Ubuntu Manpage: pmproxy - proxy for performance metrics collector and querying

NAME

       pmproxy - proxy for performance metrics collector and querying

SYNOPSIS

       pmproxy  [-AdfFt?]   [-c  conffile]  [-C  certdb]  [-h host[,host ...]  [-i ipaddress] [-l
       logfile] [-L bytes] [-M certname] [-p port[,port ...]  [-P passfile] [-r  port[,port  ...]
       [-s sockname] [-U username] [-x outfile]

DESCRIPTION

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

       In its default mode of operation, on platforms supporting this, pmproxy provides the  REST
       API  for  all  PCP  services  (see  PMWEBAPI(3)  for  details) and interfaces to the fast,
       scalable time series query capabilities offered  by  PCP  in  conjunction  with  a  redis-
       server(1) (see pmseries(1) for details).

       pmproxy  can  be deployed in a firewall domain, or on a cluster ``head'' node where the IP
       (Internet Protocol) address of the hosts where pmcd and/or redis-server are running may be
       unknown  to  the  PCP  monitoring  clients,  but  where the IP address of the host running
       pmproxy 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 and/or redis-server are 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  PMAPI(3)
       connections  directly  to  pmcd.   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 or redis-server indirectly through the
       protocol proxy services of pmproxy.

OPTIONS

The available command line options are:

-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 conffile, --config=conffile
Specify the path to an optional configuration conffile, with format as described in
the ``CONFIGURATION'' section. This option implies pmproxy is running in timeseries
mode.

-C certdb, --certdb=certdb
Specify the path to the Network Security Services certificate database, for
(optional) secure connections. This option implies pmproxy is running in deprecated
mode. 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(1) utility. This
process and other certificate database maintenance information is provided in the
PCPIntro(1) manual page and the online PCP tutorials.

-d, --deprecated
By default pmproxy prefers to run in the new timeseries mode, providing REST APIs,
asynchronous network I/O, scalable time series, and secure connections using OpenSSL.
However, legacy deployments may wish to use the original synchronous pmproxy
implementation using NSS and libpcp networking; this can be achieved using this
option. Note that the -d and -t options are mutually exclusive.

-f, --foreground
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.

-F, --systemd
Like -f, the -F option runs pmproxy in the foreground, but also does some
housekeeping (like create a ``pid'' file and change user id). This is intended for
use when pmproxy is launched from systemd(1) and the daemonizing has already been
done by systemd(1) and does not need to be done again by pmproxy, which is the case
when neither -f nor -F is specified.

At most one of -f and -F may be specified.

-h host, --redishost=host
Specify an alternate Redis host to connect to for time series querying, overriding
any configuration file settings. This option implies pmproxy is running in
timeseries mode.

-i ipaddress, --interface=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 likely to be deployed to
arbitrate access to an internal network). 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, --log=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 a given logfile instead of the default.
If this logfile 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, --certname=certname
By default pmproxy will try to use a certificate called PCP Collector certificate in
its server role. The -M option allows this certificate certname to be changed. This
option implies pmproxy is running in deprecated mode.

-p port, --port=port
Specify an alternate port number to listen on for client connections. The default
value is 44322.

-P passfile, --passfile=passfile
Specify the path to a passfile containing the Network Security Services certificate
database password for (optional) secure connections, and for databases that are
password protected. This option implies pmproxy is running in deprecated mode.
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).

-r port, --redisport=port
Specify an alternate Redis port number to connect to for time series querying,
overriding any configuration file settings. This option implies pmproxy is running
in timeseries mode.

-s sockname, --socket=sockname
Specify the path to a local unix domain socket (for platforms supporting this socket
family only). The default value is $PCP_RUN_DIR/pmproxy.socket. This option implies
pmproxy is running in timeseries mode.

-t, --timeseries
Operate in automatic archive timeseries discovery mode. This mode of operation will
enable the PMWEBAPI(3) REST APIs, dynamiclly and automatically detect active system
archives being written by pmlogger(1) and import them into a redis-server(1), for
fast, scalable time series querying described in pmseries(1). Note that in this mode
of operation, pmproxy only "log-tails" and ingests actively growing archives, e.g. as
written by one or more pmlogger(1) instances. When an archive is first discovered
(usually but not limited to pmproxy startup), all metadata is loaded and sent to the
configured redis-server(1) however note that only new archive metric value data from
the tail end of each archive is ingested. Compressed archives never grow and so are
ignored. See the --load option to pmseries(1) for a supported mechanism for manually
loading all of the metric value data from previously collected (inactive) archives,
whether compressed or not. It would be normal, though not mandated, for a set of
archives being manually loaded to cover the same time period, e.g. archive data for a
particular week for one or more hosts in the same data-centre.

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

-x outfile
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 outfile.

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

CONFIGURATION

       When  running  in  the  timeseries  mode of operation, runtime configuration is relatively
       complex and typically handled via the  $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmproxy/pmproxy.conf  file.   This
       file  is  in  the common ``ini'' format, with section headers and individual variables and
       values with each section.  The configuration file installed as part of PCP documents every
       available section and option.

       At a high level, the [pmproxy] section can be used to explicitly enable or disable each of
       the different protocols.

       The [redis] section allows connection information for one  or  more  backing  redis-server
       processes  to  be  configured  (hostnames  and ports).  Note to access multiple (scalable)
       Redis servers, the servers variable in this section  can  be  a  comma-separated  list  of
       hostname:port  pairs.   Alternatively,  it  can be a single redis-server host that will be
       queried using the "CLUSTER INFO"  command  to  automatically  configure  multiple  backing
       hosts, described at https://redis.io/topics/cluster-spec.

       In  earlier  versions  of  PCP (before 6) an alternative configuration setting section was
       used for this purpose - Redis servers were specified in the [pmseries] section and this is
       still accepted as a fallback for backwards compatibility.

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  (as  well
       as  44323  with  timeseries  enabled)  registered  at  https://www.iana.org/.   Either the
       environment variable 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).

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.

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
            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/tls
            default OpenSSL certificate database directory, used for optional Secure Socket Layer
            connections  in  timeseries mode of operation.  These certificates can be created and
            queried using the openssl tool, amongst others.

       /etc/pki/nssdb
            default Network Sercity Services (NSS) database directory, used for  optional  Secure
            Socket  Layer  connections  in  deprecated  mode  of operation.  This database can be
            created and queried using the NSS certutil tool, amongst others.  This is  only  used
            when pmproxy is running in deprecated mode.

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, pmproxy and pmcd.

PMCD_PORT
For the PCP monitoring client this (or the default port number) is passed to
pmproxy and used to connect to pmcd. 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, as well as 44323 with timeseries enabled.

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 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).

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