count for each metric and an overview of the time series ingested in the last 20 minutes.

    This functionality gives you valuable data regarding metric influx.

  • Download time series per metric count as a CSV or JSON file.

    This provides a tangible, offline reference point that can be helpful in trend identification and reporting.

  • Discover which dashboards and alerts are using a given metric.

To access Metrics Usage, click Explore > Metrics Usage in the IBM Cloud Monitoring UI.

Searching for Metrics

In the Metrics Usage section, open the infrastructure filtering menu and select the infrastructure object you want to search. You can use filtering to limit the data to what you need.

Searching for a metric

In the Search field, enter the full (such as container_cpu_usage_seconds_total) or partial (such as container_cpu) metric name. The metric list and panels will be updated to show the metrics that match your search criteria.

Searching for a single metric
Searching for a single metric

Searching by a source

Select one or more sources from the All sources drop-down to filter metrics coming from different sources (platform metrics, agent, prometheus_remote_write).

Search by source
Search by source

Searching by jobs

Select one or more jobs from the All jobs drop-down to filter all the metrics scraped by that job.

Search by jobs
Search by jobs

Viewing metrics details

Select any metric from the Metrics Usage list to access additional information and actions in the slider window. The details and actions available will vary from metric to metric.

The slider has four sections:

Overview

In the Overview section, you find:

  • Job: Name of the job used to collect this metric.
  • Source: The source of this metric, such as agent, prometheus_remote_write, or aws.
  • Type: Specifies if the metric is a counter or a gauge. See Metric Types.
  • Unit: The unit of the metric, such as number, relativeTime and Kilobyte.
  • Description: A short description of the metric.
  • Manage Integrations: If the metric originates from an IBM Cloud Monitoring integration. This link lets you view and manage the integration.
  • Disable Metric: If the metric is a custom_metric reported by an IBM Cloud Monitoring integration, you manually disable the integration to stop associated metrics from being reported. To re-enable the metric, see Monitoring Integrations.
  • Cardinality: The number of time series associated with a single metric. Cardinality is shown across periods of five minutes, twenty minutes, and two hours.
  • Open in Metrics Explorer: Takes you to the Metrics Explorer, where you can further explore this metric in the context of other metrics.
  • Open in PromQL Query: Takes you to the PromQL Query Explorer, where you can craft complex PromQL queries.
Labels

The Labels section features the Label Usage panel. This panel takes account of the active grouping and scope, and enables you to have a deeper understanding of which labels are part of a selected metric and the metric's estimated cardinality.

Labels are listed in descending order of their estimated count. Hover over a label to reveal three actions:

  • Label Values Preview: A preview of label values.
  • Open in Metrics Explorer: Takes you to Metrics Explorer where you can further explore this metric and label combination over time.
  • Open in PromQL Query: Takes you to the PromQL Query where you can further explore this metric and label combination over time.
Dashboards

The Dashboards section lets you explore which dashboards are using the selected metric. Results are presented in four categories:

  • Dashboards in current Team: The dashboards that are currently accessible and visible to the current team.
  • Dashboard Library: The read-only dashboards available in the library.
  • Dashboards in other Teams: The dashboards that are created by other teams but are not shared with the current team.
  • Other dashboards: The dashboards that are created privately by other users or created by the teams that you are not a part of.
Alerts

The Alerts section lets you explore which alerts are using the selected metric. Results are presented in three categories:

  • Alerts in current Team: The alerts that are currently accessible and visible to the current active team.
  • Alerts in other Teams: The alerts created by other teams.
  • Other alerts: The alerts created by the teams that you are not a part of.

Exporting metrics usage data

To export metrics usage data to CSV or JSON format for further processing:

  1. Log in to IBM Cloud Monitoring, and select Explore > Metrics Usage.

  2. Click Export all results at the bottom of the Metrics Usage table.

    A wizard will appear.

  3. Select your preferred Format: JSON or CSV, and enter a File name.

  4. Click Export.