1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
|
'\"macro stdmacro
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2014 Red Hat.
.\"
.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
.\" under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
.\" Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
.\" option) any later version.
.\"
.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
.\" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
.\" or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
.\" for more details.
.\"
.TH "KERNEL_PMDAS" 1 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.ds xM KERNEL_PMDAS
.SH NAME
\f3pmdaaix\f1,
\f3pmdadarwin\f1,
\f3pmdafreebsd\f1,
\f3pmdalinux\f1,
\f3pmdanetbsd\f1,
\f3pmdasolaris\f1,
\f3pmdawindows\f1 \- operating system kernel performance metrics domain agents
.SH SYNOPSIS
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/aix/pmdaaix\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/darwin/pmdadarwin\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/freebsd/pmdafreebsd\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/linux/pmdalinux\f1
[\f3\-A\f1]
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/netbsd/pmdanetbsd\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/solaris/pmdasolaris\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.br
\f3$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/windows/pmdawindows\f1
[\f3\-d\f1 \f2domain\f1]
[\f3\-l\f1 \f2logfile\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2username\f1]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Each supported platform has a kernel Performance Metrics Domain
Agent (PMDA) which extracts performance metrics from the kernel
of that platfrom.
A variety of platform-specific metrics are available, with an
equally varied set of access mechanisms - typically this involves
special system calls, or reading from files in kernel virtual
filesystems such as the Linux
.I sysfs
and
.I procfs
filesystems.
.PP
The platform kernel PMDA is one of the most critical components
of the PCP installation, and must be as efficient and reliable
as possible.
In all installations the default kernel PMDA will be installed
as a shared library and thus executes directly within the
.BR pmcd (1)
process.
This slightly reduces overheads associated with querying the
metadata and values associated with these metrics (no message
passing is required).
.PP
Unlike many other PMDAs, the kernel PMDA exports a number of
metric namespace subtrees, such as kernel, network, swap, mem,
ipc, filesys, nfs, disk and hinv (hardware inventory).
.PP
Despite usually running as shared libraries, most installations
also include a stand-alone executable for the kernel PMDA.
This is to aid profiling and debugging activities, with
.BR dbpmda (1)
for example.
In this case (but not for shared libraries), the following
command line options are available:
.TP 5
.B \-A
Disables use of the credentials provided by
.B PMAPI
client tools,
and simply runs everything under the "root" account.
Only enable this option if you understand the risks involved, and
are sure that all remote accesses will be from benevolent users.
If enabled, unauthenticated remote
.B PMAPI
clients will be able to access potentially sensitive performance
metric values which an unauthenticated
.B PMAPI
client usually would not be able to.
Refer to CVE-2012-3419 for additional details.
.TP
.B \-d
It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics
.I domain
number specified here is unique and consistent.
That is,
.I domain
should be different for every PMDA on the one host, and the same
.I domain
number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.
.TP
.B \-l
Location of the log file. By default, a log file named
.I [platform].log
is written in the current directory of
.BR pmcd (1)
when
.B pmda[platform]
is started, i.e.
.BR $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd .
If the log file cannot
be created or is not writable, output is written to the standard error instead.
.TP
.B \-U
User account under which to run the agent.
The default is either the privileged "root" account on some
platforms (Linux, for example) or the unprivileged "pcp"
account (wherever possible).
.SH INSTALLATION
Access to the names, help text and values for the kernel performance
metrics is available by default - unlike most other agents, no action
is required to enable them and they should not be removed.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 10
.B $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/[platform]/help
default help text file for the the kernel metrics
.TP 10
.B $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/[platform].log
default log file for error messages and other information from
the kernel PMDA.
.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 dbpmda (1),
.BR pmcd (1),
.BR pcp.conf (5)
and
.BR pcp.env (5).
.\" control lines for scripts/man-spell
.\" +ok+ CVE KERNEL_PMDAS aix darwin filesys freebsd hinv linux netbsd
.\" +ok+ platfrom pmdaaix pmdadarwin pmdafreebsd pmdalinux pmdanetbsd
.\" +ok+ pmdasolaris pmdawindows procfs solaris sysfs
|
