1PMSERIES(1) General Commands Manual PMSERIES(1)
2
6 pmseries - display information about performance metric timeseries
7
9 pmseries [-adFiIlLmMnqsSV] [-c config] [-g pattern] [-h host] [-p port]
10 [query | series ... | source ... ]
11
13 pmseries displays various types of information about performance met‐
14 rics available through the scalable timeseries facilities of the Per‐
15 formance Co-Pilot (PCP) and the Redis distributed data store.
16 By default pmseries communicates with a local redis-server(1), however
18 the -h/--host and -p/--port options can be used to specify an alternate
19 Redis instance. If this instance is a node of a Redis cluster, all
20 other instances in the cluster will be discovered and used automati‐
21 cally.
22 pmseries runs in several different modes - either querying timeseries
24 identifiers, metadata or values (already stored in Redis), or manually
25 loading timeseries into Redis. The latter mode is seldom used, how‐
26 ever, since pmproxy(1) will automatically perform this function when it
27 is started with the -t/--timeseries option. In time, this option will
28 become enabled by default.
29 Without command line options specifying otherwise, pmseries will issue
31 a timeseries query to find matching timeseries and values. All time‐
32 series are identified using a unique SHA-1 hash which is always dis‐
33 played in a 40-hexdigit human readable form. These hashes are formed
34 using the metadata associated with every metric.
35 Importantly, this includes all metric metadata (labels, names, descrip‐
37 tors). Metric labels in particular are (as far as possible) unique for
38 every machine - on Linux for example the labels associated with every
39 metric include the unique /etc/machine-id, the hostname, domainname,
40 and other automatically generated machine labels, as well as any admin‐
41 istrator-defined labels from /etc/pcp/labels. These labels can be
42 reported with pminfo(1) and the pmcd.labels metric.
43 See pmLookupLabels(3), pmLookupInDom(3), pmLookupName(3) and
45 pmLookupDesc(3) for detailed information about metric labels and other
46 metric metadata used in each timeseries identifier hash calculation.
47 The timeseries identifiers provide a higher level (and machine indepen‐
49 dent) identifier than the traditional PCP performance metric identi‐
50 fiers (pmID), instance domain identifiers (pmInDom) and metric names.
51 See PCPIntro(1) for more details about these traditional identifiers.
52 However, pmseries uses timeseries identifiers in much the same way that
53 pminfo(1) uses the lower level indom, metric identifiers and metric
54 names.
55 The default mode of pmseries operation (i.e. with no command line
57 options) depends on the arguments it is presented. If all non-option
58 arguments appear to be timeseries identifiers (in 40 hex digit form)
59 pmseries will report metadata for these timeseries - refer to the
60 -a/--all option for details. Otherwise, the parameters will be treated
61 as a timeseries query.
62
64 Query expressions are formed using the pmseries query language
65 described below, but can be as simple as a metric name.
66 The following is an example of querying timeseries from all hosts that
68 match a metric name pattern (globbed):
69 $ pmseries kernel.all.cpu*
71 1d7b0bb3f6aec0f49c54f5210885464a53629b60
72 379db729afd63fb9eff436625bd6c55a7adc5cfd
73 3dd3b45bb05f96636043e5d58b52b441ce542285
74 [...]
75 ed2bf325ff6dc7589ec966698e5404b67252306a
76 dcb2a032a308b5717bf605ba8f8737e9c6e1ed19
77 To identify timeseries, the query language uses the general syntax:
79 [metric.name] '{metadata qualifiers}' '[time specification]'
81 The metric.name component restricts the timeseries query to any match‐
83 ing PCP metric name (the list of metric names for a PCP archive or live
84 host is reported by pminfo(1) with no arguments beyond --host or --ar‐
85 chive). The pmseries syntax extends on that of pminfo and allows for
86 glob(7) based pattern matching within the metric name.
87
89 Metadata qualifiers are enclosed by ``curly'' braces ({}), and further
90 restrict the query results to timeseries with various metadata proper‐
91 ties. These qualifiers are based on metric or instance names, and met‐
92 ric label values, and take the general form metadata.name OPERATOR val‐
93 ue, such as:
94 instance.name == "cpu0"
96 metric.name != "kernel.all.pswitch"
97 When using label names, the metadata qualifier is optional and can be
99 dropped, such as:
100 label.hostname == "www.acme.com"
102 hostname == "www.acme.com"
103 For metric and instance names only the string operators apply, but for
105 metric label values all operators are available. The set of available
106 operators is:
107 Boolean operators
109 All string (label, metrics and instances) and numeric (label) values
110 can be tested for equality ("==") or inequality ("!=").
111 String operators
113 Strings can be subject to pattern matching in the form of glob matching
114 ("~~"), regular expression matching ("=~"), and regular expression non-
115 matching ("!~"). The ":" operator is equivalent to "~~" - i.e., regu‐
116 lar expression matching.
117 Relational operators (numeric label values only)
119 Numeric label values can be subject to the less than ("<"), greater
120 than (">"), less than or equal ("<="), greater than or equal (">="),
121 equal ("==") and not equal ("!=") operators.
122 Logical operators
124 Multiple metadata qualifiers can be combined with the logical operators
125 for AND ("&&") and OR ("||") as in many programming languages. The
126 comma (",") character is equivalent to logical AND ("&&").
127
129 The final (optional) component of a query allows the user to specify a
130 specific time window of interest. Any time specification will result
131 in values being returned for all matching timeseries only for the time
132 window specified.
133 The specification is ``square'' bracket ([]) enclosed, and consists of
135 one or more comma-separated components. Each component specifies some
136 aspect related to time, taking the general form: keyword: value, such
137 as:
138 samples: 10
140 Sample count
142 The number of samples to return, specified via either the samples or
143 (equivalent) count keyword. The value provided must be a positive in‐
144 teger. If no end time is explicitly set (see ``Time window'' later)
145 then the most recent samples will be returned.
146 Sample interval
148 An interval between successive samples can be requested using the in‐
149 terval or (equivalent) delta keyword. The value provided should be ei‐
150 ther a numeric or string value that will be parsed by pmParseTimeInter‐
151 val(3), such as 5 (seconds) or 2min (minutes).
152 Time window
154 Start and end times, and alignments, affecting the returned values.
155 The keywords match the parameters to the pmParseTimeWindow(3) function
156 which will be used to parse them, and are: start or (equivalent) begin,
157 finish or (equivalent) end, align and offset.
158 Time zones
160 The resulting timestamps can be returned having been evaluated for a
161 specific timezone, using the timezone or hostzone keywords. The value
162 associated with timezone will be interpreted by pmNewZone(3). A true
163 or false value should be associated with hostzone, and when set to true
164 this has the same effect as described by pmNewContextZone(3).
165
167 Using command line options, pmseries can be requested to provide meta‐
168 data (metric names, instance names, labels, descriptors) associated
169 with either individual timeseries or a group of timeseries, for exam‐
170 ple:
171 $ pmseries -a dcb2a032a308b5717bf605ba8f8737e9c6e1ed19
173 dcb2a032a308b5717bf605ba8f8737e9c6e1ed19
175 PMID: 60.0.21
176 Data Type: 64-bit unsigned int InDom: PM_INDOM_NULL 0xffffffff
177 Semantics: counter Units: millisec
178 Source: f5ca7481da8c038325d15612bb1c6473ce1ef16f
179 Metric: kernel.all.cpu.nice
180 labels {"agent":"linux","domainname":"localdomain",\
181 "groupid":1000,"hostname":"shard",\
182 "latitude":-25.28496,"longitude":152.87886,\
183 "machineid":"295b16e3b6074cc8bdbda8bf96f6930a",\
184 "userid":1000}
185 The complete set of pmseries metadata reporting options are:
187 -a, --all
189 Convenience option to report all metadata for the given time‐
190 series, equivalent to -dilms.
191 -d, --desc
193 Metric descriptions detailing the PMID, data type, data semantics,
194 units, scale and associated instance domain. This option has a
195 direct pminfo(1) equivalent.
196 -g pattern, --glob=pattern
198 Provide a glob(7) pattern to restrict the report provided by the
199 -i, -l, -m, and -S.
200 -i, --instances
202 Metric descriptions detailing the PMID, data type, data semantics,
203 units, scale and associated instance domain.
204 -I, --fullindom
206 Print the InDom in verbose mode. This option has a direct pmin‐
207 fo(1) equivalent.
208 -l, --labels
210 Print label sets associated with metrics and instances. Labels
211 are optional metric metadata described in detail in pmLookupLa‐
212 bels(3). This option has a direct pminfo(1) equivalent.
213 -m, --metrics
215 Print metric names.
216 -M, --fullpmid
218 Print the PMID in verbose mode. This option has a direct pmin‐
219 fo(1) equivalent.
220 -n, --names
222 Print comma-separated label names only (not values) for the labels
223 associated with metrics and instances.
224 -s, --series
226 Print timeseries identifiers associated with metrics, instances
227 and sources. These unique identifiers are calculated from intrin‐
228 sic (non-optional) labels and other metric metadata associated
229 with each PMAPI context (sources), metrics and instances. Ar‐
230 chive, local context or pmcd(1) connections for the same host all
231 produce the same source identifier. This option has a direct
232 pminfo(1) equivalent. See also pmLookupLabels(3) and the -l/--la‐
233 bels option.
234
236 A source is a unique identifier (represented externally as a 40-byte
237 hexadecimal SHA-1 hash) that represents both the live host and/or ar‐
238 chives from which each timeseries originated. The context for a source
239 identifier (obtained with -s) can be reported with:
240 -S, --sources
242 Print names for timeseries sources. These names are either host‐
243 names or fully qualified archive paths.
244 It is important to note that live and archived sources can and will
246 generate the same SHA-1 source identifier hash, provided that the con‐
247 text labels remain the same for that host (labels are stored in PCP ar‐
248 chives and can also be fetched live from pmcd(1)).
249
251 Timeseries metadata and data are loaded either automatically by a local
252 pmproxy(1), or manually using a specially crafted pmseries query and
253 the -L/--load option:
254 $ pmseries --load "{source.path: \"$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/acme\"}"
256 pmseries: [Info] processed 2275 archive records from [...]
257 This query must specify a source archive path, but can also restrict
259 the import to specific timeseries (using metric names, labels, etc) and
260 to a specific time window using the time specification component of the
261 query language.
262
264 The available command line options, in addition to timeseries metadata
265 and sources options described above, are:
266 -c config, --config=config
268 Specify the config file to use.
269 -h host, --host=host
271 Connect Redis server at host, rather than the one the localhost.
272 -L, --load
274 Load timeseries metadata and data into the Redis cluster.
275 -p port, --port=port
277 Connect Redis server at port, rather than the default 6379.
278 -q, --query
280 Perform a timeseries query. This is the default action.
281 -V, --version
283 Display version number and exit.
284 -?, --help
286 Display usage message and exit.
287
289 The following sample query shows several fundamental aspects of the pm‐
290 series query language:
291 $ pmseries 'kernel.all.load{hostname:toium}[count:2]'
293 eb713a9cf472f775aa59ae90c43cd7f960f7870f
295 [1545346764128.128] 1.0e-01 b84040ffccd54f839b65140cf139bab51cbbcf62
296 [1545346764128.128] 6.8e-01 a60b5b3bf25e71071c41934fa4d7d251f765f30c
297 [1545346764128.128] 6.4e-01 e1974a062375e6e62370ffadf5b0650dad739480
298 [1545346774112.112] 1.6e-01 b84040ffccd54f839b65140cf139bab51cbbcf62
299 [1545346774112.112] 6.7e-01 a60b5b3bf25e71071c41934fa4d7d251f765f30c
300 [1545346774112.112] 6.4e-01 e1974a062375e6e62370ffadf5b0650dad739480
301 This query returns the two most recent values for all instances of the
303 kernel.all.load metric with a label.hostname matching the regular ex‐
304 pression "toium". This is a set-valued metric (i.e., a metric with an
305 ``instance domain'' which in this case consists of three instances: 1,
306 5 and 15 minute averages). The first column returned is a timestamp,
307 then a floating point value, and finally an instance identifier time‐
308 series hash (two values returned for three instances, so six rows are
309 returned). The metadata for these timeseries can then be further exam‐
310 ined:
311 $ pmseries -a eb713a9cf472f775aa59ae90c43cd7f960f7870f
313 eb713a9cf472f775aa59ae90c43cd7f960f7870f
315 PMID: 60.2.0
316 Data Type: float InDom: 60.2 0xf000002
317 Semantics: instant Units: none
318 Source: 0e89c1192db79326900d82131c31399524f0b3ee
319 Metric: kernel.all.load
320 inst [1 or "1 minute"] series b84040ffccd54f839b65140cf139bab51cbbcf62
321 inst [5 or "5 minute"] series a60b5b3bf25e71071c41934fa4d7d251f765f30c
322 inst [15 or "15 minute"] series e1974a062375e6e62370ffadf5b0650dad739480
323 inst [1 or "1 minute"] labels {"agent":"linux","hostname":"toium"}
324 inst [5 or "5 minute"] labels {"agent":"linux","hostname":"toium"}
325 inst [15 or "15 minute"] labels {"agent":"linux","hostname":"toium"}
326
328 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
329 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
330 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
331 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
332 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
333
335 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pminfo(1), pmproxy(1), redis-server(1), PMAPI(3),
336 PMWEBAPI(3), pmLookupDesc(3), pmLookupInDom(3), pmLookupLabels(3), pm‐
337 LookupName(3), pmNewContextZone(3), pmNewZone(3), pmParseTimeInter‐
338 val(3), pmParseTimeWindow(3), pcp.conf(5), glob(7) and regex(7).
339Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMSERIES(1)