Carbonator Service

A simple Windows Service that collects Performance Counters and reports metrics to a Graphite server.

See releases for change log/version history.

Compiling

Via command-line (CMD or PowerShell)

[Skip 1-3 if you already have nuget installed]

1. Carbonator uses nuget package manager for log4net and any future external packages
2. If you don't have nuget, see https://docs.nuget.org/consume/installing-nuget (command line utility)
3. Install nuget above and add path to nuget.exe to your PATH environment variable
4. Start your command prompt/powershell in directory where Carbonator.sln is located
5. Run nuget restore Carbonator.sln to restore packages
6. Run build.cmd to compile Carbonator
7. The binaries should be present in Carbonator\bin\Release directory

Via Visual Studio (2013/2015/CE)

1. Open Carbonator.sln
2. Build Solution (F6)
3. The binaries should be present in Carbonator\bin\Release directory

Installation

Copy binaries to a directory you want application to run from. (e.g. C:\Program Files\Carbonator)

Note: if you intend to run Carbonator as a service, do not install it within a user profile directory (e.g. C:\Users\<username>\...)

Console Mode

This mode is useful if you want to try out configuration first and see metrics reported.

Run Crypton.Carbonator.exe --console --verbose from Windows command line (or PowerShell).

Windows Service Mode

1. Run install-service.cmd to install Carbonator Windows Service. (Run as administrator from the directory that contains Carbonator binaries).
2. Run net start carbonator to start Carbonator service, or use Services console (services.msc)

Carbonator uses NETWORK SERVICE Windows NT account.

Configuration

Carbonator configuration is contained within the Crypton.Carbonator.exe.config XML file.

You will need to adjust /configuration/carbonator/graphite XML element settings to wherever your Graphite server is and port (if different).

The /configuration/carbonator/counters list can be used to select which performance counters are monitored and reported. You can use Windows Performance Monitor perfmon.msc to determine which counters you may be interested (and which are available).

The configuration for each performance counter element is self explanatory:

• path = the Graphite/Carbon metric path that will be reported. You can use %HOST% special string in the path setting which will be replaced with the name of the current computer when metric is reported. Use %host% to force the hostname in lowercase.
• category = Performance Counter category
• counter = Performance Counter name
• instance = Performance Counter instance, needed by certain counters such as Processor (_Total to represent overall CPU usage or by specific CPU instead). For counters that do not have an instance, leave this attribute empty or remove it entirely.

Some sample performance counters are provided in default configuration file.

You may need to adjust defaultCulture attribute if your Windows installation is localized differently since performance counter names will be translated.

It may be necessary to add NETWORK SERVICE (or another user account Carbonator is running as) to Performance Log Users group or certain counters may not load or report zero for all values.

Miscellaneous

Carbonator will report errors in Windows Event Log (Application) under carbonator event source.

Default counter sampling is every 1000ms, with reports going out every 5000ms. Pickle protocol is not used, metrics are reported individually as-is.

Carbonator is licensed under MIT License.