path: root/man/man1/pmnewlog.1

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.TH PMNEWLOG 1 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmnewlog\f1 \- stop and restart archive logging for PCP performance metrics
.SH SYNOPSIS
\f3$PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmnewlog\f1
[\f3\-a\f1 \f2accessfile\f1]
[\f3\-C\f1 \f2saveconfig\f1]
[\f3\-c\f1 \f2configfile\f1]
[\f3\-N\f1]
[\f3\-n\f1 \f2pmnsfile\f1]
[\f3\-P\f1]
[\f3\-p\f1 \f2pid\f1]
[\f3\-s\f1]
[\f3\-V\f1]
[\f2other pmlogger options\f1]
\f2archive\f1
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B pmnewlog
may be used to stop and restart a running instance of
.BR pmlogger (1).
This is most useful for managing multiple sets of
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive logs.
These archive logs record the history of
performance metric values
that may be ``played back'' by other PCP
tools, and they
form the basis of the VCR paradigm and retrospective
performance analysis services common to the PCP toolkit.
.PP
In normal usage,
.B pmnewlog
would be executed by
.BR cron (1)
in the wee hours to terminate one PCP archive log and start another,
i.e. to perform log rotation.
.PP
Even more common, would be the execution of
.B pmnewlog
from the PCP archive management script
.BR pmlogger_daily (1).
In this case, direct end-user execution of
.B pmnewlog
is most unlikely.
.PP
The mandatory argument
.I archive
is the base name for the physical files that will constitute
the new archive log.
.PP
The
.B pmlogger
instance to be stopped and restarted must be running on the same system
as
.B pmnewlog
and is either the primary logger (the default) or the logger with
.I pid
as specified by the
.B \-p
option.
.PP
If the
.B \-n
option is specified, then
.B pmnewlog
will use the namespace in the
.IR pmnsfile ,
rather than the default Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS).
.PP
If no
.B \-c
option is specified,
.B pmnewlog
will use
.BR pmlc (1)
to connect to the running
.BR pmlogger (1)
and so determine all those metrics and instances that are subject to
.B mandatory
logging or
.B advisory on
logging, and the associated logging frequencies.
This information is used to synthesize a new
.BR pmlogger (1)
configuration file.
If the
.B \-n
option is specified, it will also be used for these interactions with
.BR pmlc (1).
.PP
If the
.B \-c
option is specified,
.BR pmlogger (1)
will be restarted with
.I configfile
as the configuration file.
Normally
.I configfile
would be the same configuration file used to start
.BR pmlogger (1)
in the first place, however note that since
.BR pmlogger (1)
is restarted, any changes to the logging status made
using
.BR pmlc (1)
will be lost, unless these have also been reflected in changes to
.IR configfile .
.PP
If
.I configfile
does not exist, then a search is made in the directory
.I $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogger
for a file of the same name, and if found that file is used,
e.g. if 
.I config.mumble
does not exist in the current directory and
the file
.I $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogger/config.mumble
does exist, then
.B "\-c config.mumble"
and
.B "\-c $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmlogger/config.mumble"
are equivalent.
.PP
Access controls specifications for the new
.BR pmlogger (1)
instance may optionally be provided via the
.B \-a
option.  The contents of
.I accessfile
should start with the literal token
.B [access]
and conform to the syntax of the access controls section
as described for
.BR pmlogger (1).
.PP
The
.B \-C
option may be used to save the configuration file that
.B pmnewlog
passes to the newly launched
.BR pmlogger (1).
.PP
If the
.BR pmlogger (1)
instance needs to be started under the control of
.BR pmsocks (1)
to connect to a
.B pmcd
through a firewall, the
.B \-s
option may be used.
.PP
The
.B \-V
option enables verbose reporting of the activity.
By default no output is generated unless some error or warning condition is
encountered.
.PP
The
.B \-N
option enables a ``show me'' mode, where the actions are echoed,
but not executed, in the style of ``make \-n''.
Using
.B \-N
in conjunction with
.B \-V
maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging.
.PP
The
.I other pmlogger options
are as described for
.BR pmlogger (1).
Note that
.B pmnewlog
does
.B not
support the following options of
.BR pmlogger (1).
.TP
\fB\-h\fR \fIhost\fR
.B pmnewlog
determines the host to which the new
.BR pmlogger (1)
should connect based upon the current host connection for the
old
.BR pmlogger (1).
.TP
\fB\-s\fR \fIsamples\fR
The new
.BR pmlogger (1)
is expected to be long running, and the
.B \-s
option of
.B pmnewlog
takes precedence.
.TP
\fB\-T\fR \fIruntime\fR
The new
.BR pmlogger (1)
is expected to be long running
.TP
\fB\-V\fR \fIversion\fR
The new
.B pmlogger
will always create the latest version PCP archive format, and the
.B \-V
option of
.B pmnewlog
takes precedence.
.TP
\fB\-x\fR \fIfd\fR
The launched
.B pmlogger
cannot be controlled by
.BR pmRecordControl (3).
.SH EXAMPLE
The following
.BR sh (1)
script
could be executed by root via
.BR cron (1)
to start a new set of archive logs for the primary logger each evening.
A more complete version of this script may be found in
.IR $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_daily ,
and is documented in the manual page for
.BR pmlogger_daily (1).
.PP
.in +8n
.nf
.ft CW
#!/bin/sh
# start new logs for PCP primary logger on this host

# standard place for logs
LOGDIR=$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/`hostname`

# each new log is named yymmdd.hh.mm
LOGNAME=`date "+%Y%m%d.%H.%M"`

# do it
[ ! \-d $LOGDIR ] && mkdir \-p $LOGDIR
cd $LOGDIR
$PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmnewlog \-l $LOGDIR/pmlogger.log $LOGDIR
.ft R
.fi
.in -8n
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 10
\f2archive\f3.meta
metadata (metric descriptions, instance domains, etc.) for the archive log
.TP
\f2archive\f3.0
initial volume of metrics values (subsequent volumes have suffixes
.BR 1 ,
.BR 2 ,
\&...)
.TP
\f2archive\f3.index
temporal index to support rapid random access to the other files in the
archive log
.TP
.B $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmlogger_daily
sample script to rotate archives for a number of loggers
.PD
.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 pmlc (1),
.BR pmlogger (1),
.BR pmlogger_daily (1),
.BR pmsocks (1),
.BR pcp.conf (5)
and
.BR pcp.env (5).
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Due to the precious nature of the archive logs,
.B pmnewlog
is rather paranoid in its checking and validation, and will try very
hard to ensure that an appropriately configured
.BR pmlogger (1)
can be restarted, before terminating the existing
.BR pmlogger (1).
.PP
As a consequence of this checking,
.B pmnewlog
tends to generate rather verbose error and warning messages.
.SH CAVEATS
If no
.I configfile
is specified, the method for synthesizing a configuration file using
a
.BR pmlc (1)
connection to the existing
.BR pmlogger (1)
is, of necessity, incomplete.
In particular,
for metrics with dynamic underlying instance domains,
it is not possible to identify a configuration that logs
.B all
instances of a metric all of the time,
so rather the synthesized configuration file requests the continued logging
of the set of instances that exist at the time
.BR pmlogger (1)
is interrogated by
.BR pmnewlog .
.PP
If this situation is a concern, a fixed configuration file should
be used, and passed to
.B pmnewlog
via the
.B \-c
option.