Patent ID: 8032797

Claim:
A method, comprising the steps of: receiving a stream of metrics in a server from at least one system, the metrics describing a state of the at least one system; generating a plurality of data models in the server from the metrics, each of the data models representing a time grouping of a subset of the metrics, wherein at least one dimension is associated with each of the metrics; storing the data models in association with respective ones of the dimensions in a memory; increasing the dimensions with which the data models are associated in the memory based upon an appearance of at least one previously non-existing dimension associated with a metric in the stream; limiting a total number of dimensions with which the data models may be associated in the memory to a threshold number of dimensions: generating an error in the server when the step of increasing the dimensions results in a total number of the dimensions that exceeds the threshold number of dimensions; and generating an output that indicates a performance of the system based upon the data models.