NAME
pmdaespping - generic probe performance metrics domain
agent
SYNOPSIS
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/pmdaespping [-C] [-d domain] [-l
logfile] [-I interval] [-t timeout] configfile
DESCRIPTION
pmdaespping is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA)
which exports quality of service and response time mea
surements for arbitrary commands as might be run from a
shell such as sh(1).
These measurements are intended to be used to quantify
service quality and service availability for those ser
vices that are either mission critical or act as early
indicators of adverse system performance. For these rea
sons, pmdaespping is used to provide service probe capa
bilities for the System Group Management (SGM) component
of the Embedded Support Partner (ESP) tools.
The sample configuration can be used to monitor various
services, both locally and remotely, such as ICMP response
(using ping(1)), DNS lookup via nslookup(1), bind/portmap
per service using rpcbind(1), SMTP by connecting to telnet
port 25 and sending an ``expn root'' request, NNTP by con
necting to telnet port 119 and running a ``listgroup''
command, and numerous others.
It is expected that other commands would follow the exam
ples in the sample configuration files (see the ``FILES''
section below).
A brief description of the pmdaespping command line
options follows:
-C Parse configfile, reporting any errors and exiting
with non-zero status if the file contains syntactical
errors.
-d It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics
domain number specified here is unique and consis
tent. That is, domain should be different for every
PMDA on the one host, and the same domain number
should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.
-l Location of the log file. By default, a log file
named espping.log is written in the current directory
of pmcd(1) when pmdaespping is started, i.e.
$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd. If the log file cannot be created
or is not writable, output is written to the standard
-I Amount of time (in seconds) between subsequent execu
tions of the list of commands provided via the con
figuration file configfile. The default is 2 min
utes.
-t Amount of time (in seconds) to wait before timing out
awaiting a response for a command from configfile.
The default is 20 seconds.
The required configfile specifies ``tag'' and ``command''
pairs, each on a separate line. All of the commands are
run one after another, with the whole group rescheduled to
be run once per interval. For each command that is run,
pmdaespping records information related to the success (or
timeout), exit status, elapsed time and CPU time (system
and user), and this information is exported by the PMDA.
The tags are used to identify the individual commands
amongst the values exported by the PMDA, and form the
external instance domain identifiers for the pmdaespping
metrics which relate to each command.
INSTALLATION
In order for a host to export the names, help text and
values for the espping performance metrics, do the follow
ing as root:
# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping
# cp sample.map sgm.map
# vi sgm.map
# ./Configure
The map file which is passed in to the Configure script
associates host names with services to be monitored on
each hostname. The list of services is contained in the
file $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/template.conf, and this file
can be extended with customized service probe mechanisms.
The set of ``tag'' and ``command'' pairs may be generated
via the Configure script (as above), or specified from a
default (sample) configuration file, a customized file or
entered interactively as part of the Install script (use
of the Install script is automated using Configure).
If you want to undo the installation, do the following as
root:
# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping
# ./Remove
pmdaespping is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be
pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed.
FILES
$PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
command line options used to launch pmdaespping
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/help
default help text file for the espping metrics
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/template.conf
template configuration file with a number of
common service probe mechanisms
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/sample.map
example mapping file for configuring which ser
vices to monitor, and at which hosts
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/sample.conf
example configuration file with a number of com
mon commands
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/Configure
installation script for pmdaespping
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/Install
direct installation script (bypass Configure)
for pmdaespping
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/espping/Remove
undo installation script for pmdaespping
$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/espping.log
default log file for error messages and other
information from pmdaespping
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 ALSO
pmcd(1)
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