Analyze the Boot Times of Devices with REST API (Version 1.0)

WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS returns the boot times of all monitored Windows devices: the total boot time, the machine boot, and the user logon time.

Each entry from WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS represents one of the three boot times (Duration) recorded in a single device boot. Every boot creates three separate entries in this API, one for each type of boot time (stored in the Type field): the total boot time, the machine boot, and the user logon time. Each entry also includes the user, location, and device details. If you use $select to display only specific columns, it makes the query faster by grouping all rows with identical attribute values into a single row with aggregated measurements.

For example, use this API to create a report of one type of boot time (filter with the Type field), or to correlate this type of boot time with other attributes which you are tracking with third party systems, to troubleshoot long boot times.

Boot time definitions

To send a REST API query in Excel, PowerBI or a browser, enter the URL of the REST API, your Aternity username (must have the OData REST API role) and its password. You can find this by selecting User icon > REST API Access. SSO users must generate (once) and use a special password, as Aternity's REST API does not authenticate with your enterprise's identity provider. For LDAP users, enter the Display Name, then a backslash ('\'), then your network username and password. For example display_name\jsmith. You can find this name by selecting the Gear Icon > Basic Settings > Directory Service.

Note

You can access data using this API (retention) going back up to 92 days. If you do not add a relative_time filter, by default it returns data for the past day.

Before You Begin

To send a REST API query in Excel, PowerBI or a browser, enter the URL of the REST API, your Aternity username (must have the OData REST API role) and its password. You can find this by selecting User icon > REST API Access. SSO users must generate (once) and use a special password, as Aternity's REST API does not authenticate with your enterprise's identity provider. For LDAP users, enter the domain name, then a backslash ('\'), then your network username and password. For example domain_name\jsmith

To view an Aternity REST API, enter the base URL from User icon > REST API Access, followed by the name of the API: <base_url>/API_NAME into a browser, Excel or PowerBI (learn more). The <base_URL> is configured in the Aternity REST API Server as the external_url (learn more):

http://odata-aternity.company.com:80/aternity.odata/API_NAME
Tip

Wherever possible, use $select and $filter to narrow your query, to avoid receiving an error like Returned data is too large. Learn more.

Examples

To access this API from a browser, Excel or Power BI (learn more), enter <base_url>/WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS

To check whether there is a correlation between long boot times (say, longer than 40 seconds) and the device's RAM, manufacturer and model number, enter:

.../WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS?$select=MEMORY_SIZE,DEVICE_MANUFACTURER,DEVICE_MODEL&$filter=TYPE eq 'Total Boot Duration' and DURATION gt 40

To check for a correlation between the version of Windows and long boot times, enter:

.../WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS?$select=OS_VERSION&$filter=TYPE eq 'Total Boot Duration' and DURATION gt 40

To view the trend of the boot times when Windows loads its drivers (after Windows sign in) of a single user during the past two weeks, enter:

.../WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS?$select=DURATION,TIMEFRAME&$filter=relative_time(last_14_days) and TYPE eq 'User Logon' and contains(USERNAME,'jsmith')

Supported Parameters

You can view the data by entering the URL into Excel, into a browser, or into or any OData compatible application such as Power BI.

You can add parameters to the URL to filter the returned data, by adding a question mark (?) followed by a parameter and value, such as .../API_NAME?$filter=(USERNAME eq 'jsmith@company.com'), or several parameter-value pairs each separated by an ampersand (&), like .../API_NAME?$format=xml&$top=5.

Parameter Description
$select=

Use $select to return only specific columns (attributes), to make queries more efficient: ...API_NAME?$select=COL1,COL2,COL3
$filter=

Use $filter to insert conditions that narrow down the data, to return only entries where those conditions are true..

To limit the timeframe of a query, add $filter=relative_time() like, .../API_NAME?$filter=relative_time(last_x_hours) or (last_x_days). Learn more.

Create conditions with operators: and, or, eq (equals) gt (greater than), ge (greater than or equal), lt (less than), le (less than or equal), ge (greater than or equal to), ne (not equal to), le (less than or equal to), not and contains. Use operators with parentheses to group conditions logically: .../API_NAME?$filter=(COLUMN1 eq 'value1' or COL2 neq 'val2') and (COL3 gt number) and not (COL4 eq 'val4' or contains(COL5,'val5'))
$format=

Use $format to force the returned data to be either in XML or JSON format. This is only useful for testing the raw data in a web browser. For example: .../API_NAME?$format=xml
$orderby=

Use $orderby to sort the returned data according to the value you choose. For example, .../API_NAME?$orderby=LOCATION
$top=

Use $top (lower case only) when you are initially testing the response of the API by returning the first few entries.

For example, to return the first five entries (not sorted), use: ...API_NAME?$top=5
$search is NOT supported.

Do not use $search in Aternity's REST APIs.

If you use $select to display only specific columns, it makes the query faster by grouping all rows with identical attribute values into a single row with aggregated measurements. For example, if you use $select to return only the RAM size and CPU usage, if 50 devices have the same attribute of 16GB RAM, it condenses them into a single row and outputs their CPU usage as a single weighted average measurement.

Tip

Wherever possible, use $select and $filter to narrow your query, to avoid receiving an error like Returned data is too large. Learn more.

Output

Each entry from WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS represents one of the three boot times (Duration) recorded in a single device boot. Every boot creates three separate entries in this API, one for each type of boot time (stored in the Type field): the total boot time, the machine boot, and the user logon time. Each entry also includes the user, location, and device details. If you use $select to display only specific columns, it makes the query faster by grouping all rows with identical attribute values into a single row with aggregated measurements.

You can access data using this API (retention) going back up to 35 days. If you do not add a relative_time filter, by default it returns data for the past day.

Sample output from WINDOWS_MACHINE_BOOTS

The API returns two types of columns: Attributes (or dimensions) which are the properties of an entry, and Measurements which are the dynamic measured values. A single API row can display either a single measurement, or a weighted average of several entries grouped together. If you use $select to display several attributes, and all those attributes are identical, it groups them into a single entry.

Type Returned columns

Measurements

Duration

Attributes

Account_ID,Account_Name,Business_Location,Change_Pilot_Group,Channel,CPU_Cores,CPU_Frequency,CPU_Generation,CPU_Model,CPU_Type,Custom_Attribute_1 - 6,Device_Manufacturer,Device_Model,Device_Name,Device_Type,Image_Build_Number,Line_Of_Business,Location_City,Location_Country,Location_Region,Location_State,Machine_Power_Plan,Market,Measurement_Time,Memory_Size,MS_Office_License_Type,MS_Office_Version,Network_Type,On_Site,On_VPN,OS_Architecture,OS_Disk_Type,OS_Name,OS_Version,Store_ID,Store_Type,Subnet,Timeframe,Type,User_Department,User_Domain,User_Email_Address,User_Full_Name,User_Office,User_Role,User_Title,Username,Virtualization,Volume