Generating graphs

There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, and when reporting on performance numbers, pictures can be significantly more useful than raw numbers. With a performance graph, you can quickly show the utilization of a system, any performance spikes, and when they occur during the day.

To generate our graphs we will be using the System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart class that is included in .NET Framework 4 and greater on Windows 7 and greater.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we will be using the performance data previously collected in the Configuring Data Collector Sets recipe to generate a graph showing the CPU utilization. The graph will be saved as a PNG file that can be printed, attached to a report, or e-mailed along with the performance report.

How to do it...

Carry out the following steps to generate a graph:

1. Create a chart object.

   $myChart = New-Object `
   System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart
   $myChart.Width = 600
   $myChart...