![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
<\/h2>\n <\/h2>\nHey, Scripting Guy! I am interested in using Windows PowerShell to collect processor information, but I do not need to see the raw data. I would rather see calculated results such as the maximum, minimum, and average processor utilization. I know I can do this, but that seems like writing a lot of math formulas, and I just am not in the mood for all that work. Will you do it for me?<\/p>\n
– LA<\/p>\n
![\"Spacer\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/spacer.gif\")
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
<\/p>\n
Hi LA,<\/p>\n
Guess what? It is late at night on a Friday night (as I am writing this), I am sipping a nice cup of green tea with lemon and a cinnamon stick in it, munching on some raw almonds, savoring a nice hunk of artisan cheese<\/a>, and I am listening to Harry James<\/a> on my Zune. I am not in the mood for a bunch of math formulas either. Luckily for both of us, Windows PowerShell has the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet that will do the calculations for us. Because it is nearly the weekend, I will throw in a progress indicator for free. Without much ado (or Scrappy-Doo<\/a>) here is the CalculateAverageUtilization.ps1<\/b> script:<\/p>\n The main body of the script consists of three separate functions. The first function that is called creates an empty array of integers and assigns it to a script level variable named $aryProp<\/b>. The second function called gathers the WMI performance information and writes it to the $aryProp<\/b> variable. The last function evaluates the information in the $aryProp<\/b> variable and generates the output. It is a best practice to order the functions in a script in the order in which they will be called. While this is not always possible, it is still a worthy goal because it will make the script easier to read.<\/p>\n The CreateEmptyArray<\/b> function creates an empty array that will be used to store the processor utilization information. When it is called, the value that is stored in the $reps<\/b> variable is passed to it. This value becomes the upper boundary of the array. To create the array we use the static CreateInstance<\/b> method from the system.array<\/b> .NET Framework class. When we use the CreateInstance<\/b> method, we need to give it the type of data it will hold and the upper boundary of the array. We store the empty array in a script-level variable named $aryProp<\/b>. A script-level variable will be available for use outside of the function. We use the [int[]]<\/b> type constraint to make sure the variable will only hold an array of integers. The CreateEmptyArray<\/b> function is seen here:<\/p>\n The GetWmiPerformanceData<\/b> function is the main function in the script. It begins with a for<\/b> loop that starts counting at 0 until it is one minus the number stored in the $reps<\/b> variable. The for<\/b> loop increments the enumerator by one. The $i<\/b> variable is used to not only control the number of repetitions through the code block, but also the element the data point gets stored in. The $i++<\/b> syntax increments the $i<\/b> enumerator by one\u2014this is the same as $i = $i +1<\/b>. This section of the code is shown here:<\/p>\n Inside the code block, the [WMI]<\/b> type accelerator is used to make a connection to the computer specified in the $computer<\/b> variable to the class that is stored in the $class<\/b> variable. The $key<\/b> and $instance<\/b> variables are used to connect to the key property of a specific instance of the WMI performance class. The property stored in the $property<\/b> variable is the data point we are interested in obtaining. When the data is retrieved, it is stored in the element number $i<\/b> in the array $aryProp<\/b>. This line of code is seen here:<\/p>\n Because it is conceivable that the script could run for an extended period of time, the Write-Progress<\/b> cmdlet is used to display a progress indicator bar:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The top line displays the value that is specified in the \u2013Activity<\/b> parameter. In this script, it states “Obtaining processor info.” The next line that is displayed is the data you supply for the e-Status<\/b> parameter. Here it says “% complete:” followed by a progress bar that indicates the percent complete of the value $i<\/b>. This section of code is shownhere:<\/p>\n The last thing we do is pause the execution of the script for a short period of time that is specified by the $delay<\/b> value. To do this, we use the Start-Sleep<\/b> cmdlet, which is similar to the VBScript command Wscript.Sleep<\/b> except that it will take both seconds and milliseconds for the pause interval. The default parameter is seconds, and therefore the \u2013seconds<\/b> parameter does not need to be specified. However, as a best practice I recommend including the full parameter name because it will improve the readability of the script. This is doubly important because the interval used for Wscript.Sleep<\/b> was milliseconds, and confusion could easily arise with the missing parameter. This section of code is shown here:<\/p>\n The complete GetWmiPerformanceData<\/b> function is seen here:<\/p>\n The last function to look at is the EvaluateObject<\/b> function. The EvaluateObject<\/b> function begins by pipelining the data stored in the $aryProp<\/b> variable to the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet where we specify that we are interested in the \u2013Average<\/b>, \u2013Maximum<\/b>, and the \u2013Minimum<\/b> values contained in the $aryProp<\/b> variable. We then pipeline the results of that calculation to the Format-Table<\/b> to display a table of the results. Because the count<\/b> property that is reported by the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet is a bit obtuse, we decide to create a custom label named “Data Points.” To do this, we need to use a special hash table format. <\/p>\n The first element in the hash table is called Label<\/b>, and the value of the label element is “Data Points.” The second element in the hash table is named Expression<\/b> and the value of the expression element is $_.count<\/b>. The $_<\/b> variable is an automatic variable that represents the current item on the pipeline\u2014in this case, the object coming across from the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet. We are interested in the count<\/b> property. We then choose the remaining properties from the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet that we are interested in displaying: average<\/b>, maximum<\/b>, and minimum<\/b>. We use the \u2013autosize<\/b> parameter from Format-Table<\/b> cmdlet to shrink the display to a more space-conscious output of the data: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n here:<\/p>\n The only thing left in the script is to declare the values for the variables and call the functions. This is seen here:<\/p>\n See, LA, neither of us needed to do any math calculations thanks to the Measure-Object<\/b> cmdlet. Now that we are done, it\u2019s time for more tea.<\/p>\n Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer, Scripting Guys<\/b><\/b><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey, Scripting Guy! I am interested in using Windows PowerShell to collect processor information, but I do not need to see the raw data. I would rather see calculated results such as the maximum, minimum, and average processor utilization. I know I can do this, but that seems like writing a lot of math formulas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,41,31,60,3,45],"class_list":["post-54813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-hardware","tag-monitoring","tag-operating-system","tag-performance","tag-scripting-guy","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Hey, Scripting Guy! I am interested in using Windows PowerShell to collect processor information, but I do not need to see the raw data. I would rather see calculated results such as the maximum, minimum, and average processor utilization. I know I can do this, but that seems like writing a lot of math formulas, […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Function CreateEmptyArray($ubound)\n{\n [int[]]$script:aryProp = [array]::CreateInstance(\"int\",$ubound)\n} #end CreateEmptyArray\nFunction GetWmiPerformanceData()\n{\n For($i = 0 ; $i -le $reps -1 ; $i++)\n {\n $aryProp[$i] +=([wmi]\"\\\\$computer\\root\\cimv2:$class.$key='$instance'\").$Property\n Write-Progress -Activity \"Obtaining Processor info\" -Status \"% complete: \" `\n -PercentComplete $i\n Start-Sleep -Seconds $delay\n } #end for\n}#end GetWmiPerformanceData\nFunction EvaluateObject()\n{\n $aryProp | \n Measure-Object -Average -Maximum -Minimum |\n Format-Table -Property `\n @{ Label = \"Data Points\" ; Expression = {$_.count} }, \n average, Maximum, Minimum -autosize\n} #End EvaluateObject\n# *** Entry Point ***\n$computer = \".\"\n$delay = 1\n$reps = 10\n$class = \"Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Processor\"\n$key = \"name\"\n$instance = \"_Total\"\n$property = \"PercentProcessorTime\"\nCreateEmptyArray($reps)\nGetWmiPerformanceData\nEvaluateObject\n<\/pre>\nFunction CreateEmptyArray($ubound)\n{\n [int[]]$script:aryProp = [array]::CreateInstance(\"int\",$ubound)\n} #end CreateEmptyArray\n<\/pre>\nFor($i = 0 ; $i -le $reps -1 ; $i++)<\/pre>\n
$aryProp[$i] +=([wmi]\"\\\\$computer\\root\\cimv2:$class.$key='$instance'\").$Property<\/pre>\n
![\"Image](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/qanda\/hsg\/hey1126\/hsg_perf3_01.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Write-Progress -Activity \"Obtaining Processor info\" -Status \"% complete: \" `\n -PercentComplete $i\n<\/pre>\n
Start-Sleep -Seconds $delay<\/pre>\n
Function GetWmiPerformanceData()\n{\n For($i = 0 ; $i -le $reps -1 ; $i++)\n {\n $aryProp[$i] +=([wmi]\"\\\\$computer\\root\\cimv2:$class.$key='$instance'\").$Property\n Write-Progress -Activity \"Obtaining Processor info\" -Status \"% complete: \" `\n -PercentComplete $i\n Start-Sleep -Seconds $delay\n } #end for\n}#end GetWmiPerformanceData\n<\/pre>\n![\"Image](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/qanda\/hsg\/hey1126\/hsg_perf3_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFunction EvaluateObject()\n{\n $aryProp | \n Measure-Object -Average -Maximum -Minimum |\n Format-Table -Property `\n @{ Label = \"Data Points\" ; Expression = {$_.count} }, \n average, Maximum, Minimum -autosize\n} #End EvaluateObject\n<\/pre>\n$computer = \".\"\n$delay = 1\n$reps = 10\n$class = \"Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Processor\"\n$key = \"name\"\n$instance = \"_Total\"\n$property = \"PercentProcessorTime\"\n\nCreateEmptyArray($reps)\nGetWmiPerformanceData\nEvaluateObject\n<\/pre>\n