Analyze Resource Usage of a Managed Application (PRC) with REST API (version 1.0)

Use APPLICATION_RESOURCES_HOURLY to view the resource usage (PRC) of the process of each managed application aggregated hourly, along with application, user, location and device details.

For example, you can view the applications which use the most CPU and memory resources (PRC) in devices, or you could correlate an app's high PRC with other attributes, like if a new version of an application only has high CPU usage on Windows 7.

Aternity constantly monitors the resource usage of managed applications, regardless of whether a user performed an activity.

Each returned entry from APPLICATION_RESOURCES_HOURLY details the resource consumption of a single managed application on a single Windows device, detailing the Windows process (Process_Name), its peak and average usage of CPU and memory (PRC_ fields). If the same user on the same device uses the same application many times during that hour, Aternity aggregates the usage of CPU and memory, to return the average and maximum percentage usage for that hour. 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.

Monitoring the process resource consumption of a managed application
Note

You can access data using this API (retention) going back up to 14 days. If you do not add a relative_time filter, by default Aternity returns data for the past seven days.

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.

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). :

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>/APPLICATION_RESOURCES_HOURLY

To check if users of Excel are struggling on laptops with 4GB RAM, show the average and peak PRC of Microsoft Excel on laptops with 4GB RAM, enter:

.../APPLICATION_RESOURCES_HOURLY?$select=PRC_CPU_AVG,PRC_CPU_MAX,PRC_PHYSICAL_MEMORY_AVG,PRC_PHYSICAL_MEMORY_MAX&$filter=(CLIENT_DEVICE_TYPE eq 'Laptop' and MEMORY_SIZE eq '4GB') and (contains(application,'Excel'))

You can perform similar queries to determine if people with the next generation of CPU are running Excel better than those with older CPUs by filtering for values of CPU_Cores or CPU_Model.

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 returned entry from APPLICATION_RESOURCES_HOURLY details the resource consumption of a single managed application on a single Windows device, detailing the Windows process (Process_Name), its peak and average usage of CPU and memory (PRC_ fields). If the same user on the same device uses the same application many times during that hour, Aternity aggregates the usage of CPU and memory, to return the average and maximum percentage usage for that hour. 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 Aternity returns data for the past seven days.

Sample output from this API

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

Minutes_Running,PRC_CPU_Avg,PRC_CPU_Max,PRC_GDI_Objects_CountPRC_Physical_Memory_Avg,PRC_Physical_Memory_Max,PRC_User_Objects_Count,PRC_Virtual_Memory_Avg,PRC_Virtual_Memory_Max

Attributes

Account_ID,Account_Name,Application,Application_Type,Application_Version,Business_Location,Change_Pilot_Group,Channel,Client_Device_Name,Client_Device_Type,CPU_Cores,CPU_Frequency,CPU_Generation,CPU_Model,CPU_Type,Custom_Attribute_1 - 6,Data_Center_Location,Days_From_Last_Boot,Device_Idle_This_Hour,Device_Manufacturer,Device_Idle_This_Hour,Device_Model,Image_Build_Number,Line_Of_Business,Location_City,Location_Country,Location_Region,Location_State,Machine_Power_Plan,Market,Memory_Size,MS_Office_License_Type,MS_Office_Version,Network_Type,On_Site,On_VPN,OS_Architecture,OS_Disk_Type,OS_Name,OS_Version,Process_Name,Serving_Device_Name,Serving_Device_Type,Store_ID,Store_Type,Subnet,Timeframe,User_Department,User_Domain,User_Email_Address,User_Full_Name,User_Office,User_Role,User_Title,Username,Virtualization