Provided by: pcp_4.0.1-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       pmdaperfevent - hardware performance counter performance metrics domain agent (PMDA)

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/pmdaperfevent  [-d  domain]  [-l logfile] [-U username] [-i port]
       [-p] [-u socket] [-6]

DESCRIPTION

       pmdaperfevent is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) that configures and  reads  the
       hardware performance counters using the Linux kernel perf_event API.

       The perfevent PMDA exports metrics for hardware performance counters that are configurable
       from the Linux kernel perf_event API.  The PMDA uses the libpfm4  library  to  access  the
       hardware  performance  counters  so  any  counters that are supported in libpfm4 should be
       available.  Also included is the ability to read the Intel RAPL counters  via  direct  MSR
       access.   The  PMDA  supports  automatically  loading different counters for each hardware
       architecture.  A single configuration file is used to specify  the  desired  counters  for
       each  hardware performance monitoring unit (PMU).  The configuration file allows different
       counters to be programmed on different CPUs and supports round-robin assignment of  uncore
       counters needed for some AMD chips.

       The  PMDA  also  counts for events exposed in the kernel via /sys/bus/event_source/devices
       directory. The PMU device name and the event name must be mentioned in  the  configuration
       file. Otherwise, the metric won't be available to monitor through this PMDA.

       The PMDA configures the counters to count events in both user and kernel mode.  This means
       that the hardware counters are unavailable to use by normal unprivileged user applications
       when  they  are  in use by the PMDA.  The PMDA provides a mechanism to temporarily disable
       the system-wide counters in order to allow normal users to be able to use the counters  if
       they wish.  See perfalloc(1) for details.

       Note  that  pmdaperfevent  is  affected  by  the  value  of the kernel.perf_event_paranoid
       setting, which can be adjusted by sysctl(8).

       A brief description of the pmdaperfevent command line options follows:

       -d   It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics domain number specified here is
            unique and consistent.  That is, domain should be different for every PMDA on the one
            host, and the same domain number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.

       -l   Location of the log file.  By default, a log file named perfevent.log is  written  in
            the   current   directory   of   pmcd(1)   when   pmdaperfevent   is   started,  i.e.
            $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd.  If the log file cannot be created or is not writable,  output  is
            written to the standard error instead.

       -U   User  account  under  which  to  run the agent.  The default is the privileged "root"
            account.

       -i   listen on given port number for connection from pmcd(1)

       -p   communicate with pmcd(1) via stdin/stdout

       -u   expect pmcd(1) to connect on given unix domain socket

       -6   expect pmcd(1) to connect on given ipv6 port (number or name)

INSTALLATION

       The perfevent PMDA is not activated by default To install the PMDA, do  the  following  as
       root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent
            # ./Install

       If you want to undo the installation, do the following as root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent
            # ./Remove

       pmdaperfevent  is  launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly.  The Install
       and Remove scripts notify pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed.

FILES

       $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
                 command line options used to launch pmdaperfevent
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/perfevent.conf
                 default configuration file for the PMDA.   See  perfevent.conf(5)  for  detailed
                 information.
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/help
                 default help text file for the perfevent metrics
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/Install
                 installation script for the pmdaperfevent agent
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/Remove
                 undo installation script for the pmdaperfevent agent
       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/perfevent.log
                 default log file for error messages and other information from pmdaperfevent

UPGRADING

       Some  metric  names  have  changed  starting  in  version 3.10.8 to better conform to PMNS
       conventions.  pmlogrewrite(1) can be used to  update  old  archives.   A  helper  utility,
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/perfevent-makerewrite.pl  will  generate  a  config  file that is
       suitable for use with pmlogrewrite(1) to update the metric names in existing archives.

BUGS

       Each event is placed in its own group and there is no way to group related events together
       so  they  are  guaranteed to be simultaneously active.  A workaround for this is to ensure
       that the number of configured events is less than or equal  to  the  number  of  available
       hardware  counters.  This means that the events will not be time-multiplexed by the kernel
       and will be simultaneously active.

PCP ENVIRONMENT

       Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the file and directory
       names used by PCP.  On each installation, the file /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values
       for these variables.  The $PCP_CONF  variable  may  be  used  to  specify  an  alternative
       configuration file, as described in pcp.conf(5).

SEE ALSO

       perfalloc(1),   perfevent.conf(5),   PCPIntro(1),   pmcd(1),   pmlogrewrite(1),  PMAPI(3),
       pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and sysctl(8).