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FAQs: Metering

Question 1: How can I get my usage data into m3ter?

We’ve built our platform to handle high volumes of usage events, and we encourage customers to send us rich, granular usage data, because this allows us to provide you with more flexibility and value from your data once it has been ingested.

There are two generally available methods of sending usage data to m3ter - API and File Upload. 

API

Our ingest API is the primary mechanism for ingesting usage data. It’s built with scale and flexibility in mind, allowing up to 1,000 measurements in each API request.

File Upload

If your existing systems and data flow better suit uploading a file containing usage data, perhaps at the end of a batch operation, we offer a file upload service. Make an API call to generate a temporary upload URL, then upload your file; we’ll do the rest, and any errors are reported to you via the normal Alerts service.

Question 2: What should I do if data was not ingested due to network issues?

There are many reasons measurements might get lost or duplicated on their way to the m3ter platform, so a key quality of the m3ter ingest service is that sending a measurement is an idempotent operation within a 35-day window. This means that if a measurement with the same UID arrives multiple times in that timeframe, we will only ingest it once.

If you're unsure whether a network connectivity issue or application crash affected measurements being sent, resend them with their original UID. We’ll de-duplicate, only store the missing ones, and will generate an event so you can confirm.

When dealing with short-lived usage events, we recommend putting the events on a queue such as Amazon SQS or Azure Storage Queues within your environment, then read from that queue when sending it to the m3ter API. This adds a layer of protection against data loss because of network or software issues.

Question 3: What if I need to change an Account code?

Although changing Account codes is possible to allow for corrections, be aware that because usage is submitted using the Account code you need to properly coordinate sending usage to the current Account code when changing it. We therefore recommend not renaming Account codes once usage has been sent.

Question 4: Can I reuse an old Account code for a different Account?

Yes, but we recommend that you don't do this. Account codes should generally be a unique, immutable identifier for the Account, for example a customer ID in your system.

Question 5: Should I send PII in the usage data?

No. Do not send personally identifiable information (PII) in the usage data. Use an anonymous unique identifier that you can map to individual information in your CRM.

Question 6: Can you fetch my usage data instead of me submitting it?

Yes. Our Ingest Agent can poll external systems and submit it to the m3ter API. Various sources and formats are supported out of the box, but we can also help develop custom collectors should one be required.

Question 7: Is it possible to delete or modify usage data?

Measurements are immutable once ingested, but it’s possible to make adjustments to correct aggregated data by submitting corrective measurements (either positive or negative). 

Question 8: Can I export my data?

Yes, you can view, filter, aggregate, and export usage data via our Data Explorer in the m3ter Console, or via the API. In the future, we shall introduce additional features enabling you to export larger volumes of data.

Question 9: What happens if I need to add fields to my Meter or remove them after I've already sent data?

If you send measurements containing data that you have not configured in your Meter yet, we will still store the data. When you create a Data Field with the same code field, it will become available. 

Removing a Data Field from a Meter does not delete the existing measurements, but it becomes unavailable for other m3ter features.

Next: FAQs: Configuration and Setup - Best Practices

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