Understanding and Using Retained Data

Overview

up.time allows you to save some or all of the metrics collected by its monitors. The saved information is called retained data and can be used to generate a Service Metrics report (see the Service Metrics Report section in the up.time User Guide) or a Service Metrics graph (see the Viewing System and Service Information section in the up.time User Guide).

The data that can be retained varies from monitor to monitor. For example, the Windows Service Check monitor can save the Service Status and Response Time metrics; the Exchange monitor can save all Web Mail and SMTP metrics.

You can choose to save retained data by clicking the Retained Data Tracking checkbox on a monitor template.

Configuring Monitors to Retain Data

When configuring a monitor to retain data, in addition to completing the fields on the monitor template, you must also click the Retained Data Tracking checkbox beside the metrics that you want to retain.

The example below shows how to configure a Ping monitor to retain data. However, the steps for configuring other monitors are similar. For more information on configuring monitors, refer to the up.time User Guide.

To configure a Ping monitor to retain data:

1. In the Ping monitor template, select Advanced View from the dropdown list in the top right portion of the template.
2. Complete the monitor information fields.

   To learn about monitor information fields, see the Monitor Identification section in the up.time User Guide.

3. Complete the following fields:
   • Average Round Trip Time
   • Percent Loss
   • Response Time
4. Click the Retained Data Tracking checkbox for any or all of the fields that you completed in step 3, as shown above.
5. Complete the following settings:
   • Timing settings
   • Alert settings
   • Time Period settings
   • Alert Profile settings
   • Action Profile settings
6. Click Finish

Once you have configured a monitor to retain data and it has collected enough data to display a recognizable trend, you can display the retained data in a graph. The length of time you leave the monitor running will depend on how much information is needed for your graph. To generate a meaningful graph, the monitor should collect data for at least several days.

The graph in the following example uses the data collected by the Ping monitor that was configured in the previous section.

To generate a Service Metrics graph for a Ping monitor:

1. In the Global Scan or My Enterprise panel, click the name of the system for which you want to graph retained data.
2. In the Tree panel, click the Services tab and then click Service Metrics.
3. Select the date range for which you want to generate the graph.
4. Select the retained data variables that you want to include in the graph.
5. Click Generate Graph.

A graph appears in a new window.

The Service Metrics report displays the retained data in a line chart. For example, if you have configured a monitor to retain response time data then this report charts any changes in the response time (in milliseconds) that have occurred over the time period that you specified for the report.

For more information on Service Metrics reports, see the Using Reports section in the up.time User Guide.

The following example generates a Service Metrics report for the data collected by the Ping monitor configured above.

To generate a Service Metrics report for a Ping monitor:

1. On the up.time tool bar, click Reports.
2. In the Tree panel, click Service Metrics.
3. Select the desired report options.

   For more information, see the Creating Service Metrics Reports section in the up.time User Guide.

4. Click Go to page 2.
5. In the Current Retained Service Metrics section of the sub panel, select the retained data variables on which you want to report.
6. Select a report generation option. For more information, see the Report Generation Options section in the up.time User Guide.