Skip to content

Background Telemetry

Intel® ESQ automatically collects system metrics as a background thread during each test run. No configuration or code changes in the test itself are needed — telemetry is controlled entirely from the profile YAML and results are visible in the Allure report.


How It Works

A lightweight daemon thread polls each enabled telemetry module at a configurable interval (default: 10 seconds). Collection starts when a test begins and stops cleanly when the test finishes, regardless of the outcome. The collected data — time-series samples, averages, and min/max values — is attached to the test result in the Allure report.


Available Modules

CPU and Memory

Module Metrics Description
cpu_freq current_mhz, min_mhz, max_mhz CPU clock frequency
cpu_usage total_percent Total CPU utilization (%)
cpu_temp package_c, core_max_c CPU package and peak core temperature (°C) via kernel coretemp driver
memory_usage used_percent, available_gib, used_gib System RAM usage

Power

Module Metrics Description
package_power package_power_w, core_power_w, uncore_power_w, dram_power_w Intel® CPU package power via RAPL powercap interface (requires hardware support and system-setup.sh)

GPU

Module Metrics Description
gpu_temp gpu_{N}_pkg_c, gpu_{N}_vram_c (per GPU) Intel® GPU package and VRAM temperature (°C) per detected GPU via hwmon sysfs
gpu_freq gpu_{N}_gt{M}_mhz (per GPU and GT) Intel® GPU operating frequency (MHz) per GT via DRM sysfs
gpu_power gpu_{N}_w, gpu_{N}_card_w (per GPU) Intel® GPU power (W) via hwmon energy counters; card_w includes total board power where available
gpu_usage gpu_{N}_render_pct, gpu_{N}_compute_pct, gpu_{N}_copy_pct, gpu_{N}_video_pct, gpu_{N}_video_enh_pct (Arc/xe); gpu_{N}_gt{M}_pct (iGPU/i915) Intel® GPU engine utilization (%) via Linux perf PMU (Arc GPUs) or GT-level RC6/C6 residency (iGPU)

NPU

Module Metrics Description
npu_usage npu_{N}_busy_pct, npu_{N}_mem_mib (per NPU) Intel® NPU busy utilization (%) and allocated device memory (MB) via intel_vpu driver sysfs
npu_freq npu_{N}_freq_mhz (per NPU) Intel® NPU current operating frequency (MHz) via intel_vpu driver sysfs

Note: GPU and NPU modules automatically skip on systems where the corresponding hardware or driver is not present. The gpu_usage module requires perf_event_paranoid ≤ 0 for Arc GPU engine-level metrics (set by scripts/system-setup.sh).


Controlling the Sampling Interval

The default interval is set in each profile (typically 10 seconds). Override it per-run without editing the profile:

# Via CLI option (highest priority)
esq run --profile <profile> --telemetry-interval 10

# Via environment variable
CORE_TELEMETRY_INTERVAL=10 esq run --profile <profile>

The value must be a whole number of seconds, minimum 1.