path: root/man/man1/pmlc.1

'\"macro stdmacro
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.TH PMLC 1 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmlc\f1 \- configure active Performance Co-Pilot pmlogger(s) interactively
.\" literals use .B or \f3
.\" arguments use .I or \f2
.SH SYNOPSIS
\f3pmlc\f1
[\f3\-e\f1]
[\f3\-h\f1 \f2host\f1]
[\f3\-i\f1]
[\f3\-n\f1 \f2pmnsfile\f1]
[\f3\-P\f1]
[\f3\-p\f1 \f2port\f1]
[\f3\-Z\f1 \f2timezone\f1]
[\f3\-z\f1]
[\f3pid\f1]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B pmlc
may be used to change those metrics and instances which a
.BR pmlogger (1)
writes to a Performance Co-Pilot archive (see
.BR PCPIntro (1)),
the frequency with which the metrics are collected and whether the
logging is mandatory, advisory, on or off.  It also reports the
current logging status of metrics and instances.
.B pmlc
may be used to control pmlogger instances on remote hosts as well as those
on the local host.
.PP
Normally
.B pmlc
operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however
if the
.B \-n
option is specified an alternative local PMNS is loaded from the file
.IR pmnsfile .
.PP
If the
.B \-P
option is specified,
.B pmlc
will attempt to start with a connection to the primary pmlogger on the
local host.  If the 
.B \-p
option is specified, then
.B pmlc
will attempt to start with a connection to the pmlogger on this TCP/IP
.IR port .
Alternatively, if
.I pid
is specified, a connection to the pmlogger instance with that process
id will be attempted on startup.  The
.B \-h
option may only be used if
.BR \-P,
.B \-p
.I port
or a
.I pid
is also specified.  In that case
.B pmlc
will initially connect to the specified (remote) pmlogger instance on
.I host
rather than the local host.  If the connection to the specified pmlogger
instance cannot be established,
.B pmlc
will start with no connection.  These options typically allow the same file of
.B pmlc
commands to be directed to multiple pmlogger instances by varying the
command line arguments.  Note that
.BR -P ,
.B \-p
.IR port ,
.IR pid
and
.B \-h
are used only when making an initial connection to a pmlogger
instance.  They are not used as defaults if subsequent connections are made
interactively (see the
.B connect
command below).
.PP
By default,
.B pmlc
reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the
system where
.B pmlc
is run.  The
.B \-Z
option changes the timezone to
.IR timezone
in the format of the environment variable
.B TZ
as described in
.BR environ (5).
The
.B \-z
option changes the timezone to the timezone of the pmlogger
instance from which information is being obtained.  Only one of
.B \-z
or
.B \-Z
may be specified.
.PP
If standard input is from a tty,
.B pmlc
is interactive, with prompts.
The
.B \-i
flag may be used to force interactive behavior, and is typically
used in conjunction with
.B \-e
to echo all command input on standard output.
.PP
The following commands may be used:
.PP
.TP 4
\f3show\f1 [ \f3loggers\f1 ] [ \f3@\f2host\f1 ]
Displays the process identities of all pmlogger instances running
on the local host (or
.IR host ,
if specified).  The primary pmlogger pid is parenthesized because
it can be referred to as "primary" as well as by its pid.
.TP 4
\f3connect\f1 \f2pid\f1 [ \f3@\f2host\f1 ]
.br
.in -4
\f3connect\f1 \f3primary\f1 [ \f3@\f2host\f1 ]
.in
Connects
.B pmlc
to the specified pmlogger process.  Any existing connection to
a pmlogger instance is closed first.  Each pmlogger instance will
accept at most one connection at a time, so if the connection is
successfully established, your
.B pmlc
will be the only one controlling the pmlogger instance it is connected to.
.TP 4
\f3new volume\f1
This command works only while a connection to a pmlogger
instance is established.  It tells the pmlogger to close the current
volume of the log and open a new volume.  Closed volumes may be archived,
e.g. as part of a regular log management procedure to control the size of
the physical log files.
.TP 4
\f3status\f1
This command works only while a connection to a pmlogger instance is
established.  It prints information about the state of the pmlogger
instance and its associated log.
.TP 4
\f3timezone\f1 \f3local\f1 | \f3logger\f1 | \f3"\f2timezone\f3"\f1
This command sets the time zone used when times are printed.
.B local
means use the time zone of the machine that
.B pmlc
is running on.
.B logger
means use the time zone of the machine where the pmlogger
instance is
running.  Alternatively an explicit
.I timezone
enclosed in quotes may be supplied (refer to
.B TZ
in
.BR environ (5)
for details).  The default time zone is
.B local
unless one of the
.B \-z
or
.B \-Z
options has been supplied on the command line.
.TP 4
\f3flush\f1
This command works only while a connection to a pmlogger instance is
established, and requests the pmlogger instance
to flush to disk all buffers associated with the current archive.
For old-timers, \f3sync\f1 is a synonym for \f3flush\f1.
In current versions of
.BR pmlogger (1)
all writes are unbuffered and aligned with the logical records in the external
files, so this command achieves nothing, but is retained for backwards
compatibility.
.TP 4
\f3help\f1
Displays a summary of the available commands.
.sp 0.5v
\f3h\f1 and \f3?\f1 are synonyms for \f3help\f1.
.TP 4
\f3quit\f1
Exits from
.BR pmlc .
.PP
The remaining commands query and change the logging state of metrics and
instances.  They will work only if
.B pmlc
has a connection to a pmlogger instance.  Metrics may be specified as fully
qualified names (e.g. hinv.ncpu) or subtrees of the PMNS (e.g. hinv) which
are expanded to include all metrics in the subtree (e.g. hinv.ncpu,
hinv.cpuclock, etc.).  Lists of metrics may be specified by enclosing them
in braces with spaces or a comma between metrics (e.g. {hinv.ncpu
hinv.ndisk}).  Subtrees of metrics may be included in such lists.
.PP
Each individual metric specification may be further qualified with a space
or comma separated list of instances in square brackets
(e.g. kernel.all.load["1 minute", "5 minute"]).  External instance
names or numeric internal instance identifiers or both may be used in the
same list (e.g. sample.colour.[red,1,"blue"]).
If an instance qualification is applied to a subtree of the PMNS all of the
metrics in the subtree must have the same instance domain.  Instance
qualifications may not be applied to entire lists of metrics but may appear
inside such lists.
.PP
If no instances are specified for a metric, all instances are used.  All
instances means all instances available at the time the pmlogger instance in
question fetches the metrics for logging.  If an instance domain changes over
time this is not always the same as the set of instances displayed by
.BR pmlc ,
which can only display the currently available instances.  To prevent
unintentional errors, only the instances that are currently available to
.B pmlc
may appear in instance specifications.
.TP 4
\f3query\f2 metriclist\f1
The current logging state of each metric (and instances, where applicable) in
.I metriclist
is displayed.  This includes the logging state (e.g. on, maybe, off) and the
logging interval for each metric (and instance) requested.  The following
abbreviations pertaining to metrics (and instances) may appear in the output:
.BR adv ,
advisory;
.BR mand ,
mandatory;
.BR nl ,
not in the log;
.BR na ,
in the log but not currently available from its Performance Metrics Domain
Agent (PMDA).  Where appropriate, an instance name will appear last on a line
preceded by its numeric internal instance identifier.
.TP 4
[ \f3log\f1 ] \f3mandatory on\f2 interval\f1 \f2metriclist\f1
This form of the
.B log
command turns on logging for the metrics (and any instances) in
.IR metriclist.
.I interval
specifies how often the specified metrics/instances should be logged.
.B once
indicates that the metrics/instances should appear at most once in the log.
More often one would use the optional keyword
.B every
followed by a positive number and one of
.B millisecond
(or
.BR msec ),
.B second
(or
.BR sec ),
.B minute
(or
.BR min ),
.B hour
or their plurals.
.sp 0.5v
Note that the keyword
.B default
which may be used for the default
.I interval
in a
.BR pmlogger (1)
configuration file cannot be used in
.BR pmlc .
.sp 0.5v
Internal limitations require the
.I interval
to be less than (approximately) 74 hours.  An
.I interval
value of zero is a synonym for
.BR once .
.TP 4
[ \f3log\f1 ] \f3mandatory off\f1 \f2metriclist\f1
This tells the pmlogger instance not to log any of the metrics/instances in
.IR metriclist .
.TP 4
[ \f3log\f1 ] \f3mandatory maybe\f1 \f2metriclist\f1
This tells the pmlogger instance to honor any subsequent advisory logging
requests for the metrics/instances in
.IR metriclist .
If the current logging state of the metrics/instances is mandatory (either on
or off) the new state will be set to maybe (effectively advisory off).  If the
current state of the metrics/instances is already advisory (either on or off)
the state(s) for the metrics/instances will remain as they are.
.TP 4
[ \f3log\f1 ] \f3advisory on\f2 interval\f1 \f2metriclist\f1
.br
.in -4
[ \f3log\f1 ] \f3advisory off\f1 \f2metriclist\f1
.in
Advisory logging is only applicable if the last logging state specified for a
metric/instance was "mandatory maybe" (which permits subsequent advisory
logging control) or if the logging state is already advisory.  These two
statements turn advisory logging on or off (respectively) for the specified
metrics/instances.
.sp 0.5v
The interpretation for
.I interval
is as above for the
.B mandatory
case.
.PP
There is no continuation character required for commands that span lines.
.PP
The word
.B at
may be used interchangeably with
.BR @ .
.PP
A request to log all instances of a metric will supersede any prior request to
log either all or specific instances of a metric (if the request specifies a
permissible transition in the logging state).  A request to log specific
instances of a metric when all instances of a metric are already being logged
is refused by
.BR pmlogger .
.SH "ACCESS CONTROL"
.B pmlc
may have restricted access to and control over
.BR pmlogger (1)
processes.
.PP
If a
.BR pmlogger (1)
is unable to export its control information to the local
.BR pmcd (1),
then that
.BR pmlogger (1)
cannot cannot be connected to nor controlled by
.BR pmlc .
In practice, this means the
.BR pmlogger (1)
process has to be owned by the user ``pcp'' and/or the group ``pcp''.
If
.BR pmlogger (1)
is running on the host ``foo'' then
use ``pminfo -f -h foo pmcd.pmlogger'' to verify that the
.BR pmlogger (1)
of interest is known to
.BR pmcd (1),
alternatively
.BR pmlogger (1)
instances that are not reported from the
.B pmlc
.B "show loggers @foo"
command are not known to
.BR pmcd (1)
on the host ``foo''.
.PP
If
.BR pmlogger (1)
is launched with a configuration file that contains an
.B [access]
section, then
.B pmlc
will be unable to connect to that
.BR pmlogger (1)
unless the access controls allow
.B some
access from the host where
.B pmlc
is being run.
Minimally this requires the
.B enquire
access to be permitted in the
.BR pmlogger (1)
access control section.
.PP
If
.B pmlc
is able to connect to the
.BR pmlogger (1)
of interest, then the following table summarizes the permissions needed
to perform different
.B pmlc
commands:
.TS
box,center;
c | c
lf(B) | l.
\fBpmlc\fP command	Required \fBpmlogger\fP access
=
show loggers	Any
connect	Any of \fBenquire\fP, \fBadvisory\fP or \fBmandatory\fP
status	Any of \fBenquire\fP, \fBadvisory\fP or \fBmandatory\fP
query \fR...\fP	Any of \fBenquire\fP, \fBadvisory\fP or \fBmandatory\fP
log advisory \fR...\fP	\fBadvisory\fP
log mandatory \fR...\fP	\fBmandatory\fP
new volume	\fBmandatory\fP
.TE
.SH "PCP ENVIRONMENT"
Environment variables with the prefix
.B PCP_
are used to parameterize the file and directory names
used by PCP.
On each installation, the file
.I /etc/pcp.conf
contains the local values for these variables.
The
.B $PCP_CONF
variable may be used to specify an alternative
configuration file,
as described in
.BR pcp.conf (5).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR PCPIntro (1),
.BR pmcd (1),
.BR pmdumplog (1),
.BR pmlogger (1),
.BR pcp.conf (5),
.BR pcp.env (5)
and
.BR environ (5).
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Most error or warning messages are self-explanatory.  A message of the form
.br
.in +05.v
Warning: unable to change logging state for...
.in
followed by a list of metrics (and possibly instances) indicates that
.B pmlogger
refused the request for the metrics (and instances) that appear.  Any metrics
(and instances) that were specified but do not appear in the message have had
their logging state updated successfully (no news is good news).  Usually this
warning results from requesting advisory logging when a mandatory control is
already in place, or requesting logging for specific instances when all
instances are already being logged.
.SH CAVEAT
If all instances of a metric are being logged and a request is made to log
specific instances of the metric with the same state and frequency, the request
may appear to succeed, even though
.B pmlogger
has refused the request.  This is not normally a problem, as the required
information will still be placed into the log by
.BR pmlogger .
.PP
However in the case where the metric is to be logged once, the outcome is not
what might be expected.  When
.B pmlogger
receives a request to log a metric once, it places the current value(s) of the
metric into the log as soon as it can, regardless of whether the metric is
already in the log.  This may be used to force values into the log.  When a
request to log specific instances of a metric arrives and is refused because
all instances of the metric are already being logged,
.B pmlogger
does not place values for the instances requested into the log.  It returns
the current logging state for each instance requested to
.BR pmlc .
The requested and returned states are identical, so
.B pmlc
doesn't raise an error as it should.
.PP
To ensure that only certain instances of a metric are being logged, one should
always turn off logging for all instances of the metric prior to turning on
logging for the specific instances required.