1PMDAPERFEVENT(1) General Commands Manual PMDAPERFEVENT(1)
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6 pmdaperfevent - hardware performance counter performance metrics domain
7 agent (PMDA)
8
10 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/pmdaperfevent [-d domain] [-l logfile] [-U
11 username] [-i port] [-p] [-u socket] [-6]
12
14 pmdaperfevent is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) that config‐
15 ures and reads the hardware performance counters using the Linux kernel
16 perf_event API.
17 The perfevent PMDA exports metrics for hardware performance counters
19 that are configurable from the Linux kernel perf_event API. The PMDA
20 uses the libpfm4 library to access the hardware performance counters so
21 any counters that are supported in libpfm4 should be available. Also
22 included is the ability to read the Intel RAPL counters via direct MSR
23 access. The PMDA supports automatically loading different counters for
24 each hardware architecture. A single configuration file is used to
25 specify the desired counters for each hardware performance monitoring
26 unit (PMU). The configuration file allows different counters to be
27 programmed on different CPUs and supports round-robin assignment of un‐
28 core counters needed for some AMD chips.
29 The PMDA also counts for events exposed in the kernel via
31 /sys/bus/event_source/devices directory. The PMU device name and the
32 event name must be mentioned in the configuration file. Otherwise, the
33 metric won't be available to monitor through this PMDA.
34 The PMDA configures the counters to count events in both user and ker‐
36 nel mode. This means that the hardware counters are unavailable to use
37 by normal unprivileged user applications when they are in use by the
38 PMDA. The PMDA provides a mechanism to temporarily disable the system-
39 wide counters in order to allow normal users to be able to use the
40 counters if they wish. See perfalloc(1) for details.
41 Note that pmdaperfevent is affected by the value of the ker‐
43 nel.perf_event_paranoid setting, which can be adjusted by sysctl(8).
44 A brief description of the pmdaperfevent command line options follows:
46 -d It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics domain num‐
48 ber specified here is unique and consistent. That is, domain
49 should be different for every PMDA on the one host, and the same
50 domain number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.
51 -l Location of the log file. By default, a log file named per‐
53 fevent.log is written in the current directory of pmcd(1) when pm‐
54 daperfevent is started, i.e. $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd. If the log file
55 cannot be created or is not writable, output is written to the
56 standard error instead.
57 -U User account under which to run the agent. The default is the
59 privileged "root" account.
60 -i listen on given port number for connection from pmcd(1)
62 -p communicate with pmcd(1) via stdin/stdout
64 -u expect pmcd(1) to connect on given unix domain socket
66 -6 expect pmcd(1) to connect on given ipv6 port (number or name)
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70 The perfevent PMDA is not activated by default To install the PMDA, do
71 the following as root:
72 # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent
74 # ./Install
75 If you want to undo the installation, do the following as root:
77 # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent
79 # ./Remove
80 pmdaperfevent is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed di‐
82 rectly. The Install and Remove scripts notify pmcd(1) when the agent
83 is installed or removed.
84
86 $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
87 command line options used to launch pmdaperfevent
88 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/perfevent.conf
89 default configuration file for the PMDA. See per‐
90 fevent.conf(5) for detailed information.
91 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/help
92 default help text file for the perfevent metrics
93 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/Install
94 installation script for the pmdaperfevent agent
95 $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/Remove
96 undo installation script for the pmdaperfevent agent
97 $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/perfevent.log
98 default log file for error messages and other information
99 from pmdaperfevent
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102 Some metric names have changed starting in version 3.10.8 to better
103 conform to PMNS conventions. pmlogrewrite(1) can be used to update old
104 archives. A helper utility, $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/perfevent/perfevent-mak‐
105 erewrite.pl will generate a config file that is suitable for use with
106 pmlogrewrite(1) to update the metric names in existing archives.
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109 Each event is placed in its own group and there is no way to group re‐
110 lated events together so they are guaranteed to be simultaneously ac‐
111 tive. A workaround for this is to ensure that the number of configured
112 events is less than or equal to the number of available hardware coun‐
113 ters. This means that the events will not be time-multiplexed by the
114 kernel and will be simultaneously active.
115
117 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
118 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
119 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
120 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
121 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
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124 perfalloc(1), perfevent.conf(5), PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmlogrewrite(1),
125 PMAPI(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and sysctl(8).
126Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMDAPERFEVENT(1)