]
Import-Counter [-Path] -ListSet []
Import-Counter [-Path] [-Summary] []
DESCRIPTION
The Import-Counter cmdlet imports performance counter data from performance counter log files and creates objects
for each counter sample in the file. The PerformanceCounterSampleSet objects that it creates are identical to the
objects that Get-Counter returns when it collects performance counter data.
You can import data from comma-separated value (.csv), tab-separated value ( .tsv), and binary performance log
(.blg) performance log files. If you are using .blg files, you can import multiple files (up to 32 different
files) in each command. And, you can use the parameters of Import-Counter to filter the data that you import.
Along with Get-Counter and Export-Counter, this feature lets you collect, export, import, combine, filter,
manipulate, and re-export performance counter data within Windows PowerShell.
PARAMETERS
-Counter
Imports data only for the specified performance counters. By default, Import-Counter imports all data from all
counters in the input files. Enter one or more counter paths. Wildcards are permitted in the Instance part of
the path.
Each counter path has the following format. Notice that the ComputerName value is required in the path, even
on the local computer.
"\\\()\"
For example:
"\\Server01\Processor(2)\% User Time"
"\\Server01\Processor(*)\% Processor Time
Required? false
Position? named
Default value All counter
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters? true
-EndTime
Imports only counter data with a timestamp less than or equal to the specified date and time. Enter a DateTime
object, such as one created by the Get-Date cmdlet. By default, Import-Counter imports all counter data in the
files specified by the Path parameter.
Required? false
Position? named
Default value No end time
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters? false
-ListSet
Gets the performance counter sets that are represented in the exported files. Commands with this parameter do
not import any data.
Enter one or more counter set names. Wildcards are permitted. To get all counter sets in the file, type
"import-counter -listset *".
Required? true
Position? named
Default value
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters? true
-MaxSamples
Specifies the maximum number of samples of each counter to import. By default, Get-Counter imports all of the
data in the files specified by the Path parameter.
Required? false
Position? named
Default value No maximum
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters? false
-Path
Specifies the file paths of the files to be imported. This parameter is required.
Enter the path and file name of a, .csv,, .tsv, or .blg file that you exported by using the Export-Counter
cmdlet. You can specify only one .csv or .tsv file, but you can specify multiple .blg files (up to 32) in each
command. You can also pipe file path strings (in quotation marks) to Import-Counter.
Required? true
Position? 1
Default value
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters? true
-StartTime
Imports only counter data with a timestamp greater than or equal to the specified date and time. Enter a
DateTime object, such as one created by the Get-Date cmdlet. By default, Import-Counter imports all counter
data in the files specified by the Path parameter.
Required? false
Position? named
Default value No start time
Accept pipeline input? true (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters? false
-Summary []
Gets a summary of the imported data, instead of getting individual counter data samples.
Required? false
Position? named
Default value False
Accept pipeline input? false
Accept wildcard characters? false
This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable. For more information, see
about_CommonParameters (https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).
INPUTS
System.String
You can pipe performance counter log paths to Import-Counter.
OUTPUTS
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.PerformanceCounterSampleSet,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.CounterSet, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.CounterFileInfo
By default, Import-Counter returns a Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.PerformanceCounterSampleSet. If
you use the ListSet parameter, Import-Command returns a Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.CounterSet
object. If you use the Summary parameter, Import-Command returns a
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetCounter.CounterFileInfo object.
NOTES
The Import-Counter cmdlet does not have a ComputerName parameter. However, if the computer is configured for
Windows PowerShell remoting, you can use the Invoke-Command cmdlet to run an Import-Counter command on a
remote computer.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------
PS C:\>$Data = Import-Counter -Path ProcessorData.csv
This command imports all of the counter data from the ProcessorData.csv file into the $Data variable.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------
PS C:\>$i = Import-Counter -Path ProcessorData.blg -Counter "\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\Interrupts/sec"
This command imports only the "Processor(_total)\Interrupts/sec" counter data from the ProcessorData.blg file into
the $i variable.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 --------------------------
The first command uses Import-Counter to import all of the performance counter data from the ProcessorData.blg
files. The command saves the data in the $Data variable.
PS C:\>$Data = Import-Counter .\ProcessorData.blg
The second command displays the counter paths in the $Data variable. To get the display shown in the command
output, the example uses the Format-Table cmdlet to format as a table the counter paths of the first counter in
the $Data variable.
PS C:\>$Data[0].CounterSamples | Format-Table -Property Path
Path
----
\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\DPC Rate
\\SERVER01\Processor(1)\DPC Rate
\\SERVER01\Processor(0)\DPC Rate
\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\% Idle Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(1)\% Idle Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(0)\% Idle Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\% C3 Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(1)\% C3 Time
The third command gets the counter paths that end in "Interrupts/sec" and saves the paths in the $IntCtrs
variable. It uses the Where-Object cmdlet to filter the counter paths and the ForEach-Object cmdlet to get only
the value of the Path property of each selected path object.
PS C:\>$IntCtrs = $Data[0].Countersamples | Where-Object {$_.Path -like "*Interrupts/sec"} | ForEach-Object
{$_.Path}
The fourth command displays the selected counter paths in the $IntCtrs variable.
PS C:\>$IntCtrs
\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\Interrupts/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(1)\Interrupts/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(0)\Interrupts/sec
The fifth command uses the Import-Counter cmdlet to import the data. It uses the $IntCtrs variable as the value of
the Counter parameter to import only data for the counter paths in $IntCtrs.
PS C:\>$i = Import-Counter -Path .\ProcessorData.blg -Counter $intCtrs
The sixth command uses the Export-Counter cmdlet to export the data to the Interrupts.csv file.
PS C:\>$i | Export-Counter -Path .\Interrupts.csv -Format CSV
This example shows how to select data from a performance counter log file (.blg) and then export the selected data
to a .csv file. The first four commands get the counter paths from the file and save them in a variable. The last
two commands import selected data and then export only the selected data.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 4 --------------------------
The first command uses the ListSet parameter of the Import-Counter cmdlet to get all of the counter sets that are
represented in a counter data file.
PS C:\>Import-Counter -Path ProcessorData.csv -ListSet *
CounterSetName : Processor
MachineName : \\SERVER01
CounterSetType : MultiInstance
Description :
Paths : {\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\DPC Rate, \\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Idle Time, \\SERVER01
\Processor(*)\% C3 Time, \\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Interrupt Time...}
PathsWithInstances : {\\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\DPC Rate, \\SERVER01\Processor(1)\DPC Rate, \\SERVER01
\Processor(0)\DPC Rate, \\SERVER01\Processor(_Total)\% Idle Time...}
Counter : {\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\DPC Rate, \\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Idle Time, \\SERVER01
\Processor(*)\% C3 Time, \\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Interrupt Time...}
The second command gets all of the counter paths from the list set.
PS C:\>Import-Counter -Path ProcessorData.csv -ListSet * | ForEach-Object {$_.Paths}
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\DPC Rate
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Idle Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% C3 Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Interrupt Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% C2 Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% User Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% C1 Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Processor Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\C1 Transitions/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% DPC Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\C2 Transitions/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\% Privileged Time
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\C3 Transitions/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\DPCs Queued/sec
\\SERVER01\Processor(*)\Interrupts/sec
This example shows how to display all the counter paths in a group of imported counter sets.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 5 --------------------------
The first command lists in a table the time stamps of all of the data in the ProcessorData.blg file.
PS C:\>Import-Counter -Path .\disk.blg | Format-Table -Property Timestamp
The second command saves particular time stamps in the $Start and $End variables. The strings are cast to DateTime
objects.
PS C:\>$Start = [datetime]"7/9/2008 3:47:00 PM"; $End = [datetime]"7/9/2008 3:47:59 PM"
The third command uses the Import-Counter cmdlet to get only counter data that has a time stamp between the start
and end times (inclusive). The command uses the StartTime and EndTime parameters of Import-Counter to specify the
range.
PS C:\>Import-Counter -Path Disk.blg -StartTime $start -EndTime $end
This example imports only the counter data that has a time stamp between the starting an ending ranges specified
in the command.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 6 --------------------------
The first command uses the Import-Counter cmdlet to import the first (oldest) five samples from the Disk.blg file.
The command uses the MaxSamples parameter to limit the import to five counter samples.
PS C:\>Import-Counter -Path Disk.blg -MaxSamples 5
The second command uses array notation and the Windows PowerShell range operator (..) to get the last five counter
samples from the file. These are the five newest samples.
PS C:\>(Import-Counter -Path Disk.blg)[-1 .. -5]
This example shows how to import the five oldest and five newest samples from a performance counter log file.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 7 --------------------------
PS C:\>Import-Counter D:\Samples\memory.blg -Summary
OldestRecord NewestRecord SampleCount
------------ ------------ -----------
7/10/2008 2:59:18 PM 7/10/2008 3:00:27 PM 1000
This command uses the Summary parameter of the Import-Counter cmdlet to get a summary of the counter data in the
Memory.blg file.
PS C:\>
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 8 --------------------------
The first command uses the ListSet parameter of Import-Counter to get the counters in OldData.blg, an existing
counter log file. The command uses a pipeline operator (|) to send the data to a ForEach-Object command that gets
only the values of the PathsWithInstances property of each object
PS C:\>$Counters = Import-Counter OldData.blg -ListSet * | ForEach-Object {$_.PathsWithInstances}
The second command gets updated data for the counters in the $Counters variable. It uses the Get-Counter cmdlet to
get a current sample, and then export the results to the NewData.blg file.
PS C:\>Get-Counter -Counter $Counters -MaxSamples 20 | Export-Counter C:\Logs\NewData.blg
This example updates a performance counter log file.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 9 --------------------------
PS C:\>$counters = "d:\test\pdata.blg", "d:\samples\netlog.blg" | import-counter
This command imports performance log data from two logs and saves the data in the $Counters variable. The command
uses a pipeline operator to send the performance log paths to Import-Counter, which imports the data from the
specified paths.
Notice that each path is enclosed in quotation marks and that the paths are separated from each other by a comma.
RELATED LINKS
Online Version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=289627
Export-Counter
Get-Counter