Docs » Supported integrations in Splunk Observability Cloud » Instrument back-end applications to send spans to Splunk APM » Instrument .NET applications for Splunk Observability Cloud (OpenTelemetry) » SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET (Deprecated) » Metrics collected by the SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET

Caution

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET is deprecated as of February 21, 2024 and will reach End of Support on February 21 2025. Until then, only critical security fixes and bug fixes will be provided. After the date, the library will be archived and no longer maintained.

New customers instrumenting the .NET ecosystem should use the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry .NET. Existing customers should consider migrating to Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry .NET which offers similar capabilities. To learn how to migrate, see Migrate from the SignalFx .NET Instrumentation.

Metrics collected by the SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET 🔗

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET can collect runtime and trace metrics. To learn about the different metric types, see Metric types.

Activate metrics collection 🔗

To activate the collection of .NET runtime and trace metrics, see Metrics settings.

Note

NetRuntime metrics are always collected if memory profiling is activated.

Default metric dimensions 🔗

The following dimensions are automatically added to all metrics exported by the agent:

Dimension

Description

deployment.environment

Deployment environment, if present.

service.name

Name of the service.

process.pid

The .NET process identifier (PID).

container.id

Identifier of the container, if applicable.

host.name

Name of the host.

telemetry.sdk.name

Name of the SDK, set to signalfx-dotnet-tracing.

telemetry.sdk.language

Language of the SDK, set to dotnet.

telemetry.sdk.version

Version of the SDK.

splunk.distro.version

Version of the Splunk distribution.

.NET runtime metrics 🔗

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET can collect the following runtime metrics:

Metric

Type

Description

process.runtime.dotnet.exceptions.count

Gauge

Count of exceptions since the previous observation.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.collections.count

Cumulative counter

Number of garbage collections since the process started.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.heap.size

Gauge

Heap size, as observed during the last garbage collection.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.objects.size

Gauge

Count of bytes currently in use by live objects in the GC heap.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.allocations.size

Cumulative counter

Count of bytes allocated on the managed GC heap since the process started. Only available for .NET Core.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.committed_memory.size

Gauge

Amount of committed virtual memory for the managed GC heap, as observed during the last garbage collection. Only available for .NET 6 and higher.

process.runtime.dotnet.gc.pause.time

Counter

Number of milliseconds spent in GC pause. Only available for .NET Core.

process.runtime.dotnet.monitor.lock_contention.count

Cumulative counter

Contentions count when trying to acquire a monitor lock since the process started.

process.runtime.dotnet.thread_pool.threads.count

Gauge

Number of thread pool threads, as observed during the last measurement. Only available for .NET Core.

Process metrics 🔗

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET can collect the following process metrics:

Metric

Type

Description

process.memory.usage

Gauge

The amount of physical memory allocated for this process.

process.memory.virtual

Gauge

The amount of committed virtual memory for this process.

process.cpu.time

CumulativeCounter

Total CPU seconds broken down by different states, such as user and system.

process.cpu.utilization (deprecated)

Gauge

Difference in process.cpu.time since the last measurement, divided by the elapsed time and number of CPUs available to the process.

process.threads

Gauge

Process threads count.

ASP.NET Core metrics 🔗

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET can collect the following ASP.NET Core metrics:

Metric

Type

Description

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.connections.current

Gauge

Number of active HTTP connections to the web server. Only available for .NET Core.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.connections.queue_length

Gauge

Length of the HTTP connection queue. Only available for .NET Core.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.connections.total

Gauge

Number of HTTP connections to the web server. Only available for .NET Core.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.requests.current

Gauge

Number of HTTP requests that have started, but haven’t stopped yet. Only available for .NET Core.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.requests.failed

Gauge

Number of failed HTTP requests received by the server. Only available for .NET Core.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.requests.queue_length

Gauge

Length of the HTTP request queue.

signalfx.dotnet.aspnetcore.requests.total

Gauge

Number of HTTP requests received by the server. Only available for .NET Core.

Additional permissions for IIS 🔗

The .NET Framework collects metrics using performance counters. To let service accounts and IIS application pool accounts access counter data, add them to the Performance Monitoring Users group.

IIS application pools use special accounts that don’t appear in the list of users. To add IIS application pool accounts to the Performance Monitoring Users group, search for IIS APPPOOL\<name-of-the-pool>. For example, the user for the DefaultAppPool pool is IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool.

The following example shows how to add an IIS application pool account to the Performance Monitoring Users group from a command prompt with Administrator permissions:

net localgroup "Performance Monitor Users" "IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool" /add

Trace metrics 🔗

The SignalFx Instrumentation for .NET can collect the following trace metrics:

Metric

Type

Description

signalfx.tracer.queue.enqueued_traces

Counter

Number of traces pushed into the queue.

signalfx.tracer.queue.dequeued_traces

Counter

Number of traces pulled from the queue for flushing.

signalfx.tracer.queue.enqueued_spans

Counter

Number of spans pushed into the queue.

signalfx.tracer.queue.dequeued_spans

Counter

Number of spans pulled from the queue for flushing.

signalfx.tracer.queue.dropped_traces

Counter

Number of traces dropped due to a full queue.

signalfx.tracer.queue.dropped_spans

Counter

Number of spans dropped due to a full queue.

signalfx.tracer.heartbeat

Gauge

Number of tracers.