1. An apparatus comprising a server having a programmable processor coupled to a memory which can be any type of memory including RAM and a disk drive or disk array, said programmable processor also coupled to a communication interface for coupling to a data path such as the internet, operations of said programmable processor controlled by one or more computer programs, said one or more computer programs structured to control said server to prepare a non relational database file system storing performance metric data encoded in a manner suitable for searching by regular expression by performing the following steps: receiving, via said communications interface, a plurality of time series of performance metric data numerical values, each time series measured from an attribute of an instance of a resource type being monitored, each time series of performance metric data numerical values spanning an entire day and wherein each numerical value in a time series is collected during a timeslot during said day; mapping each and every time series of performance metric data numerical values to a time series of Unicode characters; encoding each Unicode character of each time series of Unicode characters into a digital representation that can be stored in said memory; and storing each digital representation of a Unicode character in a non relational database file system stored in said memory in a manner so as to preserve the temporal relationship between a location in said non relational database file system where each Unicode character is stored and the timeslot during which each said performance metric data numerical value said Unicode character represents was measured; and wherein said one or more computer programs are structured to control said programmable processor to implement a user interface which allows a user to specify a relevant interval and to compose a search query using a query definition language implemented by said one or more computer programs, said query definition language having syntax building blocks which allow said user to use a regular expression to specify filter or matching conditions for each search of said Unicode characters, and to specify an attribute for each search and to specify a resource type for each search, said syntax building blocks allowing a user to specify more than one search in a search query, and wherein said one or more computer programs further structured to control said programmable processor in accordance with said search query to retrieve from said non relational database file Unicode characters representing time series performance metric data numerical values collected during said relevant interval from one or more user specified attributes of one or more user specified resource types and carry out one or more searches using said one or more filter or matching conditions specified in said one or more regular expressions of said one or more searches.