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