1PMDAOVERHEAD(1) General Commands Manual PMDAOVERHEAD(1)
2
6 pmdaoverhead - performance metrics domain agent (PMDA) exporting re‐
7 source consumption metrics for groups of processes
8
10 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/overhead/pmdaoverhead [-C] [-c config] [-d domain] [-l
11 logfile] [-R interval]
12
14 pmdaoverhead is a configurable Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA)
15 for exporting resource consumption for groups of related processes.
16 The pmdaoverhead command line options are:
18 -C parse the configuration file(s) and exit after reporting any er‐
20 rors.
21 -c configuration file(s), config may be either a file or a directory;
23 in the latter case all the files within config are assumed to be
24 configuration files for pmdaoverhead and they will all be pro‐
25 cessed.
26 Each configuration file defines one or more ``groups'' of processes
28 of interest, using the syntax described in the ``CONFIGURATION''
29 section below.
30 By default all configuration files below the $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/over‐
32 head/conf.d/ directory are used.
33 -d It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics domain number
35 specified here is unique and consistent. That is, domain should be
36 different for every PMDA on the one host, and the same domain num‐
37 ber should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.
38 -l Location of the log file. By default, a log file named over‐
40 head.log is written in the current directory of pmcd(1) when pm‐
41 daoverhead is started, i.e. $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd. If the log file
42 cannot be created or is not writable, output is written to the
43 standard error instead.
44 -R The PMDA uses a separate thread to periodically scan all processes
46 to determine which processes are deemed ``interesting'' in each
47 group, and extracting resource consumption for those processes.
48 The interval (in seconds) determines how often this scanning and
49 resource calculation is done, the default is 60 (seconds).
50
52 Each configuration file defines one or more ``groups'' of processes.
53 The file format is simple and follows the following rules.
54 1. Lines beginning with a hash ``#'' are treated as comments. More
56 generally, except for the pattern: clause described below, all text
57 between a hash and the end of line is treated as a comment.
58 2. White space (spaces or tabs or newlines) are required to separate
60 lexical components. Spaces and tabs are otherwise ignored. Other
61 than terminating comments and the regex in a pattern: clause, new‐
62 lines are also ignored.
63 3. Each group is introduced by a group clause that has the form
65 group name { parameters }
66 where name is a unique name for the group across all groups in the
67 pmdaoverhead configuration files. As name becomes embedded in the
68 Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS) if must follow the rules for
69 metric name components as described in PMNS(5), namely beginning
70 with an alphabetic character, followed by zero or more characters
71 drawn from the alphabetics, numerics and the underscore ``_'' char‐
72 acter.
73 4. The parameters must include one id: clause and one pattern: clause.
75 5. An id: clause has the form
77 id: ident
78 where ident is a unique identifier number for the group across all
79 groups in the pmdaoverhead configuration files. Valid values for
80 ident are in the range 0 to 4094 (inclusive).
81 6. A pattern: clause has the form
83 pattern: regex
84 where regex is an extended regular expression notation in the style
85 of egrep(1). The regex starts at the first non-whitespace charac‐
86 ter after pattern: and extends to the next newline.
87 The processes that are considered to be members of the group are
89 those for which the command name, as reported by
90 $ pminfo -f proc.psinfo.cmd
91 is matched by regex plus all the descendents of those processes.
92 So for example the regex ^pmcd$ will match pmcd(1) and all the PMDA
93 processes launched by pmcd(1) and any of their children, etc.
94
96 If you want access to the names, help text and values for the overhead
97 performance metrics, do the following as root:
98 # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/overhead
100 # ./Install
101 If you want to undo the installation, do the following as root:
103 # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/overhead
105 # ./Remove
106 pmdaoverhead is launched by pmcd and should never be executed directly.
108 The Install and Remove scripts notify pmcd when the agent is installed
109 or removed.
110
112 $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
113 command line options used to launch pmdaoverhead
114 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/overhead/Install
115 installation script for the pmdaoverhead agent
116 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/overhead/Remove
117 undo installation script for the pmdaoverhead agent
118 $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/overhead.log
119 default log file for error messages and other information
120 from pmdaoverhead
121 $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/overhead/conf.d
122 directory containing configuration files for the overhead
123 metrics
124
126 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
127 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
128 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
129 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
130 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
131
133 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdaproc(1), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and PMNS(5).
134Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMDAOVERHEAD(1)