Ubuntu Manpage: pmprobe - lightweight probe for performance metrics

NAME

       pmprobe - lightweight probe for performance metrics

SYNOPSIS

       pmprobe  [-fFIiLVvz?]   [-a  archive]  [-b batchsize] [-h hostname] [-K spec] [-n pmnsfile] [-O time] [-Z
       timezone] [--container=name] [--derived=file] [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION

pmprobe determines the availability of performance metrics exported through the facilities of the
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).

The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments. If metricname is a non-leaf node in the
Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5)), then pmprobe will recursively descend the PMNS and report on
all leaf nodes. If no metricname argument is given, the root of the namespace is used.

This recursive expansion of the PMNS can be inhibited by the -F (go faster) option, which reduces the
number of roundtrips to pmcd(1) when the metricname arguments are known to be leaf nodes ahead of time.

The output format is spartan and intended for use in wrapper scripts creating configuration files for
other PCP tools. By default, there is one line of output per metric, with the metric name followed by a
count of the number of available values. Error conditions are encoded as a negative value count (as per
the PMAPI(3) protocols, but may be decoded using pmerr(1)) and followed by a textual description of the
error.

Unless directed to another host by the -h option, pmprobe will contact the Performance Metrics Collector
Daemon (PMCD) on the local host.

The -a option causes pmprobe to use the specified set of archives rather than connecting to a PMCD.

The -L option causes pmprobe to use a local context to collect metrics from PMDAs on the local host
without PMCD. Only some metrics are available in this mode.

The -a, -h and -L options are mutually exclusive.

OPTIONS

The available command line options are:

-a archive, --archive=archive
Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive log files
identified by the archive argument, which is a comma-separated list of names, each of which may be
the base name of an archive or the name of a directory containing one or more archives.

-b, --batch
This option may be used to define the maximum number of metrics to be fetched in a single request
for the -v option and any pmLookupName(3) request that pmprobe calls with a list of leaf metric
names. The default value for batchsize is 128. This option is useful to avoid limitations on PDU
request sizes and also to stagger fetches, which may otherwise timeout if pmcd(1) or a PMDA is slow
to respond, particularly if a large number of metrics are probed.

-n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile
Normally pmprobe operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however, if the
-n option is specified an alternative local PMNS file is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

-f, --force
When used with -i or -I the set of instances reported will be all of those known at the source of
the performance data. By default the set of reported instances are those for which values are
currently available, which may be smaller than the set reported with -f.

-I, --external
Report the external identifiers for each instance. The literal string PM_IN_NULL is reported for
singular metrics.

-i, --internal
Report the internal identifiers for each instance. The values are in decimal and prefixed by ``?''.
As a special case, the literal string PM_IN_NULL is reported for singular metrics.

-K spec, --spec-local=spec
When using the -L/ option to fetch metrics from a local context, this option controls the DSO PMDAs
that should be made accessible. The spec argument conforms to the syntax described in
pmSpecLocalPMDA(3). More than one -K option may be used.

-O time, --origin=time
When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the options -f/, the time argument
defines a time origin at which the metrics should be fetched from the set of archives. Refer to
PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax for the time argument.

-v, --values
Report the value for each instance, as per the formatting rules of pmPrintValue(3). When fetching
from a set of archives, only those instances present in the first archive record for a metric will
be displayed; see also the -O option. The -v option is mutually exclusive with either the -I or -i
options.

-V, --verbose
This option provides a cryptic summary of the number of messages sent and received across the PMAPI
interface.

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

--container=container
Specify an individual container to be queried.

--derived=dmfile
The dmfile argument specifies a file that contains derived metric definitions in the format
described for pmLoadDerivedConfig(3). This option provides a way to load derived metric definitions
that is an alternative to the more generic use of the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment variable as
described in PCPIntro(1). Using the --derived option and the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment
variable to specify the same configuration is a bad idea, so choose one or the other method.

EXAMPLES

       $ pmprobe disk.dev
       disk.dev.read 2
       disk.dev.write 2
       disk.dev.total 2
       disk.dev.blkread 2
       disk.dev.blkwrite 2
       disk.dev.blktotal 2
       disk.dev.active 2
       disk.dev.response 2

       $ pmprobe -I disk.dev.read disk.dev.write disk.all.total
       disk.dev.read 2 "sda" "sdb"
       disk.dev.write 2 "sda" "sdb"
       disk.all.total 1 PM_IN_NULL

       $ pmprobe -v pmcd.numagents pmcd.version pmcd.control.timeout
       pmcd.numagents 1 9
       pmcd.version 1 "5.0.0"
       pmcd.control.timeout 1 5

       $ pmprobe -v disk.dev.total disk.all.total
       disk.dev.total -1012 Unknown metric name
       disk.all.total 1 4992466

FILES

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
            default PMNS specification files

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).

       For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).