trusty (1) pmproxy.1.gz

NAME

       pmproxy - proxy for performance metrics collector daemon

SYNOPSIS

       pmproxy  [-C  dirname] [-f] [-i ipaddress] [-l logfile] [-L bytes] [-p port[,port ...]  [-P passfile] [-U
       username] [-x file]

DESCRIPTION

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

       Normally  pmproxy  is  deployed  in  a  firewall  domain, or on a ``head'' node of a cluster where the IP
       (Internet Protocol) address of the hosts where pmcd(1) is running may be unknown to  the  PCP  monitoring
       clients,  although  the  IP  address  of  the  host  where  pmproxy is running 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(1) is 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 connections directly to pmcd(1).  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(1) indirectly through the protocol proxy
       services of pmproxy.

       The options to pmproxy are as follows.

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

       -f     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.

       -i 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 most likely to be deployed).  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
              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 logfile instead of the default.  If the log file 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.

       -P passfile
              Specify  the path to a file containing the Network Security Services certificate database password
              for (optional) secure connections, and for databases that are password protected.  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).

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

       -x file
              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 file.

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 (registered at
       http://www.iana.org/).  Either the environment variable PMPROXY_PORT -p command line option may  be  used
       to  specify  alternative  port  number(s)  when 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).

FILES

       PCP_PMPROXYOPTIONS_PATH
              command  line  options  and  environment  variable  settings  for  pmproxy  when   launched   from
              $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy  All  the  command  line  option lines should start with a hyphen as the first
              character.  This file can also contain environment variable settings of the form "VARIABLE=value".
       ./pmproxy.log
              (or $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmproxy/pmproxy.log when started automatically)
              All messages and diagnostics are directed here
       /etc/pki/nssdb
              default Network Security Services (NSS) certificate database directory, used for  optional  Secure
              Socket  Layer  connections.  This database can be created and queried using the NSS certutil tool,
              amongst others.

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, pmcd and
       pmcd(1).

       PMCD_PORT
              For the PCP monitoring client this (or the default port number) is passed to pmproxy and  used  to
              connect to pmcd(1).  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.

       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(1) 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).

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).

SEE ALSO

       PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdbg(1), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).

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 flags, see pmdbg(1), pmproxy currently  uses  DBG_TRACE_CONTEXT
       for tracing client connections and disconnections