Aggregating metrics of network elements of a software-defined network for different applications based on different aggregation criteria

The method of claim 15, wherein different aggregated operational data for different client applications is stored in different TSDBs.

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit for providing operational data for network elements in a software-defined network (SDN), the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• deploying a framework for collecting operational data for a set of network elements in the SDN, said framework comprising an interface for different client applications to use in order to configure the framework to collect and aggregate the operational data based on different collection and aggregation criteria that satisfies different requirements of the different client applications;
• and
• deploying data collectors in the SDN that the framework configures to collect operational data from the set of network elements in the SDN.