Creating a Custom Metric Family › Understanding the Metric Family XML Structure › Basic Properties

Basic Properties

The basic properties of your custom metric family help to distinguish it from other custom metric families you create.

Consider the following restrictions when you determine basic properties:

• The FacetType/name, DisplayName, and TableName properties must be unique for each metric family.
• The Protocol tag is always IMDB.
• The Normalized tag is always true.
• Set the FacetType/descriptorClass property and all DataModel and FacetOf properties.

FacetType/name

Specifies the metric family name. For each metric family, the name must be a unique name that identifies it internally within the system. Carefully choose a name with a minimal possibility of naming conflicts with future similar metric families. For example, define a naming scheme that helps ensure that these metric family names are unique.

Note: This name is never exposed externally. To display a metric family name in the user interface, use the DisplayName element.

Can be updated: No

Possible values: Alphanumeric and underscore. Dot and dash are not permitted. Must be unique across all metric families.

DisplayName

Specifies the metric family name that displays in the user interface.

Can be updated: Yes

Possible values: Plain text. Must be unique across all metric families.

Effect of updating: Change to the name in the administrator user interface.

When does the update take effect: Immediately

Required actions for updates to take effect: Refresh the user interface.

Documentation

Specifies the external description for the metric family. To help make these comments useful, we recommend that you describe why and when you added or changed the metric family.

Can be updated: Yes

Possible values: Plain text

Effect of updating: None

TableName

Specifies the database table name that is used to store the metrics that the metric family collects.

Can be updated: Yes

Possible values: Uppercase alphanumeric and underscore. Must begin with a letter. Must be unique across all metric families.

Example: PROCESS_STATS

Effect of updating: Poll data is stored in a new set of database tables.

Important! When you update the TableName, the old poll data is lost. Old report views are broken.

When does the update take effect: Immediately. Before new views can be created, there is a delay of up to 5 minutes while CA Performance Center loads the new MIB files.

Required actions for updates to take effect: Views must be recreated.