1PMIECONF(5) File Formats Manual PMIECONF(5)
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6 pmieconf - generalized pmie rules and customizations
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9 The pmieconf file formats are used by the pmieconf(1) tool as a way to
10 generalize pmie(1) rule sets such that they can be easily configured
11 for different systems and different environments. There are two com‐
12 pletely different (although closely related) file formats discussed
13 here, namely ``pmieconf-rules'' and ``pmieconf-pmie''.
14 The directory $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf contains information about
16 all the default system pmie generalized rules and variables, including
17 default values for all variables. These files are in the pmieconf-
18 rules format. Although new pmieconf-rules files can be added, the
19 files in this directory should never be changed. Instead, use the
20 pmieconf utility to change variable values in the pmie configuration
21 file.
22 The pmieconf-pmie format allows site specific customizations of the
24 rules contained in pmieconf-rules files and their associated variables.
25 The pmieconf-pmie format is generated by pmieconf and should not be
26 edited by hand. This generated file is in the pmie format, with some
27 additional information held at the head of the file - thus, the
28 pmieconf-pmie format is a superset of the pmie file format (extended to
29 hold customizations to the generalized rules, but also containing the
30 actual performance rules for pmie to evaluate) which can also be parsed
31 by pmie (all extensions are hidden within comments, and are thus mean‐
32 ingless to pmie itself).
33 The file $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/config.pmie contains local system
35 settings for pmieconf configurable variables. The variable settings in
36 this file replace the default values specified in $PCP_VAR_DIR/con‐
37 fig/pmieconf/*/*.
38
40 All rule customization lines in a valid pmieconf-pmie specification are
41 prefixed by ``//'' and are located at the head of the file - this
42 allows files containing a pmieconf-pmie specification to be success‐
43 fully parsed by pmie. A pmieconf-pmie must always have the first line
44 in the form:
45 // pmieconf-pmie version pmieconf_path
47 The version specifies which version of the pmieconf-pmie syntax should
49 be used to parse this file. Currently the only supported version is 1.
50 The pmieconf_path specifies the path to the pmieconf-rules files which
51 were used, by pmieconf, to generate this file. This is discussed in
52 the pmieconf(1) man page (see the -r option).
53 The remainder of the specification consists of one line entries for
55 each of the modified variables. The syntax for each line is:
56 // rule_version rule_name rule_variable = value
58 The rule_version and rule_name are used to identify the rule with which
60 to associate the customization. These are followed by the rule_vari‐
61 able name (i.e. the variable of rule rule_name which has been changed)
62 for which the new value is to be used.
63 A pmieconf-pmie specification must be terminated with the ``end'' key‐
65 word. This is used by pmieconf to distinguish where the customizations
66 ends, and the actual pmie rule component begins.
67
69 The following example is a valid pmieconf-pmie format file, as gener‐
70 ated by pmieconf. In order to make changes by hand which are preserved
71 by pmieconf, see the comments contained in the generated file (below)
72 as to where such changes should be made.
73 // pmieconf-pmie 1 $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf
75 // 1 memory.exhausted delta = "4 minutes"
76 // 1 memory.exhausted enabled = yes
77 // 1 memory.exhausted pcplog_action = yes
78 // end
79 //
80 // --- START GENERATED SECTION (do not change this section) ---
81 // generated by pmieconf on: [DATESTAMP]
82 //
83 // 1 memory.exhausted
85 delta = 4 minutes;
86 some_host (
87 ( avg_sample (swap.pagesout @0..9 ) ) > 0 &&
88 30 %_sample swap.pagesout >= 5
89 ) -> shell 10 min "$PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmpost Severe demand for real memory" \
90 " %vpgsout/s@%h";
91 // --- END GENERATED SECTION (changes below will be preserved) ---
93 To see how this all works, you can generate this file as follows:
96 # cat - | pmieconf -f /tmp/pmieconf.out \
98 -r $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/memory:$PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/global
99 modify memory.exhausted delta "4 minutes"
100 modify memory.exhausted enabled yes
101 modify memory.exhausted pcplog_action yes
102 ^D
103 #
104 Then verify that the generated file is a valid pmie configuration file
106 using:
107 # pmie -C /tmp/pmieconf.out
109 This parses the file, and then exits after reporting any syntax errors.
111 Now replace -C with -v (above), and watch pmie do its work!
112
114 A pmieconf-rules specification consists of a number of separate data
115 objects which together form a complete rule specification (note that a
116 specification may span multiple files and even multiple subdirecto‐
117 ries). Each object must have an identifier string and a data type,
118 followed by an (optional) list of attributes.
119 The generic specification of a pmieconf-rules object is thus:
121 type identifier [ attribute = value ]* ;
123 The set of valid types is: "rule" (rule definition), "string" (arbi‐
125 trary, double-quote enclosed string), "double", "integer", "unsigned",
126 "percent" (real number between 0 and 100), "hostlist" (space separated
127 list of host names), "instlist" (space separated list of metric
128 instance names), and the four pmie action types, namely "print",
129 "shell", "alarm", and "syslog".
130 Rule names use the ``.'' character to introduce the concept of a rule
132 group, e.g. "memory.exhausted" associates this rule with the "memory"
133 group. pmieconf can operate at either the level of rule groups or
134 individual rules. The group name "global" is reserved and may not be
135 used with any rule.
136 Usually when an object is created it is associated with the current
138 rule. However, if an object's name is preceded by the reserved group
139 name "global", then that object is visible to all rules.
140 The set of valid attributes is: "help" (descriptive text about this
142 object), "modify" (value is yes/no, flags whether pmieconf should allow
143 changes), "enabled" (value is yes/no, flags whether this is on or off -
144 only meaningful for rules and actions), "display" (yes/no - flags
145 whether pmieconf should show this object), "default" (value determined
146 by type, and is the default value for this object), and specific to
147 objects of rule type are the "version", "predicate", and "enumerate"
148 attributes. "version" and "predicate" are fairly self explanatory
149 ("predicate" must equate to a valid pmie rule when expanded), but "enu‐
150 merate" requires further discussion.
151 The "enumerate" clause is useful when you wish to generate multiple,
153 similar pmie rules from a single predicate. This is most useful for
154 rule definitions wishing to use the "some_inst" clause in the pmie lan‐
155 guage across multiple hosts. For a rule to use these together, it must
156 be certain that the instance list is the same on all of the monitored
157 hosts. This is rarely true, so the "enumerate" attribute allows us to
158 generate multiple rules, expanded over variables of either type
159 "instlist" or "hostlist". These variables make up the value for the
160 "enumerate" attribute - which is a space-separated list of "instlist"
161 or "hostlist" variable names.
162 Objects can be incorporated into other object definitions using the
164 $identifier$ syntax. See the example later for more insight into how
165 this is useful.
166 When pmieconf is generating the pmie configuration file, it looks at
168 each enabled rule with N enabled actions (where N > 0) and expands the
169 string:
170 // "version" identifier
172 delta = $delta$;
173 "predicate" -> $threshold$ $action1$ & ... & $actionN$ ;
174 The delta, threshold, and action variables are defined globally (using
176 the "global" keyword) for all rules, but can, of course, be changed at
177 the level of an individual rule or rule group.
178
180 The following is an example of a single pmieconf-rules specification,
181 showing a number of different aspects of the language discussed above.
182 The example defines a rule ("memory.exhausted") and a string ("rule").
183 rule memory.exhausted
185 default = "$rule$"
186 predicate =
187 "some_host (
188 ( avg_sample (swap.pagesout $hosts$ @0..9 ) ) > 0 &&
189 $pct$ %_sample swap.pagesout $hosts$ @0..9 >= $threshold$
190 )"
191 enabled = yes
192 version = 1
193 help =
194 "The system is swapping modified pages out of main memory to the
195 swap partitions, and has been doing this on at least pct of the
196 last 10 evaluations of this rule.
197 There appears to be insufficient main memory to meet the resident
198 demands of the current workload.";
199 string rule
201 default = "Severe demand for real memory"
202 modify = no
203 display = no;
204 Note that for the above rule to be complete, "threshold" and "pct"
206 would also need to be defined - for the full expression of this rule,
207 refer to $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/memory/exhausted.
208
210 $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/*/*
211 generalized system resource monitoring rules
212 $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmieconf/config.pmie
213 default super-user settings for system resource monitoring
214 rules
215 $HOME/.pcp/pmie/config.pmie
216 default user settings for system resource monitoring rules
217
219 pmie(1) and pmieconf(1).
220Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMIECONF(5)