pmprobe(1)

NAME

   pmprobe - lightweight probe for performance metrics

SYNOPSIS

   pmprobe  [-fIiLVvz]  [-a archive] [-h hostname] [-K spec] [-n pmnsfile]
   [-O time] [-Z timezone] [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION

   pmprobe determines the availability  of  performance  metrics  exported
   through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).

   The  metrics  of  interest  are  named in the metricname arguments.  If
   metricname is a non-leaf node in the  Performance  Metrics  Name  Space
   (pmns(5)), then pmprobe will recursively descend the PMNS and report on
   all leaf nodes.  If no metricname argument is given, the  root  of  the
   namespace is used.

   The  output  format  is spartan and intended for use in wrapper scripts
   creating configuration files for other PCP tools.  By default, there is
   one line of output per metric, with the metric name followed by a count
   of the number of available values.  Error conditions are encoded  as  a
   negative value count (as per the PMAPI(3) protocols, but may be decoded
   using pmerr(1)) and followed by a textual description of the error.

   Unless directed to another host by the -h option, pmprobe will  contact
   the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host.

   The  -a  option  causes  pmprobe  to  use the specified set of archives
   rather than connecting to a PMCD.  The argument  is  a  comma-separated
   list  of names, each of which may be the base name of an archive or the
   name of a directory containing one or more archives.   The  -a  and  -h
   options are mutually exclusive.

   The  -L option causes pmprobe to use a local context to collect metrics
   from PMDAs on the local host  without  PMCD.   Only  some  metrics  are
   available  in  this  mode.   The  -a,-h  and  -L  options  are mutually
   exclusive.

   Normally pmprobe operates on the distributed Performance  Metrics  Name
   Space  (PMNS),  however,  if  the -n option is specified an alternative
   local PMNS file is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

   Other options control the output of additional information when one  or
   more values is available.

   -f   When  used with -i or -I the set of instances reported will be all
        of those known at the source of the performance data.  By  default
        the  set  of  reported  instances  are  those for which values are
        currently available, which may be smaller than  the  set  reported
        with -f.

   -I   Report  the  external  identifiers for each instance.  The literal
        string PM_IN_NULL is reported for singular metrics.

   -i   Report the internal identifiers for each instance.  The values are
        in  decimal and prefixed by ``?''.  As a special case, the literal
        string PM_IN_NULL is reported for singular metrics.

   -K   When using the -L option to fetch metrics from  a  local  context,
        the  -K option may be used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be
        made  accessible.   The  spec  argument  conforms  to  the  syntax
        described in __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3).  More than one -K option may be
        used.

   -O   When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the
        -v  option  the  time  argument defines a time origin at which the
        metrics  should  be  fetched  from  the  archive(s).    Refer   to
        PCPIntro(1)  for  a  complete  description of this option, and the
        syntax for the time argument.

   -v   Report the value for each instance, as per the formatting rules of
        pmPrintValue(3).  When fetching from a set of archives, only those
        instances present in the first archive record for a metric will be
        displayed; see also the -O option.

   The -v option is mutually exclusive with either the -I or -i options.

   The -V option provides a cryptic summary of the number of messages sent
   and received across the PMAPI interface.

EXAMPLES

   $ pmprobe disk.dev
   disk.dev.read 2
   disk.dev.write 2
   disk.dev.total 2
   disk.dev.blkread 2
   disk.dev.blkwrite 2
   disk.dev.blktotal 2
   disk.dev.active 2
   disk.dev.response 2

   $ pmprobe -I disk.dev.read disk.dev.write disk.all.total
   disk.dev.read 2 "dks0d1" "dks0d2"
   disk.dev.write 2 "dks0d1" "dks0d2"
   disk.all.total 1 PM_IN_NULL

   $ pmprobe -v pmcd.numagents pmcd.version pmcd.control.timeout
   pmcd.numagents 1 9
   pmcd.version 1 "2.0 beta-1"
   pmcd.control.timeout 1 5

   $ pmprobe -v disk.dev.total disk.all.total
   disk.dev.total -1012 Unknown metric name
   disk.all.total 1 4992466

FILES

   $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
             default PMNS specification files

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(5).

SEE ALSO

   PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdumplog(1), pminfo(1),  PMAPI(3),  pmErrStr(3),
   __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and pmns(5).

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