NAME

       pmproxy - proxy for performance metrics collector daemon

SYNOPSIS

       pmproxy  [-Af] [-C dirname] [-i ipaddress] [-l logfile] [-L bytes] [-M certname] [-p port[,port ...]  [-P
       passfile] [-U username] [-x file]

DESCRIPTION

       pmproxy acts as a protocol proxy for pmcd(1), allowing Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) monitoring  clients  to
       connect to one or more pmcd(1) instances via pmproxy.

       Normally  pmproxy  is  deployed  in  a  firewall  domain, or on a ``head'' node of a cluster where the IP
       (Internet Protocol) address of the hosts where pmcd(1) is running may be unknown to  the  PCP  monitoring
       clients,  although  the  IP  address  of  the  host  where  pmproxy is running is known to these clients.
       Similarly, the clients may have network connectivity only to the host where  pmproxy  is  running,  while
       there is network connectivity from that host to the hosts of interest where pmcd(1) is running.

       The behaviour of the PCP monitoring clients is controlled by either the PMPROXY_HOST environment variable
       or through the extended hostname specification (see  PCPIntro(1)  for  details).   If  neither  of  these
       mechanisms  is  used,  clients  will  make  their connections directly to pmcd(1).  If the proxy hostname
       syntax is used or PMPROXY_HOST is set, then this should be the hostname or IP address of the system where
       pmproxy  is  running,  and  the  clients  will  connect  to pmcd(1) indirectly through the protocol proxy
       services of pmproxy.

       The options to pmproxy are as follows.

       -A     Disable service advertisement.  By default, pmproxy will advertise its  presence  on  the  network
              using  any  available  mechanisms  (such  as Avahi/DNS-SD), assisting remote monitoring tools with
              finding it.  These mechanisms are disabled with this option.

       -C dirname
              Specify the path to the Network Security Services  certificate  database,  for  (optional)  secure
              connections.  The default is /etc/pki/nssdb.  Refer also to the -P option.  If it does not already
              exist, this database  can  be  created  using  the  certutil  utility.   This  process  and  other
              certificate  database  maintenance  information is provided in the PCPIntro(1) manual page and the
              online PCP tutorials.

       -f     By default pmproxy is started as a daemon.  The -f option indicates that  it  should  run  in  the
              foreground.  This is most useful when trying to diagnose problems with establishing connections.

       -i ipaddress
              This  option  is  usually only used on hosts with more than one network interface (very common for
              firewall and ``head'' node hosts where pmproxy is most likely to be deployed).  If no  -i  options
              are  specified  pmproxy accepts PCP client connections on  any of its host's IP addresses.  The -i
              option is used to specify explicitly an IP address that PCP client connections should be  accepted
              on.   ipaddress  should  be  in the standard dotted form (e.g. 100.23.45.6).  The -i option may be
              used multiple times to define a list of IP addresses.  When one or more -i options  is  specified,
              attempted connections made on any other IP addresses will be refused.

       -l logfile
              By default a log file named pmproxy.log is written in the current directory.  The -l option causes
              the log file to be written to logfile instead of the default.  If the log file cannot  be  created
              or is not writable, output is written to the standard error instead.

       -L bytes
              PDUs  received  by  pmproxy  from PCP monitoring clients are restricted to a maximum size of 65536
              bytes by default to defend against Denial of Service attacks.  The -L option may be used to change
              the maximum incoming PDU size.

       -M certname
              By  default,  pmproxy will try to use a certificate called PCP Collector certificate in its server
              role. The -M option allows this to be changed.

       -P passfile
              Specify the path to a file containing the Network Security Services certificate database  password
              for  (optional)  secure connections, and for databases that are password protected.  Refer also to
              the -C option.  When using this option, great care  should  be  exercised  to  ensure  appropriate
              ownership  ("pcp"  user,  typically) and permissions on this file (0400, so as to be unreadable by
              any user other than the user running the pmproxy process).

       -U username
              Assume the identity of username before starting to accept incoming  packets  from  PCP  monitoring
              clients.

       -x file
              Before  the  pmproxy  logfile can be opened, pmproxy may encounter a fatal error which prevents it
              from starting.  By default, the output describing this error  is  sent  to  /dev/tty  but  it  may
              redirected to file.

STARTING AND STOPPING PMPROXY

       Normally,  pmproxy  is  started  automatically  at boot time and stopped when the system is being brought
       down.  Under certain circumstances it is necessary to start or stop pmproxy manually.   To  do  this  one
       must become superuser and type

       # $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy start

       to start pmproxy, or

       # $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy stop

       to  stop  pmproxy.   Starting  pmproxy  when  it  is  already running is the same as stopping it and then
       starting it again.

       Normally pmproxy listens  for  PCP  client  connections  on  TCP/IP  port  number  44322  (registered  at
       http://www.iana.org/).   Either  the environment variable PMPROXY_PORT -p command line option may be used
       to specify alternative port number(s) when PMPROXY_PORT or the -p command line  option  may  be  used  to
       specify  alternative  port number(s) when pmproxy is started; in each case, the specification is a comma-
       separated list of one or more numerical port numbers.  Should both methods be used or multiple -p options
       appear  on  the  command  line, pmproxy will listen on the union of the set of ports specified via all -p
       options and the PMPROXY_PORT environment variable.  If non-default  ports  are  used  with  pmproxy  care
       should be taken to ensure that PMPROXY_PORT is also set in the environment of any client application that
       will connect to pmproxy, or that the extended host specification syntax  is  used  (see  PCPIntro(1)  for
       details).

FILES

       PCP_PMPROXYOPTIONS_PATH
              command  line  options  for  pmproxy  when  launched from $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy All the command line
              option lines should start with a hyphen as the first character.
       $PCP_SYSCONFIG_DIR/pmproxy
              additional environment variables that will be set when pmproxy executes.   Only  settings  of  the
              form "PMPROXY_VARIABLE=value" will be honoured.
       ./pmproxy.log
              (or $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmproxy/pmproxy.log when started automatically)
              All messages and diagnostics are directed here
       /etc/pki/nssdb
              default  Network  Security Services (NSS) certificate database directory, used for optional Secure
              Socket Layer connections.  This database can be created and queried using the NSS  certutil  tool,
              amongst others.

ENVIRONMENT

       In  addition  to  the PCP environment variables described in the PCP ENVIRONMENT section below, there are
       several environment variables that influence the interactions between a PCP monitoring client,  pmcd  and
       pmcd(1).

       PMCD_PORT
              For  the  PCP monitoring client this (or the default port number) is passed to pmproxy and used to
              connect to pmcd(1).  In the environment of pmproxy PMCD_PORT is not used.

       PMPROXY_HOST
              For the PCP monitoring client this is the hostname or IP address of  the  host  where  pmproxy  is
              running.   In  recent  versions  of PCP (since version 3) this has been superseded by the extended
              hostname syntax (see PCPIntro(1) for details).

       PMPROXY_PORT
              For the PCP monitoring client this is the port on which  pmproxy  will  accept  connections.   The
              default is 44322.

       PMCD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, PMCD_RECONNECT_TIMEOUT and PMCD_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
              (see  PCPIntro(1))  For the PCP monitoring client, setting these environment variables will modify
              the timeouts used for interactions between the client and pmproxy (independent of which pmcd(1) is
              being  used).   For  pmproxy these same environment variables control the timeouts between pmproxy
              and all pmcd(1) instances (independent of which monitoring client is involved).

       If set to the value 1, the PMPROXY_LOCAL environment variable will cause pmproxy to run in  a  localhost-
       only mode of operation, where it binds only to the loopback interface.

       The  PMPROXY_MAXPENDING  variable can be set to indicate the maximum length to which the queue of pending
       client connections may grow.

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

       PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdbg(1), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).

DIAGNOSTICS

       If pmproxy is already running the message "Error: OpenRequestSocket bind: Address already  in  use"  will
       appear.  This may also appear if pmproxy was shutdown with an outstanding request from a client.  In this
       case, a request socket has been left in the TIME_WAIT state and until the system closes  it  down  (after
       some timeout period) it will not be possible to run pmproxy.

       In addition to the standard PCP debugging options, see pmdbg(1), pmproxy currently supports the debugging
       option context for tracing client connections and disconnections.