In addition to the large catalog of out-of-the-box monitoring FortiMonitor provides, you also have the ability to collect your own custom metrics which may be specific to your own internal systems and applications. FortiMonitor provides several mechanisms for collecting custom metrics.

Native agent plugin

Writing a native agent plugin allows for the most flexibility and allows for the agent to fully handle all elements of data collection. For Linux systems, plugins are written in Python. For Windows systems, plugins are written in PowerShell. Sample agent plugins to use as a starting point are provided for both platforms.

Command line calls

If you prefer to push metrics into the agent, you can register and report metrics from a command-line script. You can invoke this script from your own custom program or from a cron/scheduler. This method allows for less flexibility but can be very easy to bring to life.

JSON-based custom metrics

You can also push custom metrics via JSON files through the Agent. You can have an external program generate files for each custom metric value that you want to have aggregated for alarming within FortiMonitor.

JSON-based custom incidents

You can generate Custom incidents using JSON files that allows you to push event data to FortiMonitor. To use custom incidents, create a JSON file each time there is an incident to report and add the file to a special agent directory.

API

You can also create Custom incidents using API, which provides a mechanism for your own applications to push event data to our system and leverage FortiMonitor’s alerting and dashboard functionality.

Custom Metric Management

FortiMonitor enables you to publish custom metrics in a variety of formats across our supported platforms. As well, you can manage the meta-data for your custom metrics once they've been reported to FortiMonitor - including name, category, unit, and type. This metadata is used throughout FortiMonitor - in graphs, incident alerts, threshold configuration, reports, and more.

You can learn more about it here.