---
title: Dimensions
description: Dimensions provide a means of aggregating and subdividing metric sample values in a way that logically follows what is actually measured.
component: pingdirectory
version: 9.3
page_id: pingdirectory:pingdatametrics_server_administration_guide:pd_met_dimensions
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingdirectory/9.3/pingdatametrics_server_administration_guide/pd_met_dimensions.html
revdate: September 13, 2023
---

# Dimensions

Dimensions provide a means of aggregating and subdividing metric sample values in a way that logically follows what is actually measured.

For example, metrics that measure disk activity have a disk-device dimension. Aggregating on the disk-device dimension shows the average disk activity for all disks, where pivoting (splitting) by the disk-device dimension shows the activity for specific disks.

Every metric has a logical instance dimension, which corresponds to the server on which the sample was created. Each metric can have up to three dimensions, which are defined in the metric definition.

For example, the `sync-pipe-completed-ops` metric has two dimensions, the `pipe-name` and `pipe-result`. The `pipe-name` is the name of the sync pipe as configured for the PingDataSync server. The `pipe-result` is one of the following values:

* `exception`

* `failed`

* `failed-at-resource`

* `failed-during-mapping`

* `match-multiple-at-dest`

* `no-match-at-dest`

* `already-exists-at-dest`

* `no-change-needed`

* `out-of-scope`

* `success`

* `aborted-by-plugin`

* `failed-in-plugin`

At each measurement interval for each sync pipe on each PingDataSync server, there will be a value for each of the `pipe-result` values. So, for a single PingDataSync server with two Sync Pipes, `pipe-one` and `pipe-two`, the samples generated for each sample period look like the following. The timestamp is constrained to time-only for brevity.

```
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, exception, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, failed, 7
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, failed-at-resource, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, failed-during-mapping, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, match-multiple-at-dest, 3
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, no-match-at-dest, 0
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, already-exists-at-dest, 0
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, no-change-needed, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, out-of-scope, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, success, 125
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, aborted-by-plugin, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-one, failed-in-plugin, 0
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, exception, 3
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, failed, 9
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, failed-at-resource, 2
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, failed-during-mapping, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, match-multiple-at-dest, 4
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, no-match-at-dest, 0
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, already-exists-at-dest, 0
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, no-change-needed, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, out-of-scope, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, success, 217
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, aborted-by-plugin, 1
08:15:05, sync-pipe-completed-ops, pipe-two, failed-in-plugin, 0
```

Compare how busy `pipe-one` is to `pipe-two` by pivoting on `pipe-name`. This results in the following:

```
pipe-one 141
pipe-two 239
```

Pivot by `pipe-result`, to get a set of counts that show the distribution of the counts of the specific error types, as well as the success and failure. This data provides a quick way of assessing the kinds of problems encountered by the Sync Pipes.

Dimensions provide a way to pivot or aggregate along a metric-specific axis. All metrics have the `instance` pivot and the `time` pivot. Metrics that support the histogram statistic can also have a `histogram` pivot.