Ubuntu Manpage: pmmgr - pcp daemon manager

NAME

       pmmgr - pcp daemon manager

SYNOPSIS

       pmmgr [-v] [-c config-directory] [-p polling-interval] [-l log-file]

DESCRIPTION

       pmmgr  manages  a collection of PCP daemons for a set of discovered local and remote hosts
       running the Performance Metrics Collection  Daemon  (PMCD),  according  to  zero  or  more
       configuration  directories.   It  keeps  a  matching  set  of pmlogger and/or pmie daemons
       running, and their archives/logs merged/rotated.  It supplants the  older  pmlogger_*  and
       pmie_* check/daily management shell scripts.

       pmmgr is largely self-configuring and perseveres despite most run-time errors.  pmmgr runs
       in the foreground until interrupted.  When signaled, it  will  stop  its  running  daemons
       before exiting.

       A description of the command line options specific to pmmgr follows:

       -c   directory  adds  a  given  configuration  directory  to  pmmgr.   pmmgr can supervise
            multiple different configurations at the same time.  Errors in the configuration  may
            be  noted to standard error, but pmmgr will fill in missing information with built-in
            defaults.  The default directory is $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmmgr

       -p   polling-interval sets the host-discovery polling interval  to  the  given  number  of
            seconds.  The default is 60.

       -l   log-file  redirects  standard  output & error to the given log file, which is created
            anew

       -v   adds more verbose tracing to standard error.

CONFIGURATION

A pmmgr configuration identifies which hosts should be monitored, which daemons should be
maintained for them, and what options those daemons should be run with. pmmgr uses a
small number of files in a configuration directory, instead of lines in a text file. The
individual files carry zero or more lines of 100% pure configuration text, and no
comments. (If desired, a configuration may be commented upon with any other file, such as
a free-form README.)

TARGET SELECTION
This set of configuration files identifies where pmmgr should search for pmcd instances,
how to uniquely identify them, and where state such as log files should be kept for each.
Ideally, a persistent & unique host-id string is computed for each potential target pmcd
from specified metric values. This host-id is also used as a subdirectory name for
locating daemon data.

hostid-metrics
This file contains one or more lines of metric specifications in the format
accepted by pmParseMetricSpec. Metrics without instance specifiers mean all
instances of that metric. These are used to generate the unique host-id string for
each pmcd server that pmmgr discovers. Upon discovery, all the metrics/instances
named are queried, string values fetched, and normalized/concatenated into a single
hyphenated printable string. The default is the single metric pmcd.hostname, which
is sufficient if all the hosts discovered have unique hostname(2). If they don't,
you should add other pcp metric specifications to set them apart at your site. The
more you add, the longer the host-id string, but the more likely that accidental
duplication is prevented.

However, it may be desirable for a host-id to also be persistent, so that if the
target host goes offline and later returns, the new host-id matches the previous
one, because then old and new histories can be joined. This argues against using
metrics whose values vary from boot to boot.

Some candidate metrics to consider: network.interface.hw_addr,
network.interface.inet_addr["eth0"], network.interface.ipv6_addr,
kernel.uname.nodename

log-directory
This file contains the path of a directory beneath which the per-host-id
subdirectories are to be created by pmmgr. If it is not a full path, it is
implicitly relative to the configuration directory itself. The default is
$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmmgr/.

target-host
This file contains one or more lines containing pmcd host specifications, as
described on the PCPintro(1) man page. Each poll interval, pmmgr will attempt to
make a brief pmNewContext connection to the host to check liveness. It is not a
problem if more than one specification for the same host is listed, because the
host-id processing eliminates duplicates, and chooses an arbitrary specification
among them. The default is to target pmcd at local:.

target-discovery
This file contains one or more lines containing specifications for the
pmDiscoverServices PMAPI call, each of which may map onto a fluctuating set of
local or remote pmcd servers. Each poll interval, pmmgr will attempt to rerun
discovery with all of the given specifications. Again it is not a problem if more
than one specification matches the same actual pmcd. The default value is to do no
discovery. Consider including avahi to rely on pmcd self-announcements on the
local network.

log-subdirectory-gc
This file may contain a time interval specification as per the PCPintro man page.
All subdirectories of the log-directory are presumed to contain data for pmmgr-
monitored servers. Those that have not been touched (in the stat/mtime sense) in
at least that long, and not associated with a currently monitored target, are
deleted entirely. This value should be longer than the longest interval that pmmgr
normally recreates archives (such as due to pmmgr restarts, and pmlogmerge
intervals). The default value is 90days.

PMLOGGER CONFIGURATION
This group of configuration options controls a pmlogger daemon for each host. This may
include generating its configuration, and managing its archives.

pmlogger
If and only if this file exists, pmmgr will maintain a pmlogger daemon for each
targeted host. This file contains one line of additional space-separated options
for the pmie daemon. (pmmgr already adds -h, -f, -r, -l, and perhaps -c.) The
default is to maintain no pmlogger (and no other configuration in this section is
processed).

pmlogconf
If and only if this file exists, pmmgr will run pmlogconf to generate a
configuration file for each target pmcd. The file contains one line of space-
separated additional options for the pmlogconf program. pmlogconf's generated
output file will be stored under the log-directory/hostid subdirectory. (pmmgr
already adds -c, -r, and -h.) The default is no pmlogconf, so instead, the
pmlogger file above should probably contain a -c option, to specify a fixed
pmlogger configuration.

pmlogmerge
If and only if this file exists, pmmgr will run pmlogextract to periodically merge
together all preexisting log archives for each target pmcd into one. (When
pmlogger is started, it always creates a new archive, so in the steady state, there
will be one merged archive from history, and one current archive being written-to
by pmlogger.) The file may contain a time interval specification as per the
PCPintro man page, representing the period at which pmlogger should be temporarily
stopped, and archives merged. The default is 24hours.

pmlogmerge-retain
If this file exists, pmmgr will set the relative starting time for retaining old
archived data. It will be passed to pmlogextract as a negative parameter to -S.
It is interpreted as a request that data older than the given interval should be
thrown away. The default is 14days.

PMIE CONFIGURATION
This group of configuration options controls a pmie daemon for each host. This may
include generating a custom configuration.

pmie If and only if this file exists, pmmgr will maintain a pmie daemon for each
targeted pmcd. This file contains one line of additional space-separated options
for the pmie daemon. (pmmgr already adds -h, -f, -l, and perhaps -c.) The default
is to maintain no pmie (and no other configuration in this section is processed).

pmieconf
If and only if this file exists, pmmgr will run pmieconf to generate a
configuration file for each target pmcd. The file contains one line of space-
separated additional options for the pmieconf program. pmieconf's generated output
file will be stored under the log-directory/hostid subdirectory. (pmmgr already
adds -F, -c, and -f.) The default is no pmieconf, so instead, the pmie file above
should probably contain a -c option, to specify a fixed pmie configuration.

FILES

       $PCP_SYSCONFIG_DIR/pmmgr/
                 default configuration directory
       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmmgr/
                 default logging directory

BUGS

PCP ENVIRONMENT

       Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parametrize 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).