Ubuntu Manpage: pmlogger_check, pmlogger_daily - administration of Performance Co-Pilot archive log files

NAME

       pmlogger_check, pmlogger_daily - administration of Performance Co-Pilot archive log files

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_check [-CNsTV?]  [-c control] [-l logfile]
       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_daily  [-KMNoprRV?]   [-c  control] [-k discard] [-l logfile] [-m
       addresses] [-s size] [-t want] [-x compress] [-X program] [-Y regex]

DESCRIPTION

These shell scripts and associated control files may be used to create a customized regime
of administration and management for Performance Co-Pilot (see PCPIntro(1)) archive log
files.

pmlogger_check may be run at any time of the day and is intended to check that a desired
set of pmlogger(1) processes are running. If not, it (re-)starts any missing logger
processes.

pmlogger_daily is intended to be run once per day, preferably in the early morning, as
soon after midnight as practicable. Its task is to aggregate, rotate and perform general
housekeeping one or more sets of PCP archives.

To accommodate the evolution of PMDAs and changes in production logging environments,
pmlogger_daily is integrated with pmlogrewrite(1) to allow optional and automatic
rewriting of archives before merging. If there are global rewriting rules to be applied
across all archives mentioned in the control file(s), then create the directory
$PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogrewrite and place any pmlogrewrite(1) rewriting rules in this
directory. For rewriting rules that are specific to only one family of archives, use the
directory name from the control file(s) - i.e. the fourth field - and create a file, or a
directory, or a symbolic link named pmlogrewrite within this directory and place the
required rewriting rule(s) in the pmlogrewrite file or in files within the pmlogrewrite
subdirectory. pmlogger_daily will choose rewriting rules from the archive directory if
they exist, else rewriting rules from $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogrewrite if that directory
exists, else no rewriting is attempted.

As an alternate mechanism, if the file $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/.NeedRewrite exists when
pmlogger_daily starts then this is treated the same as specifying -R on the command line
and $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/.NeedRewrite will be removed once all the rewriting has been
done.

OPTIONS

-c control, --control=control
Both pmlogger_check and pmlogger_daily are controlled by PCP logger control file(s)
that specifies the pmlogger instances to be managed. The default control file is
$PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH, but an alternate may be specified using the -c option. If
the directory $PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH.d (or control.d from the -c option) exists,
then the contents of any additional control files therein will be appended to the
main control file (which must exist).

-C This option causes pmlogger_check to query the system service runlevel information
for pmie, and use that to determine whether to start processes or not.

-k period, --discard=period
After some period, old PCP archives are discarded. This period is 14 days by
default, but may be changed using this option. Some special values are recognized
for the period, namely 0 to keep no archives beyond the current one, and forever or
never to prevent any archives being discarded. Note that the semantics of discard
are that it is measured from the time of last modification of each archive, and not
from the current day. This has subtle implications for compression (see below) - the
compression process results in the creation of new archive files which have new
modification times. In this case, the discard period (re)starts from the time of
compression.

-K When this option is specified for pmlogger_daily then only the compression tasks are
attempted, so no pmlogger rotation, no culling, no rewriting, etc. When -K is used
and a compress value of 0 is in effect (from -x on the command line or
PCP_COMPRESSAFTER in the environment or via the control file) this is intended for
environments where compression of archives is desired before the scheduled daily
processing happens. To achieve this, once pmlogger_check has completed regular
processing, it calls pmlogger_daily with just the -K option. Provided
PCP_COMPRESSAFTER is set to 0 along with any other required compression options to
match the scheduled invocation of pmlogger_daily, then this will compress all volumes
except the ones being currently written by pmlogger(1).

-l file, --logfile=file
In order to ensure that mail is not unintentionally sent when these scripts are run
from cron(8) diagnostics are always sent to log files. By default, this file is
$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger_check.log or $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger_daily.log
but this can be changed using the -l option. If this log file already exists when
the script starts, it will be renamed with a .prev suffix (overwriting any log file
saved earlier) before diagnostics are generated to the log file. The -l and -t
options cannot be used together.

-m addresses, --mail=addresses
Use of this option causes pmlogger_daily to construct a summary of the ``notices''
file entries which were generated in the last 24 hours, and e-mail that summary to
the set of space-separated addresses. This daily summary is stored in the file
$PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES.daily, which will be empty when no new ``notices'' entries were
made in the previous 24 hour period.

-M This option may be used to disable archive merging (or renaming) and rewriting (-M
implies -r). This is most useful in cases where the archives are being incrementally
copied to a remote repository, e.g. using rsync(1). Merging, renaming and rewriting
all risk an increase in the synchronization load, especially immediately after
pmlogger_daily has run, so -M may be useful in these cases.

-N, --showme
This option enables a ``show me'' mode, where the programs actions are echoed, but
not executed, in the style of ``make -n''. Using -N in conjunction with -V maximizes
the diagnostic capabilities for debugging.

-o By default all possible archives will be merged. This option reinstates the old
behaviour in which only yesterday's archives will be considered as merge candidates.
In the special case where only a single input archive needs to be merged, pmlogmv(1)
is used to rename the archive, otherwise pmlogger_merge(1) is used to merge all of
the archives for a single host and a single day into a new PCP archive and the
individual archives are removed.

-p If this option is specified for pmlogger_daily then the status of the daily
processing is polled and if the daily pmlogger(1) rotation, culling, rewriting,
compressing, etc. has not been done in the last 24 hours then it is done now. The
intent is to have pmlogger_daily called regularly with the -p option (at 30 mins past
the hour, every hour in the default cron(8) set up) to ensure daily processing
happens as soon as possible if it was missed at the regularly scheduled time (which
is 00:10 by default), e.g. if the system was down or suspended at that time. With
this option pmlogger_daily simply exits if the previous day's processing has already
been done. The -K and -p options to pmlogger_daily are mutually exclusive.

-r, --norewrite
This command line option acts as an override and prevents all archive rewriting with
pmlogrewrite(1) independent of the presence of any rewriting rule files or
directories.

-R, --rewriteall
Sometimes PMDA changes require all archives to be rewritten, not just the ones
involved in any current merging. This is required for example after a PCP upgrade
where a new version of an existing PMDA has revised metadata. The -R command line
forces this universal-style of rewriting. The -R option to pmlogger_daily is
mutually exclusive with both the -r and -M options.

-s size, --rotate=size
If the PCP ``notices'' file ($PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES) is larger than 20480 bytes,
pmlogger_daily will rename the file with a ``.old'' suffix, and start a new
``notices'' file. The rotate threshold may be changed from 20480 to size bytes using
the -s option.

-s, --stop
Use of this option provides the reverse pmlogger_check functionality, allowing the
set of pmlogger processes to be cleanly shutdown.

-t period
To assist with debugging or diagnosing intermittent failures the -t option may be
used. This will turn on very verbose tracing (-VV) and capture the trace output in a
file named $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/daily.datestamp.trace, where datestamp is the time
pmlogger_daily was run in the format YYYYMMDD.HH.MM. In addition, the period
argument will ensure that trace files created with -t will be kept for period days
and then discarded.

-T, --terse
This option to pmlogger_check produces less verbose output than the default. This is
most suitable for a pmlogger ``farm'' where many instances of pmlogger are expected
to be running.

-V, --verbose
The output from the cron execution of the scripts may be extended using the -V option
to the scripts which will enable verbose tracing of their activity. By default the
scripts generate no output unless some error or warning condition is encountered.
Using -N in conjunction with -V maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging.

-x period, --compress-after=period
Archive data files can optionally be compressed after some period to conserve disk
space. This is particularly useful for large numbers of pmlogger processes under the
control of pmlogger_check. If transparent_decompress is enabled when libpcp was
built (can be checked with the pmconfig(1) -Loption), then the default behaviour is
compression ``as soon as possible''. Otherwise the default behaviour is to not
compress files (which matches the historical default behaviour in earlier PCP
releases). The -x option specifies the number of days after which to compress
archive data and metadata files. If compress is 0 then compression will be applied
as soon as possible. If compress is never or forever then no compression will be
done. The environment variable PCP_COMPRESSAFTER may be used as an alternative
mechanism to define compress. If both PCP_COMPRESSAFTER and -x specify different
values for compress then the environment variable value is used and a warning is
issued.

-X program, --compressor=program
This option specifies the program to use for compression - by default this is xz(1).
The environment variable PCP_COMPRESS may be used as an alternative mechanism to
define program. If both PCP_COMPRESS and -X specify different compression programs
then the environment variable value is used and a warning is issued.

-Y regex, --regex=regex
This option allows a regular expression to be specified causing files in the set of
files matched for compression to be omitted - this allows only the data file to be
compressed, and also prevents the program from attempting to compress it more than
once. The default regex is ".(index|Z|gz|bz2|zip|xz|lzma|lzo|lz4)$" - such files are
filtered using the -v option to egrep(1). The environment variable PCP_COMPRESSREGEX
may be used as an alternative mechanism to define regex. If both PCP_COMPRESSREGEX
and -Y specify different values for regex then the environment variable value is used
and a warning is issued.

-?, --help
Display usage message and exit.

CONFIGURATION

Warning: The $PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH and $PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH.d files must not be
writable by any user other than root.

The control file(s) should be customized according to the following rules that define for
the current version (1.1) of the control file format.

1. Lines beginning with a ``#'' are comments.
2. Lines beginning with a ``$'' are assumed to be assignments to environment variables in
the style of sh(1), and all text following the ``$'' will be eval'ed by the script
reading the control file, and the corresponding variable exported into the
environment. This is particularly useful to set and export variables into the
environment of the administrative scripts, e.g.
$ PMCD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=20
3. There must be a version line in the initial control file of the form:
$ version=1.1
4. There should be one line in the control file(s) for each pmlogger instance of the
form:

host y|n y|n directory args

5. Fields within a line of the control file(s) are usually separated by one or more
spaces or tabs (although refer to the description of the directory field for some
important exceptions).
6. The first field is the name of the host that is the source of the performance metrics
for this pmlogger instance.
7. The second field indicates if this is a primary pmlogger instance (y) or not (n).
Since the primary logger must run on the local host, and there may be at most one
primary logger for a particular host, this field can be y for at most one pmlogger
instance, in which case the host name must be the name of the local host.
8. The third field indicates if this pmlogger instance needs to be started under the
control of pmsocks(1) to connect to a pmcd through a firewall (y or n).
9. The fourth field is a directory name. All files associated with this pmlogger
instance will be created in this directory, and this will be the current directory for
the execution of any programs required in the maintenance of those archives. A useful
convention is that primary logger archives for the local host with hostname myhost are
maintained in the directory $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/myhost (this is where the default
pmlogger start-up script in $PCP_RC_DIR/pcp will create the archives), while archives
for the remote host mumble are maintained in $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/mumble.
10. The directory field may contain embedded shell syntax that will be evaluated by sh(1)
to produce the real directory name to be used. The allowed constructs are:
· Any text (including white space) enclosed with $( and ).
· Any text (including white space) enclosed with ` and ` (back quotes).
· Any text (including white space) enclosed with " and " (double quotes).
· Any word containing a $ (assumed to introduce an environment variable name).
11. All other fields are interpreted as arguments to be passed to pmlogger(1) and/or
pmnewlog(1). Most typically this would be the -c option.

The following sample control lines specify a primary logger on the local host (bozo), and
non-primary loggers to collect and log performance metrics from the hosts wobbly and
boing.

$version=1.1
bozo y n $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/bozo -c config.default
wobbly n n "/store/wobbly/$(date +%Y)" -c ./wobbly.config
boing n n $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/boing -c ./pmlogger.config

Typical crontab(5) entries for periodic execution of pmlogger_daily and pmlogger_check are
given in $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogger/crontab (unless installed by default in /etc/cron.d
already) and shown below.

# daily processing of archive logs
14 0 * * * $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_daily
# every 30 minutes, check pmlogger instances are running
25,55 * * * * $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_check

When using systemd(1) on Linux, no crontab entries are needed as the timer mechanism
provided by systemd is used instead.

FILES

       $PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH
            the PCP logger control file
            Warning: this file must not be writable by any user other than root.

       $PCP_PMLOGGERCONTROL_PATH.d
            optional  directory containing additional PCP logger control files, typically one per
            host
            Warning: the files herein must not be writable by any user other than root.

       $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogger/crontab
            sample crontab for automated script execution by $PCP_USER (or root).  Exists only if
            the platform does not support the /etc/cron.d mechanism.

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmlogger/config.default
            default  pmlogger configuration file location for the local primary logger, typically
            generated automatically by pmlogconf(1).

       $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/<hostname>
            default location for archives of performance  information  collected  from  the  host
            hostname

       $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/<hostname>/lock
            transient  lock file to guarantee mutual exclusion during pmlogger administration for
            the host hostname - if present, can be safely removed if neither  pmlogger_daily  nor
            pmlogger_check are running

       $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/<hostname>/Latest
            PCP  archive  folio  created  by  mkaf(1)  for  the  most  recently  launched archive
            containing performance metrics from the host hostname

       $PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES
            PCP ``notices'' file used by pmie(1) and friends

       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger_check.log
            if the previous execution of pmlogger_check produced any output  it  is  saved  here.
            The normal case is no output in which case the file does not exist.

       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger_daily.log
            if  the  previous  execution  of pmlogger_daily produced any output it is saved here.
            The normal case is no output in which case the file does not exist.

       $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/<hostname>/SaveLogs
            if this directory exists, then the log file from the -l argument of a newly  launched
            pmlogger(1) for hostname will be linked into this directory with the name archive.log
            where archive is the basename of the associated pmlogger(1) PCP archive files.   This
            allows  the  log  file  to  be inspected at a later time, even if several pmlogger(1)
            instances for hostname have been launched in the interim.   Because  the  cron-driven
            PCP   archive   management   scripts   run   under  the  uid  of  the  user  ``pcp'',
            $PCP_ARCHIVE_DIR/hostname/SaveLogs typically needs to be owned by the user ``pcp''.

       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/.NeedRewrite
            if this file exists, then this is treated as equivalent to using -R  on  the  command
            line and the file will be removed once all rewriting has been done.

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).

       The default behaviour, when pmlogger(1)  configuration  comes  from  pmlogconf(1),  is  to
       regenerate  the  configuration  file and check for changes whenever pmlogger(1) is started
       from pmlogger_check.  If the PMDA configuration is stable,  this  is  not  necessary,  and
       setting $PMLOGGER_CHECK_SKIP_LOGCONF to yes disables the regeneration and checking.