Measurements

Three type of meters are defined in ceilometer:

double: meter; cumulative double: meter; gauge double: meter; delta

Type	Definition
Cumulative	Increasing over time (instance hours)
Gauge	Discrete items (floating IPs, image uploads) and fluctuating values (disk I/O)
Delta	Changing over time (bandwidth)

Here are the meter types by components that are currently implemented:

Compute (Nova)

Name	Type	Volume	Resource	Note
instance	Gauge	1	inst ID	Duration of instance
instance:<type>	Gauge	1	inst ID	Duration of instance <type> (openstack types)
memory	Gauge	MB	inst ID	Volume of RAM in MB
cpu	Cumulative	seconds	inst ID	CPU time used
vcpus	Gauge	vcpu	inst ID	Number of VCPUs
disk.root.size	Gauge	GB	inst ID	Size of root disk in GB
disk.ephemeral.size	Gauge	GB	inst ID	Size of ephemeral disk in GB
disk.io.requests	Cumulative	request	inst ID	Number of disk io requests
disk.io.bytes	Cumulative	bytes	inst ID	Volume of disk io in bytes
network.incoming.bytes	Cumulative	bytes	iface ID	number of incoming bytes on the network
network.outgoing.bytes	Cumulative	bytes	iface ID	number of outgoing bytes on the network
network.incoming.packets	Cumulative	packets	iface ID	number of incoming packets
network.outgoing.packets	Cumulative	packets	iface ID	number of outgoing packets

Name	Type	Volume	Resource	Note
network	Gauge	1	netw ID	Duration of network
network.create	Delta	request	netw ID	Creation requests for this network
network.update	Delta	request	netw ID	Update requests for this network
subnet	Gauge	1	subnt ID	Duration of subnet
subnet.create	Delta	request	subnt ID	Creation requests for this subnet
subnet.update	Delta	request	subnt ID	Update requests for this subnet
port	Gauge	1	port ID	Duration of port
port.create	Delta	request	port ID	Creation requests for this port
port.update	Delta	request	port ID	Update requests for this port
ip.floating	Gauge	1	ip ID	Duration of floating ip

Name	Type	Volume	Resource	Note
image	Gauge	1	image ID	Image polling -> it (still) exists
image.size	Gauge	bytes	image ID	Uploaded image size
image.update	Delta	reqs	image ID	Number of update on the image
image.upload	Delta	reqs	image ID	Number of upload of the image
image.delete	Delta	reqs	image ID	Number of delete on the image
image.download	Delta	bytes	image ID	Image is downloaded
image.serve	Delta	bytes	image ID	Image is served out

Name	Type	Volume	Resource	Note
volume	Gauge	1	vol ID	Duration of volune
volume.size	Gauge	GB	vol ID	Size of volume

If you plan on adding meters, please follow the convention bellow:

Always use '.' as separator and go from least to most discriminent word. For example, do not use ephemeral_disk_size but disk.ephemeral.size
When a part of the name is a variable, it should always be at the end and starts with a ':'. For example do not use <type>.image but image:<type> where type is your variable name.
If you have any hesitation, come and ask in #openstack-metering