NAME

       pmkstat - high-level system performance overview


SYNOPSIS

       pmkstat  [-A  align]  [-a archive] [-d] [-h host] [-L] [-n
       pmnsfile] [-O offset] [-S starttime] [-s samples] [-T end­
       time] [-t interval] [-Z timezone] [-z]


DESCRIPTION

       pmkstat  provides a one line summary of system performance
       every interval unit of time (the default  is  5  seconds).
       pmkstat  is  intended to monitor system performance at the
       highest level, after which other  tools  may  be  used  to
       examine subsystems in which potential performance problems
       may be observed in greater detail.

       The -t option may be used to change the default  reporting
       interval.    The  interval  argument  follows  the  syntax
       described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form may  be
       an  unsigned  integer  (the implied units in this case are
       seconds).

       By default, pmkstat fetches metrics by connecting  to  the
       Performance  Metrics  Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local
       host.  If the -L option  is  specified,  then  pmcd(1)  is
       bypassed  and root privileges are required to retrieve the
       required metrics directly.   In  this  case,  metrics  are
       fetched  from  the local host using the standalone PM_CON­
       TEXT_LOCAL variant of pmNewContext(3).  When the -h option
       is  specified, pmkstat connects to the pmcd(1) on host and
       fetches metrics from there.

       Alternatively, if the -a option is used, the  metrics  are
       retrieved  from the Performance Co-Pilot archive log files
       identified by the base name archive.

       Standalone mode can only connect to the local host,  using
       an archive implies a host name, and nominating a host pre­
       cludes using an archive, so the options -L, -a and -h  are
       mutually exclusive.

       Normally  pmkstat operates on the default Performance Met­
       rics Name Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is speci­
       fied  an  alternative  namespace  is  loaded from the file
       pmnsfile.

       If the -s the option is  specified,  samples  defines  the
       number  of  samples to be retrieved and reported.  If sam­
       ples is 0 or -s is not specified, pmkstat will sample  and
       report continuously - this is the default behavior.

       The -S, -T, -O and -A options may be used to define a time

       origin  within  the  time window, or specify a ``natural''
       alignment of the sample times; refer to PCPIntro(1) for  a
       complete description of these options.

       Also  when using archives, the -d option requests that the
       prevailing real-time delay be applied between samples (see
       -t) to effect a pause, rather than the default behavior of
       replaying at full speed.

       The output from pmkstat is directed  to  standard  output,
       and the columns in the report are interpreted as follows:

       runq      Average  number  of  runnable  processes in main
                 memory (run) and in swap memory (swp) during the
                 interval.

       memory    The  free  column  indicates average free memory
                 during the interval, in Kbytes.  The page column
                 is the average number of page out operations per
                 second during  the  interval.   I/Os  caused  by
                 these  page  out  operations are included in the
                 write I/O rate (see disks, below).

       system    System call rate (scall),  context  switch  rate
                 (ctxsw)  and  interrupt  rate (intr).  Rates are
                 expressed as average operations per second  dur­
                 ing the interval.

       disks     Aggregated  physical  read  (rd)  and write (wr)
                 rates over all disks, expressed as physical I/Os
                 issued per second during the interval.

       cpu       Percentage of CPU time spent executing user code
                 (usr), system and  interrupt  code  (sys),  idle
                 loop (idl) and idle waiting for resources, typi­
                 cally disk I/O (wt).

                 The meanings of idl and wt changed in  the  IRIX
                 6.5.13 release.  For details, see the -U section
                 of the sar(1) man page.

       If any values for the associated performance  metrics  are
       unavailable, the value appears as ``?'' in the output.

       By  default,  pmkstat reports the time of day according to
       the local timezone on the system  where  pmkstat  is  run.
       The -Z option changes the timezone to timezone in the for­
       mat of the environment variable TZ as described  in  envi­
       ron(5).   The  -z option changes the timezone to the local
       timezone at the host that is the source of the performance
       metrics, as identified via either the -h or -a options.

       The  interrupt  (intr)  rate  includes  the high frequency
       clock  (and  possibly  some  video-related  and/or  audio-
       related interrupts), and differs widely, even on idle sys­
       tems, depending upon the hardware configuration.   A  more
       useful  measure  would  be  the  delta above the quiescent
       interrupt rate on an idle system, but we have  no  way  of
       measuring this.


FILES

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
                 default PMNS specification files
       $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmlogger/config.pmkstat
                 pmlogger(1)   configuration   for   creating  an
                 archive suitable for replay with pmkstat


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

       PCPIntro(1),  pmchart(1), pmclient(1), PMAPI(3), pmNewCon­
       text(3), pcp.conf(4) and pcp.env(4).


DIAGNOSTICS

       All are generated on standard error, and are  intended  to
       be self-explanatory.


Man(1) output converted with man2html