Understanding perf_counter

[graffic]

Hello everybody.

I'd like check with the community if my understanding of how a perf_counter works is correct.

• perf_counters are added to the collector only if they have an interval time.
• If a perf_counter doesn't have an interval time or it's one, the agent will just ask for the value without any intermediate collection.
• perf_counters are added to the collector only once for passive and active checks.
• There is only one collector thread per agent.

If this is correct, it seems that perf_counters work more efficiently as active measurements.

Is this correct? Do you have any other recommendations?

Thanks

[bbrendon]

I've been wondering what a good interval is for some perf counters. I've noticed it doesn't make sense for some, but for counters that are intermittently spiky (where the value is between 0 and many), the chance you get a value back when using a one second interval is rare.

I haven't dug into this deeper, but it appears seems some determining factors for picking a correct interval would be metric specific and specific to how often the zabbix collection interval is as well.