System Core

Docs > Integrations > System Core

Supported OS Linux Mac OS Windows

Integration version4.0.0

System Core

Overview

This check collects the number of CPU cores on a host and CPU times, such as system, user, idle, etc.

Setup

Installation

The System Core check is included in the Datadog Agent package. No additional installation is needed on your server.

Configuration

Edit the system_core.d/conf.yaml file in the conf.d/ folder at the root of your Agent’s configuration directory. See the sample system_core.d/conf.yaml for all available configuration options. Note: At least one entry is required under instances to enable the check, for example:
```
init_config:

instances:
  - foo: bar
```
Restart the Agent.

Validation

Run the Agent’s status subcommand and look for system_core under the Checks section.

Data Collected

Metrics


system.core.count (gauge)	The number of CPU cores on the host Shown as core
system.core.user (gauge)	The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in user mode Shown as percent
system.core.user.total (gauge)	The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in user mode Shown as percent
system.core.system (gauge)	The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in kernel mode Shown as percent
system.core.system.total (gauge)	The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in kernel mode Shown as percent
system.core.idle (gauge)	The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent idle Shown as percent
system.core.idle.total (gauge)	The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent idle Shown as percent
system.core.nice (gauge)	[Unix] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent in niced (prioritized) processes in user mode Shown as percent
system.core.nice.total (gauge)	[Unix] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent in niced (prioritized) processes in user mode Shown as percent
system.core.guest (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel Shown as percent
system.core.guest.total (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel Shown as percent
system.core.iowait (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent waiting for I/O to complete Shown as percent
system.core.iowait.total (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent waiting for I/O to complete Shown as percent
system.core.irq (gauge)	[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing hardware interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.irq.total (gauge)	[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing hardware interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.softirq (gauge)	[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing software interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.softirq.total (gauge)	[Linux, BSD] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing software interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.guest_nice (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a niced guest Shown as percent
system.core.guest_nice.total (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent running running a niced guest Shown as percent
system.core.steal (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel Shown as percent
system.core.steal.total (gauge)	[Linux] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent running a virtual CPU for guest operating systems under the control of the Linux kernel Shown as percent
system.core.interrupt (gauge)	[Windows] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing hardware interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.interrupt.total (gauge)	[Windows] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing hardware interrupts Shown as percent
system.core.dpc (gauge)	[Windows] The percentage of time a given CPU core has spent servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs) Shown as percent
system.core.dpc.total (gauge)	[Windows] The percentage of time the whole CPU has spent servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs) Shown as percent
system.core.frequency (gauge)	The frequency or clock speed a given CPU Shown as megahertz

Depending on the platform, the check may collect other CPU time metrics, such as system.core.interrupt on Windows, system.core.iowait on Linux, etc.

Events

The System Core check does not include any events.

Service Checks

datadog.agent.up

Returns OK if the Agent is running properly. Alerts are created if the host does not respond.

Statuses: ok, critical

Troubleshooting

Need help? Contact Datadog support.

Windows and high numbers of processors

Due to the way Windows splits processors into groups, metrics for individual cores collected from this integration may have invalid values for Windows hosts with high (> 64) numbers of cores for a portion of the cores.

Note that *.total metrics should still reflect accurate values in the above situation, and only per-core metrics are affected.

Datadog recommends that users with this type of configuration set up the Windows Performance Counters integration to track counters inside the Processor Information. This enables users to get accurate per-core metrics.