Ubuntu Manpage: pmLookupLabels, pmGetInstancesLabels, pmGetItemLabels, pmGetClusterLabels, pmGetInDomLabels,

NAME

       pmLookupLabels,     pmGetInstancesLabels,    pmGetItemLabels,    pmGetClusterLabels,    pmGetInDomLabels,
       pmGetDomainLabels, pmGetContextLabels - retrieve labels associated with performance metric values

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>

       int pmLookupLabels(pmID pmid, pmLabelSet **labelsets);

       int pmGetInstancesLabels(pmInDom indom, pmLabelSet **labelsets);
       int pmGetItemLabels(pmID pmid, pmLabelSet **labelsets);
       int pmGetClusterLabels(pmID pmid, pmLabelSet **labelsets);
       int pmGetInDomLabels(pmInDom indom, pmLabelSet **labelsets);
       int pmGetDomainLabels(int domain, pmLabelSet **labelsets);
       int pmGetContextLabels(pmLabelSet **labelsets);

       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION

Labels are name:value pairs associated with performance metric values for the purpose of attaching
additional metric metadata to values. This metadata is less structured and exists separately to the
metric descriptor available for every PCP metric from pmLookupDesc(3).

Much like the metric descriptor metadata, labels are an integral part of the identity of each metric, and
should rarely, if ever, change.

The pmLookupLabels routine is a convenience interface providing retrieval for all labels associated with
a single performance metric identifier, pmid. It performs no caching of labels internally.

For efficiency in communication and storage within the various components of the PMCS (Performance
Metrics Collection System), labels are maintained using a hierarchy. The set of labels associated with
any individual metric value consists of the union of labels from each of these sets of labels:

1. Global labels (apply to all metric values from a host or archive context)

pmGetContextLabels
provides the labelset associated with all metric values from a given source (PMAPI context).

2. Domain labels (apply to every metric within a PMDA)

pmGetDomainLabels
provides the labelset associated with the domain identifier.

3. Instance Domain labels (apply to all metrics sharing that indom)

pmGetInDomLabels
provides the labelset associated with the instance domain identifier indom.

4. Cluster labels (apply to a group of metrics within one domain)

pmGetClusterLabels
provides the labelset associated with the metric cluster (domain,cluster) identified by pmid.

5. Item labels (apply to an individual performance metric)

pmGetItemLabels
provides the labelset associated with the metric item (domain,cluster,item) identified by pmid.

6. Instance labels (apply to individual instances of a metric)

pmGetInstancesLabels
provides the set of instance identifiers and labels in labelsets for each instance associated
with the instance domain identifier indom. The return value indicates the number of elements in
the result - one labelset for each instance.

These independent labelsets can be merged using pmMergeLabelSets(3) to form the complete set of all
labels associated with a given value.

LABEL SYNTAX

       Labels  are  stored  and communicated within PCP using JSONB format.  This format is a restricted form of
       JSON suitable for indexing and other operations.  In JSONB form, insignificant whitespace  is  discarded,
       and  the  order of label names is not preserved.  Within the PMCS a lexicographically sorted key space is
       always maintained, however.  Duplicate label names are not permitted.  The label with highest  precedence
       is  the  only one presented.  If duplicate names are presented at the same hierarchy level, only one will
       be preserved (exactly which one wins is arbitrary, so do not rely on this).

       All name:value pair(s) present will be converted to JSONB form and merged with the existing set of labels
       for the requested entity (context, domain, indom, metric or instance).

       The label names are further constrained to the same set of rules defined for PMNS subtree names.

       Each  component  in a label name must begin with an alphabetic character, and be followed by zero or more
       characters drawn from the alphabetics, the digits and the underscore (``_'') character.   For  alphabetic
       characters in a name, upper and lower case are distinguished.

       The value of a label offers significantly more freedom, and may be any valid value as defined by the JSON
       (http://json.org) specification.  Redundant whitespace is always removed within the PMCS.

PRECEDENCE

       The complete set of labels associated with any metric value is built from several sources  and  duplicate
       label  names  may  exist  at  any  point in the source hierarchy.  However, when evaluating the label set
       (merging labels from the different sources) the JSONB concept of only presenting unique labels  is  used.
       It  is therefore important to define precedence rules in order that a deterministic set of uniquely named
       labels can be defined.

       As a rule of thumb, the labels closest to PMNS leaf nodes and metric values take precedence:

       1. Global context labels
           (as reported by the pmcd.labels metric) are the lowest precedence.

       2. Domain labels
           (for all metrics and instances from a PMDA) are the next highest precedence.

       3. Instance Domain labels
           associated with an InDom are the next highest precedence.

       4. Metric cluster labels
           associated with a PMID cluster are the next highest precedence.

       5. Metric item labels
           associated with an individual PMID are the next highest precedence.

       6. Instance labels
           associated with a metric instance identifier have highest precedence.

DATA STRUCTURES

       The primary output from pmLookupLabels is returned in the  argument  labelset  as  an  array,  using  the
       following component data structures;

            struct {
                uint     name : 16;      /* label name offset in JSONB string */
                uint     namelen : 8;    /* length of name excluding the null */
                uint     flags : 8;      /* information about this label */
                uint     value : 16;     /* offset of the label value */
                uint     valuelen : 16;  /* length of value in bytes */
            } pmLabel;

            struct {
                uint     inst;           /* PM_IN_NULL or the instance ID */
                int      nlabels;        /* count of labels or error code */
                char     *json;          /* JSON formatted labels string */
                uint     jsonlen : 16;   /* JSON string length byte count */
                uint     padding : 16;   /* zero, reserved for future use */
                pmLabel  *labels;        /* indexing into the JSON string */
            } pmLabelSet;

       The  pmLabel  provides  information about an individual label.  This includes the offsets to the start of
       its name and value in the json string of a pmLabelSet, their respective lengths, and also any informative
       flags  associated  with the label (describing where it lies in the hierarchy of labels, and whether it is
       an intrinsic or extrinsic label).

       Building on this, the pmLabelSet provides information about the set of labels associated with  an  entity
       (context, domain, indom, metric cluster, item or instance).  The entity will be from any one level of the
       label hierarchy.   If  at  the  lowest  hierarchy  level  (which  happens  to  be  highest  precedence  -
       PM_LABEL_INSTANCES) then the inst field will contain an actual instance identifier instead of PM_IN_NULL.

       The  nlabels  field  describes  the  number  of  labels  (name:value pairs) that can be found in both the
       accompanying json string (which is JSONB format - no unnecessary whitespace and with no  duplicate  label
       names) and the accompanying labels array (which has nlabels elements).

EXAMPLES

       Consider  a  deployment  with  global  labels  (assume  $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR  is set to its usual location of
       /etc/pcp) as follows:

       $ cat /etc/pcp/labels/*
       {
         "tier": "production",
         "datacenter": "hkg",
         "services": ["indexer","database"]
       }

       Use pminfo to form the merged labelsets for several pmdasample(1) metrics as follows:

       $ pminfo -m -f --labels sample.rapid sample.colour sample.mirage

       sample.rapid PMID: 30.0.64
            value 800000000
            labels {"agent":"sample","datacenter":"sydney","hostname":"acme.com","measure":"speed","role":"testing","services":["indexer","database"],"tier":"production","units":"metres per second","unitsystem":"SI"}

       sample.colour PMID: 30.0.5
            inst [0 or "red"] value 101
            inst [1 or "green"] value 202
            inst [2 or "blue"] value 303
            inst [0 or "red"] labels {"agent":"sample","datacenter":"syd","hostname":"acme.com","model":"RGB","role":"testing","services":["indexer","database"],"tier":"production"}
            inst [1 or "green"] labels {"agent":"sample","datacenter":"syd","hostname":"acme.com","model":"RGB","role":"testing","services":["indexer","database"],"tier":"production"}
            inst [2 or "blue"] labels {"agent":"sample","datacenter":"syd","hostname":"acme.com","model":"RGB","role":"testing","services":["indexer","database"],"tier":"production"}

       sample.mirage PMID: 29.0.37
            inst [0 or "m-00"] value 99
            inst [0 or "m-00"] labels {"agent":"sample","datacenter":"sydney","hostname":"acme.com","role":"testing","services":["indexer","database"],"tier":"production","transient":false}

       Here, pminfo has merged the separate sets of labels returned from pmGetContextLabels (names:  datacenter,
       hostname,  services,  tier),  pmGetDomainLabels  (names:  role,  agent), pmGetInDomLabels (names: model),
       pmGetItemLabels (names: units, unitsystem)  and  pmGetInstancesLabels  (names:  transient)  to  form  the
       complete set for each of the metrics.

DIAGNOSTICS

       On  success  these  interfaces all return the number of elements in the labelsets array.  associated with
       performance metrics.  The memory associated with labelsets should be  released  using  pmFreeLabelSets(3)
       when no longer needed.

       Only  in  the  case  of  pmLookupLabels  will  the  resulting labelset be a merged set of labels from all
       hierarchy levels.

       For the other routines, except for pmGetInstancesLabels, if no labels exist  at  all  for  the  requested
       hierarchy level the return code will be zero and no space will have been allocated.

       In  the case of pmGetInstancesLabels, which can return multiple elements in its labelsets result (one set
       of labels for each instance), the nlabels field  may  be  either  zero  indicating  no  labels  for  that
       instance, or a positive count of labels, or a negative PMAPI error code.

       Note that it is mandatory for a call to pmGetInstancesLabels to be preceded by a call to pmGetInDom(3) to
       ensure the instances have been resolved within the PMDA.

       If no  result  can  be  obtained,  e.g.  due  to  IPC  failure  using  the  current  PMAPI  context  then
       pmGetInstancesLabels will return a negative error code which may be examined using pmErrStr(3).