NAMEpmie_check - administration of the Performance Co-Pilot inference engine
SYNOPSIS
$PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmie_check [-NsV] [-c control]
DESCRIPTION
This shell script and associated control file may be used to create a
customized regime of administration and management for the Performance
Co-Pilot (see PCPintro(1)) inference engine, pmie(1).
pmie_check may be run at any time, and is intended to check that the
desired set of pmie(1) processes are running, and if not to re-launch any
failed inference engines. Use of the -s option provides the reverse
functionality, allowing the set of pmie processes to be cleanly shutdown.
pmie_check is controlled by a PCP inference engine control file that
specifies the pmie instances to be managed. The default control file is
$PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/control (where $PCP_VAR_DIR is normally
/var/pcp) but an alternate may be specified using the -c option.
The control file should be customized according to the following rules.
1. Lines beginning with a ``#'' are comments.
2. Lines beginning with a ``$'' are assumed to be assignments to
environment variables in the style of sh(1), and all text following
the ``$'' will be eval'ed by the script reading the control file,
and the corresponding variable exported into the environment. This
is particularly useful to set and export variables into the
environment of the administrative script, e.g.
$ PMCD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=20
Warning: The $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/control file is a potential
security risk if it is writable by any user other than root.
3. There should be one line in the control file for each pmie instance
of the form:
host y|n logfile args
4. Fields within a line of the control file are separated by one or
more spaces or tabs.
5. The first field is the name of the host that is the default source
of the performance metrics for this pmie instance.
6. The second field indicates whether this pmie instance needs to be
started under the control of pmsocks(1) to connect to a pmcd through
a firewall (y or n). Note that pmsocks is part of the pcp product
distribution, rather than the pcp_eoe distribution, and as such may
not be installed on your system. Refer to PCPintro (1) for full
details.
8. The third field is the name of the pmie activity log file. A useful
convention is that pmie instances monitoring the local host with
hostname myhost are maintained in the directory
$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmie/myhost, while activity logs for the remote host
mumble are maintained in $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmie/mumble. This is
consistent with the way pmlogger(1) maintains its activity logs and
archive files.
Page 1
1
PMIE_CHECK(1)PMIE_CHECK(1)
9. All other fields are interpreted as arguments to be passed to
pmie(1). Most typically this would be the -c option.
The following sample control lines specify one pmie instance monitoring
the local host (wobbly), and another monitoring performance metrics from
the host splat.
wobbly n $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmie/wobbly -c $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/config.default
splat n $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmie/splat -c $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmie/splat/cpu.conf
A typical crontab(5) entry for periodic execution of pmie_check is given
in $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/crontab and shown below.
# every 30 minutes, check pmie instances are running
25,55 * * * * $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmie_check
Alternate redirection of the output from the cron(1) execution of the
script may be controlled as follows:
(1) The -V option to the script will enable verbose tracing of their
activity. By default the script generates no output unless some
error or warning condition is encountered.
(2) To redirect the e-mail from cron(1) away from the root login,
+ Instead of using the ``root'' login, create a special account with
uid equal to 0, e.g. su_pcp. The password may be locked and/or the
shell invalid to prevent login or su (1), but the home directory
should exist. For example the following entry in /etc/passwd:
su_pcp:x:0:0:PCP Housekeeping:/usr/people/su_pcp:/dev/null
+ Create a $HOME/.forward for su_pcp, else an entry in
/usr/lib/aliases for su_pcp, redirecting the e-mail to a real user
or user(s).
+ Add the ``crontab'' entries above to the crontab file for su_pcp
not root, e.g. in the file /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/su_pcp
The -N option enables a ``show me'' mode, where the actions are echoed,
but not executed, in the style of ``make -n''. Using -N in conjunction
with -V maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging.
FILES
$PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/control
the default PCP inference engine control file
Warning: this file is a potential security risk if it is
writable by any user other than root.
$PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmie/crontab
sample crontab for automated script execution by root
Page 2
PMIE_CHECK(1)PMIE_CHECK(1)
logfile.lock
transient lock file which is named using the control-specified
pmie logfile names, and is used to guarantee mutual exclusion
during pmie_check execution - if present, can be safely removed
if pmie_check is not running
$PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES
PCP ``notices'' file used by pmie(1) and friends
PCP ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
/etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
$PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
file, as described in pcp.conf(4).
SEE ALSOchkconfig(1), cron(1), PCPintro(1), pmie(1) and pmsocks(1).
Page 3
