Metrics API - GET metric descriptor

Gets the parameters of the specified metric.

The request produces one of the following types of payload, depending on the value of the Accept request header:

  • application/json
  • text/csv; header=present—a CSV table with header row
  • text/csv; header=absent—a CSV table without header row

If no Accept header is provided with the request, an application/json payload is returned.

GET
  • Managed https://{your-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/metrics/{metricId}
  • SaaS https://{your-environment-id}.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/metrics/{metricId}
  • Environment ActiveGate https://{your-activegate-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/metrics/{metricId}

Authentication

To execute this request, you need the Read metrics (metrics.read) permission assigned to your API token. To learn how to obtain and use it, see Tokens and authentication.

Parameters

Parameter Type Description In Required
metricId string

The key of the required metric.

You can set additional transformation operators, separated by a colon (:). See Metrics selector transformations in Dynatrace Documentation for additional information on available result transformations.

The length of the string is limited to 5,000 characters.

 path required

Response

Response codes

Code Description
200

Success
404

Not found. The requested resource is not found or the query is incorrect.
406

Not acceptable. The requested media type is not supported. Check the Accept header of your request.

Response body

The MetricDescriptor object

The descriptor of a metric.

Element Type Description
metricValueType MetricValueType
rootCauseRelevant boolean

The metric is (true) or is not (false) root cause relevant.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
minimumValue number

The minimum value of the metric.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
aggregationTypes string[]

The list of allowed aggregations for this metric.
defaultAggregation MetricDefaultAggregation
dimensionDefinitions MetricDimensionDefinition[]

The fine metric division (for example, process group and process ID for some process-related metric).

For ingested metrics, dimensions that doesn't have have any data within the last 15 days are omitted.
lastWritten integer

The timestamp when the metric was last written.

Has the value of null for metric expressions or if the data has never been written.
latency integer

The latency (in minutes) to how long it takes before a new metric data point is available in Monitoring after it is written.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
metricId string

The fully qualified key of the metric.

If a transformation has been used it is reflected in the metric key.
maximumValue number

The maximum value of the metric.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
dduBillable boolean

If true the usage of metric consumes Davis data units.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
entityType string[]

List of admissible primary entity types for this metric. Can be used for the type predicate in the entitySelector.
impactRelevant boolean

The metric is (true) or is not (false) impact relevant.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
warnings string[]

A list of potential warnings that affect this ID. For example deprecated feature usage etc.
displayName string

The name of the metric in the user interface.
description string

A short description of the metric.
tags string[]

The tags applied to the metric.

Metric expressions don't return this field.
transformations string[]

Transform operators that could be appended to the current transformation list. Must be enabled with the "fields" parameter on /metrics and is always present on /metrics/{metricId}.
created integer

The timestamp of metric creation.

Built-in metrics and metric expressions have the value of null.
unit string

The unit of the metric.

The MetricDimensionDefinition object

The dimension of a metric.

Element Type Description
index integer

The unique 0-based index of the dimension.

Appending transformations such as :names or :parents may change the indexes of dimensions. null is used for the dimensions of a metric with flexible dimensions, which can be referenced with their dimension key, but do not have an intrinsic order that could be used for the index.
name string

The name of the dimension.
key string

The key of the dimension.

It must be unique within the metric.
type string

The type of the dimension.
displayName string

The display name of the dimension.

The MetricDefaultAggregation object

The default aggregation of a metric.

Element Type Description
type string

The type of default aggregation.
parameter number

The percentile to be delivered. Valid values are between 0 and 100.

Applicable only to the percentile aggregation type.

The MetricValueType object

The value type for the metric.

Element Type Description
type string

The metric value type

Example

In this example, the request queries the parameters of three metrics: builtin:host.cpu.idle, builtin:host.cpu.usage, and builtin:host.disk.avail.

The builtin:host.cpu.idle and builtin:host.cpu.usage metrics have the same parent and their selector is combined into builtin:host.cpu.(idle,usage).

The response is in application/json format.

Curl

curl -L -X GET 'https://mySampleEnv.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/metrics/builtin:host.disk.avail' \
-H 'Authorization: Api-Token abcdefjhij1234567890' \
-H 'Accept: application/json'

Request URL

https://mySampleEnv.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/metrics/builtin:host.disk.avail

Response body

{
  "metricId": "builtin:host.disk.avail",
  "displayName": "Disk available",
  "description": "",
  "unit": "Byte",
  "entityType": [
    "HOST"
  ],
  "aggregationTypes": [
    "auto",
    "avg",
    "max",
    "min"
  ],
  "transformations": [
    "filter",
    "fold",
    "merge",
    "names",
    "parents"
  ],
  "defaultAggregation": {
    "type": "avg"
  },
  "dimensionDefinitions": [
    {
      "key": "dt.entity.host",
      "name": "Host",
      "index": 0,
      "type": "ENTITY"
    },
    {
      "key": "dt.entity.disk",
      "name": "Disk",
      "index": 1,
      "type": "ENTITY"
    }
  ]
}

The CSV table with header row looks like this. To obtain it, change the Accept header to text/csv; header=present.

metricId,displayName,description,unit,entityType,aggregationTypes,transformations,defaultAggregation,dimensionDefinitions
builtin:host.cpu.usage,CPU usage %,Percentage of CPU time currently utilized.,Percent,[HOST],"[auto, avg, max, min]","[filter, fold, merge, names, parents]",avg,[Host:ENTITY]

Response code

200