# Metrics: inconsistency in output format

**URL:** <https://discourse.sensu.io/t/metrics-inconsistency-in-output-format/2778>\
**Category:** Sensu Go\
**Created:** [December 10, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://discourse.sensu.io/t/metrics-inconsistency-in-output-format/2778 "2021-12-10T21:52:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Florin\_Andrei](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.sensu.io/florin_andrei/32/674_2.png) [@Florin\_Andrei](https://discourse.sensu.io/u/Florin_Andrei)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://discourse.sensu.io/t/metrics-inconsistency-in-output-format/2778/1 "2021-12-10T21:52:13Z")

</div>

I have a bunch of EC2 instances, my initial goal is to collect vital stats from each one of them: CPU usage, RAM usage, disk usage, network traffic. Later I will add GPU usage and other things.

For CPU, RAM, system load and uptime I use this check:

> **[GitHub - sensu/system-check](https://github.com/sensu/system-check)**
>
> Contribute to sensu/system-check development by creating an account on GitHub.

For disk and network I use these plugins:

> **[GitHub - sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-disk-checks: This plugin provides native...](https://github.com/sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-disk-checks)**
>
> This plugin provides native disk instrumentation for monitoring and metrics collection, including: health, usage, and various metrics. - GitHub - sensu-plugins/sensu-p...

> **[GitHub - sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-network-checks: This plugin provides...](https://github.com/sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-network-checks)**
>
> This plugin provides native network instrumentation for monitoring and metrics collection, including: hardware, TCP response, RBLs, whois...

I use the scripts `metrics-disk-usage.rb` and `metrics-interface.rb` respectively.

The `output_metric_handler` for all is InfluxDB. I may switch to a different type of handler later.

The problem is - the output format for all these metric collectors is very different. I get very different table structures in InfluxDB.

When I do `show measurements` in InfluxDB, I see `system-check` puts the names of the metrics at the top:

```auto
system_cpu_cores
system_cpu_guest
system_cpu_guest_nice
system_cpu_idle
system_cpu_iowait
system_cpu_irq

```

And then within each metric I get this structure:

```auto
name: system_cpu_idle
time cluster cpu prom_type sensu_entity_name value
---- ------- --- --------- ----------------- -----
1639172694000000000 sensu cpu-total gauge sensu-01 94.94949494969292
1639172694000000000 sensu cpu-total gauge sensu-02 94.39728353120111
1639172694000000000 sensu cpu-total gauge sensu-03 93.7605396281559

```

But the other two plugins create a very different structure. The hostname is the name of the measurement in Influx. And then all metrics are just columns in there:

```auto
> select * from "sensu-01" limit 2
name: sensu-01
time cluster disk_usage.root.avail disk_usage.root.dev.avail disk_usage.root.dev.used disk_usage.root.dev.used_percentage disk_usage.root.run.avail disk_usage.root.run.used disk_usage.root.run.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.amazon-ssm-agent.4046.avail disk_usage.root.snap.amazon-ssm-agent.4046.used disk_usage.root.snap.amazon-ssm-agent.4046.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2128.avail disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2128.used disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2128.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2253.avail disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2253.used disk_usage.root.snap.core18.2253.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1242.avail disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1242.used disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1242.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1270.avail disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1270.used disk_usage.root.snap.core20.1270.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21545.avail disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21545.used disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21545.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21835.avail disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21835.used disk_usage.root.snap.lxd.21835.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14066.avail disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14066.used disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14066.used_percentage disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14295.avail disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14295.used disk_usage.root.snap.snapd.14295.used_percentage disk_usage.root.used disk_usage.root.used_percentage interface.eth0.rxBytes interface.eth0.rxCompressed interface.eth0.rxDrops interface.eth0.rxErrors interface.eth0.rxFifo interface.eth0.rxFrame interface.eth0.rxMulticast interface.eth0.rxPackets interface.eth0.txBytes interface.eth0.txCarrier interface.eth0.txColls interface.eth0.txCompressed interface.eth0.txDrops interface.eth0.txErrors interface.eth0.txFifo interface.eth0.txPackets interface.lo.rxBytes interface.lo.rxCompressed interface.lo.rxDrops interface.lo.rxErrors interface.lo.rxFifo interface.lo.rxFrame interface.lo.rxMulticast interface.lo.rxPackets interface.lo.txBytes interface.lo.txCarrier interface.lo.txColls interface.lo.txCompressed interface.lo.txDrops interface.lo.txErrors interface.lo.txFifo interface.lo.txPackets sensu_entity_name
---- ------- --------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------- ------------------------------- ---------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------- ----------------------- --------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------- ----------------------- --------------------- ------------------------ -------------------- ------------------------- -------------------- --------------------- ------------------- -------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------- -------------------- ---------------------- -------------------- ------------------------- -------------------- --------------------- ------------------- ---------------------- -----------------
1639170172000000000 sensu 90482 1956 0 0 392 1 1 0 25 100 0 56 100 0 56 100 0 62 100 0 62 100 0 68 100 0 68 100 0 43 100 0 44 100 8706 9 sensu-01
1639170179000000000 sensu 90482 1956 0 0 392 1 1 0 25 100 0 56 100 0 56 100 0 62 100 0 62 100 0 68 100 0 68 100 0 43 100 0 44 100 8706 9 sensu-01

```

This introduces unnecessary complexity when parsing out that data, e.g. in Grafana.

What’s the best way to avoid this? Should I drop `system-check` and use Ruby plugins from the `sensu-plugins` repo? The documentation seems to imply that `system-check` is somehow preferred - but it’s just not consistent with everything else.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Florin\_Andrei](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.sensu.io/florin_andrei/32/674_2.png) [@Florin\_Andrei](https://discourse.sensu.io/u/Florin_Andrei)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://discourse.sensu.io/t/metrics-inconsistency-in-output-format/2778/2 "2021-12-11T03:23:00Z")

</div>

I solved the problem by using old-style Ruby plugins everywhere, and using --strip-host with the InfluxDB handler. Now everything has the same structure.