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).