Chapter 4. Monitoring performance with Performance Co-Pilot

As a system administrator, you can monitor the system’s performance using the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) application in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

4.1. Overview of PCP

PCP is a suite of tools, services, and libraries for monitoring, visualizing, storing, and analyzing system-level performance measurements.

Features of PCP:

  • Light-weight distributed architecture, which is useful during the centralized analysis of complex systems.
  • It allows the monitoring and management of real-time data.
  • It allows logging and retrieval of historical data.

You can add performance metrics using Python, Perl, C++, and C interfaces. Analysis tools can use the Python, C++, C client APIs directly, and rich web applications can explore all available performance data using a JSON interface.

You can analyze data patterns by comparing live results with archived data.

PCP has the following components:

  • The Performance Metric Collector Daemon (pmcd) collects performance data from the installed Performance Metric Domain Agents (pmda). PMDAs can be individually loaded or unloaded on the system and are controlled by the PMCD on the same host.
  • Various client tools, such as pminfo or pmstat, can retrieve, display, archive, and process this data on the same host or over the network.
  • The pcp package provides the command-line tools and underlying functionality.
  • The pcp-gui package provides the graphical application. Install the pcp-gui package by executing the yum install pcp-gui command. For more information, see Section 4.6, “Visually tracing PCP log archives with the PCP Charts application”.

Additional resources

4.2. Installing and enabling PCP

To begin using PCP, install all the required packages and enable the PCP monitoring services.

Procedure

  1. Install the PCP package: 

    # yum install pcp

  2. Enable and start the pmcd service on the host machine: 

    # systemctl enable pmcd

# systemctl start pmcd

  3. Verify that the pmcd process is running on the host and the XFS PMDA is listed as enabled in the configuration: 

    # pcp

Performance Co-Pilot configuration on workstation:

platform: Linux workstation 4.18.0-80.el8.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 13 12:02:46 UTC 2019 x86_64
hardware: 12 cpus, 2 disks, 1 node, 36023MB RAM
timezone: CEST-2
services: pmcd
pmcd: Version 4.3.0-1, 8 agents
pmda: root pmcd proc xfs linux mmv kvm jbd2

Additional resources

4.3. Deploying a minimal PCP setup

The minimal PCP setup collects performance statistics on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The setup involves adding the minimum number of packages on a production system needed to gather data for further analysis. You can analyze the resulting tar.gz file and the archive of the pmlogger output using various PCP tools and compare them with other sources of performance information.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Update the pmlogger configuration: 

    # pmlogconf -r /var/lib/pcp/config/pmlogger/config.default

  2. Start the pmcd and pmlogger services: 

    # systemctl start pmcd.service

# systemctl start pmlogger.service
  3. Execute the required operations to record the performance data.

  4. Stop the pmcd and pmlogger services: 

    # systemctl stop pmcd.service

# systemctl stop pmlogger.service

  5. Save the output and save it to a tar.gz file named based on the host name and the current date and time: 

    # cd /var/log/pcp/pmlogger/

# tar -czf $(hostname).$(date +%F-%Hh%M).pcp.tar.gz $(hostname)

    Extract this file and analyze the data using PCP tools.

Additional resources

4.4. Logging performance data with pmlogger

With the PCP tool you can log the performance metric values and replay them later. This allows you to perform a retrospective performance analysis.

Using the pmlogger tool, you can:

  • Create the archived logs of selected metrics on the system
  • Specify which metrics are recorded on the system and how often

4.4.1. Modifying the pmlogger configuration file with pmlogconf

When the pmlogger service is running, PCP logs a default set of metrics on the host. Use the pmlogconf utility to check the default configuration. If the pmlogger configuration file does not exist, pmlogconf creates it with a default metric values.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create or modify the pmlogger configuration file: 

    # pmlogconf -r /var/lib/pcp/config/pmlogger/config.default
  2. Follow pmlogconf prompts to enable or disable groups of related performance metrics and to control the logging interval for each enabled group.

Additional resources

4.4.2. Editing the pmlogger configuration file manually

To create a tailored logging configuration with specific metrics and given intervals, edit the pmlogger configuration file manually.

In manual configuration, you can:

  • Record metrics which are not listed in the automatic configuration.
  • Choose custom logging frequencies.
  • Add PMDA with the application metrics.

The default pmlogger configuration file is /var/lib/pcp/config/pmlogger/config.default. The configuration file specifies which metrics are logged by the primary logging instance.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • Open and edit the /var/lib/pcp/config/pmlogger/config.default file to add specific metrics: 

    # It is safe to make additions from here on ...
#

log mandatory on every 5 seconds {
    xfs.write
    xfs.write_bytes
    xfs.read
    xfs.read_bytes
}

log mandatory on every 10 seconds {
    xfs.allocs
    xfs.block_map
    xfs.transactions
    xfs.log

}

[access]
disallow * : all;
allow localhost : enquire;

Additional resources

4.4.3. Enabling the pmlogger service

The pmlogger service must be started and enabled to log the metric values on the local machine.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Start and enable the pmlogger service: 

    # systemctl start pmlogger

# systemctl enable pmlogger

  2. Verify that the pmlogger is enabled: 

    # pcp

Performance Co-Pilot configuration on workstation:

platform: Linux workstation 4.18.0-80.el8.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 13 12:02:46 UTC 2019 x86_64
hardware: 12 cpus, 2 disks, 1 node, 36023MB RAM
timezone: CEST-2
services: pmcd
pmcd: Version 4.3.0-1, 8 agents, 1 client
pmda: root pmcd proc xfs linux mmv kvm jbd2
pmlogger: primary logger: /var/log/pcp/pmlogger/workstation/20190827.15.54

Additional resources

4.4.4. Setting up a client system for metrics collection

This procedure describes how to set up a client system so that a central server can collect metrics from clients running PCP.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Install the pcp-system-tools package: 

    # yum install pcp-system-tools

  2. Configure an IP address for pmcd: 

    # echo "-i 192.168.4.62" >>/etc/pcp/pmcd/pmcd.options

    Replace 192.168.4.62 with the IP address, the client should listen on.

    By default, pmcd is listening on the localhost.

  3. Configure the firewall to add the public zone permanently: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=44321/tcp
success

# firewall-cmd --reload
success

  4. Set an SELinux boolean: 

    # setsebool -P pcp_bind_all_unreserved_ports on

  5. Enable the pmcd and pmlogger services: 

    # systemctl enable pmcd pmlogger
# systemctl restart pmcd pmlogger

Verification steps

  • Verify if the pmcd is correctly listening on the configured IP address: 

    # ss -tlp | grep 44321
LISTEN   0   5     127.0.0.1:44321   0.0.0.0:*   users:(("pmcd",pid=151595,fd=6))
LISTEN   0   5  192.168.4.62:44321   0.0.0.0:*   users:(("pmcd",pid=151595,fd=0))
LISTEN   0   5         [::1]:44321      [::]:*   users:(("pmcd",pid=151595,fd=7))

Additional resources

4.4.5. Setting up a central server to collect data

This procedure describes how to create a central server to collect metrics from clients running PCP.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Install the pcp-system-tools package: 

    # yum install pcp-system-tools

  2. Add clients for monitoring: 

    # echo "192.168.4.13 n n PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/rhel7u4a -r -T24h10m \
-c config.remote"  >> /etc/pcp/pmlogger/control.d/remote

# echo "192.168.4.14 n n PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/rhel6u10a -r -T24h10m \
 -c config.remote" >> /etc/pcp/pmlogger/control.d/remote

# echo "192.168.4.62 n n PCP_LOG_DIR/pmlogger/rhel8u1a -r -T24h10m \
-c config.remote" >> /etc/pcp/pmlogger/control.d/remote

    Replace 192.168.4.13, 192.168.4.14, and 192.168.4.62 with the client IP addresses.

  3. Enable the pmcd and pmlogger services: 

    # systemctl enable pmcd pmlogger
# systemctl restart pmcd pmlogger

Verification steps

  • Ensure that you can access the latest archive file from each directory: 

    # for i in /var/log/pcp/pmlogger/rhel*/*.0; do pmdumplog -L $i; done
Log Label (Log Format Version 2)
Performance metrics from host rhel6u10a.local
  commencing Mon Nov 25 21:55:04.851 2019
  ending     Mon Nov 25 22:06:04.874 2019
Archive timezone: JST-9
PID for pmlogger: 24002
Log Label (Log Format Version 2)
Performance metrics from host rhel7u4a
  commencing Tue Nov 26 06:49:24.954 2019
  ending     Tue Nov 26 07:06:24.979 2019
Archive timezone: CET-1
PID for pmlogger: 10941
[..]

    The archive files from the /var/log/pcp/pmlogger/ directory can be used for further analysis and graphing.

Additional resources

4.4.6. Replaying the PCP log archives with pmdumptext

After recording the metric data, you can replay the PCP log archives. To export the logs to text files and import them into spreadsheets, use PCP utilities such as pmdumptext, pmrep, or pmlogsummary.

Using the pmdumptext tool, you can:

  • View the log files
  • Parse the selected PCP log archive and export the values into an ASCII table
  • Extract the entire archive log or only select metric values from the log by specifying individual metrics on the command line

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • Display the data on the metric: 

    $ pmdumptext -t 5seconds -H -a 20170605 xfs.perdev.log.writes

Time local::xfs.perdev.log.writes["/dev/mapper/fedora-home"] local::xfs.perdev.log.writes["/dev/mapper/fedora-root"]
? 0.000 0.000
none count / second count / second
Mon Jun 5 12:28:45 ? ?
Mon Jun 5 12:28:50 0.000 0.000
Mon Jun 5 12:28:55 0.200 0.200
Mon Jun 5 12:29:00 6.800 1.000

    The mentioned example displays the data on the xfs.perdev.log metric collected in an archive at a 5 second interval and display all the headers.

Additional resources

4.5. Monitoring postfix with pmda-postfix

This procedure describes how to monitor performance metrics of the postfix mail server with pmda-postfix. It helps to check how many emails are received per second.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Install the following packages:

    1. Install the pcp-system-tools: 

      # yum install pcp-system-tools

    2. Install the pmda-postfix package to monitor postfix: 

      # yum install pcp-pmda-postfix postfix

    3. Install the logging daemon: 

      # yum install rsyslog

    4. Install the mail client for testing: 

      # yum install mutt

  2. Enable the postfix and rsyslog services: 

    # systemctl enable postfix rsyslog
# systemctl restart postfix rsyslog

  3. Enable the SELinux boolean, so that pmda-postfix can access the required log files: 

    # setsebool -P pcp_read_generic_logs=on

  4. Install the PMDA: 

    # cd /var/lib/pcp/pmdas/postfix/

# ./Install

Updating the Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS) ...
Terminate PMDA if already installed ...
Updating the PMCD control file, and notifying PMCD ...
Waiting for pmcd to terminate ...
Starting pmcd ...
Check postfix metrics have appeared ... 7 metrics and 58 values

Verification steps

  • Verify the pmda-postfix operation: 

    echo testmail | mutt root

  • Verify the available metrics: 

    # pminfo postfix

postfix.received
postfix.sent
postfix.queues.incoming
postfix.queues.maildrop
postfix.queues.hold
postfix.queues.deferred
postfix.queues.active

Additional resources

4.6. Visually tracing PCP log archives with the PCP Charts application

After recording metric data, you can replay the PCP log archives as graphs.

Using the PCP Charts application, you can:

  • Replay the data in the PCP Charts application application and use graphs to visualize the retrospective data alongside live data of the system.
  • Plot performance metric values into graphs.
  • Display multiple charts simultaneously.

The metrics are sourced from one or more live hosts with alternative options to use metric data from PCP log archives as a source of historical data.

Following are the several ways to customize the PCP Charts application interface to display the data from the performance metrics:

  • line plot
  • bar graphs
  • utilization graphs

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Launch the PCP Charts application from the command line: 

    # pmchart

    pmchart started

    The pmtime server settings are located at the bottom. The start and pause button allows you to control:

    • The interval in which PCP polls the metric data
    • The date and time for the metrics of historical data
  2. Go to File → New Chart to select metric from both the local machine and remote machines by specifying their host name or address. Advanced configuration options include the ability to manually set the axis values for the chart, and to manually choose the color of the plots.

  3. Record the views created in the PCP Charts application:

    Following are the options to take images or record the views created in the PCP Charts application:

    • Click File → Export to save an image of the current view.
    • Click Record → Start to start a recording. Click Record → Stop to stop the recording. After stopping the recording, the recorded metrics are archived to be viewed later.

  4. Optional: In the PCP Charts application, the main configuration file, known as the view, allows the metadata associated with one or more charts to be saved. This metadata describes all chart aspects, including the metrics used and the chart columns. Save the custom view configuration by clicking File → Save View, and load the view configuration later. The following example of the PCP Charts application view configuration file describes a stacking chart graph showing the total number of bytes read and written to the given XFS file system loop1: 

    #kmchart
version 1

chart title "Filesystem Throughput /loop1" style stacking antialiasing off
    plot legend "Read rate"   metric xfs.read_bytes   instance  "loop1"
    plot legend "Write rate"  metric xfs.write_bytes  instance  "loop1"

Additional resources

4.7. XFS file system performance analysis with PCP

The XFS PMDA ships as part of the pcp package and is enabled by default during the installation. It is used to gather performance metric data of XFS file systems in PCP.

4.7.1. Installing XFS PMDA manually

If the XFS PMDA is not listed in PCP configuration readout, install the PMDA agent manually.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the xfs directory: 

    # cd /var/lib/pcp/pmdas/xfs/

  2. Install the XFS PMDA manually: 

    xfs]# ./Install

You will need to choose an appropriate configuration for install of
the “xfs” Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA).

  collector     collect performance statistics on this system
  monitor       allow this system to monitor local and/or remote systems
  both          collector and monitor configuration for this system

Please enter c(ollector) or m(onitor) or (both) [b]
Updating the Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS) ...
Terminate PMDA if already installed ...
Updating the PMCD control file, and notifying PMCD ...
Waiting for pmcd to terminate ...
Starting pmcd ...
Check xfs metrics have appeared ... 149 metrics and 149 values

  3. Select the intended PMDA role by entering c for collector, m for monitor, or b for both. The PMDA installation script prompts you to specify one of the following PMDA roles:

    • The collector role allows the collection of performance metrics on the current system

    • The monitor role allows the system to monitor local systems, remote systems, or both

      The default option is both collector and monitor, which allows the XFS PMDA to operate correctly in most scenarios.

Additional resources

4.7.2. Examining XFS performance metrics with pminfo

The pminfo tool displays information about the available performance metrics. This procedure displays a list of all available metrics provided by the XFS PMDA.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Display the list of all available metrics provided by the XFS PMDA: 

    # pminfo xfs

  2. Display information for the individual metrics. The following examples examine specific XFS read and write metrics using the pminfo tool:

    • Display a short description of the xfs.write_bytes metric: 

      # pminfo --oneline xfs.write_bytes

xfs.write_bytes [number of bytes written in XFS file system write operations]

    • Display a long description of the xfs.read_bytes metric: 

      # pminfo --helptext xfs.read_bytes

xfs.read_bytes
Help:
This is the number of bytes read via read(2) system calls to files in
XFS file systems. It can be used in conjunction with the read_calls
count to calculate the average size of the read operations to file in
XFS file systems.

    • Obtain the current performance value of the xfs.read_bytes metric: 

      # pminfo --fetch xfs.read_bytes

xfs.read_bytes
    value 4891346238

Additional resources

4.7.3. Resetting XFS performance metrics with pmstore

With PCP, you can modify the values of certain metrics, especially if the metric acts as a control variable, such as the xfs.control.reset metric. To modify a metric value, use the pmstore tool.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Display the value of a metric: 

    $ pminfo -f xfs.write

xfs.write
    value 325262

  2. Reset all the XFS metrics: 

    # pmstore xfs.control.reset 1

xfs.control.reset old value=0 new value=1

  3. View the information after resetting the metric: 

    $ pminfo --fetch xfs.write

xfs.write
    value 0

Additional resources

4.7.4. Examining XFS metrics available per file system

PCP enables XFS PMDA to allow the reporting of certain XFS metrics per each of the mounted XFS file systems. This makes it easier to pinpoint specific mounted file system issues and evaluate performance. The pminfo command provides per-device XFS metrics for each mounted XFS file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • Obtain per-device XFS metrics with pminfo: 

    # pminfo --fetch --oneline xfs.perdev.read xfs.perdev.write

xfs.perdev.read [number of XFS file system read operations]
inst [0 or "loop1"] value 0
inst [0 or "loop2"] value 0

xfs.perdev.write [number of XFS file system write operations]
inst [0 or "loop1"] value 86
inst [0 or "loop2"] value 0

Additional resources

4.8. System services distributed with PCP

Name

Description

pmcd

The Performance Metric Collector Daemon (PMCD).

pmie

The Performance Metrics Inference Engine.

pmlogger

The performance metrics logger.

pmmgr

Manages a collection of PCP daemons for a set of discovered local and remote hosts running the Performance Metric Collector Daemon (PMCD) according to zero or more configuration directories.

pmproxy

The Performance Metric Collector Daemon (PMCD) proxy server.

pmwebd

Binds a subset of the Performance Co-Pilot client API to RESTful web applications using the HTTP protocol.

4.9. Tools distributed with PCP

Name

Description

pcp

Displays the current status of a Performance Co-Pilot installation.

pcp-atop

Shows the system-level occupation of the most critical hardware resources from the performance point of view: CPU, memory, disk, and network.

pcp-dstat

Displays metrics of one system at a time. To display metrics of multiple systems, use --host option.

pmchart

Plots performance metrics values available through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot.

pmclient

Displays high-level system performance metrics by using the Performance Metrics Application Programming Interface (PMAPI).

pmcollectl

Collects and displays system-level data, either from a live system or from a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmconfig

Displays the values of configuration parameters.

pmdbg

Displays available Performance Co-Pilot debug control flags and their values.

pmdiff

Compares the average values for every metric in either one or two archives, in a given time window, for changes that are likely to be of interest when searching for performance regressions.

pmdumplog

Displays control, metadata, index, and state information from a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmdumptext

Outputs the values of performance metrics collected live or from a Performance Co-Pilot archive.

pmerr

Displays available Performance Co-Pilot error codes and their corresponding error messages.

pmfind

Finds PCP services on the network.

pmie

An inference engine that periodically evaluates a set of arithmetic, logical, and rule expressions. The metrics are collected either from a live system, or from a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmieconf

Displays or sets configurable pmie variables.

pminfo

Displays information about performance metrics. The metrics are collected either from a live system, or from a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmiostat

Reports I/O statistics for SCSI devices (by default) or device-mapper devices (with the -x dm option).

pmlc

Interactively configures active pmlogger instances.

pmlogcheck

Identifies invalid data in a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmlogconf

Creates and modifies a pmlogger configuration file.

pmloglabel

Verifies, modifies, or repairs the label of a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmlogsummary

Calculates statistical information about performance metrics stored in a Performance Co-Pilot archive file.

pmprobe

Determines the availability of performance metrics.

pmrep

Reports on selected, easily customizable, performance metrics values.

pmsocks

Allows access to a Performance Co-Pilot hosts through a firewall.

pmstat

Periodically displays a brief summary of system performance.

pmstore

Modifies the values of performance metrics.

pmtrace

Provides a command line interface to the trace Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA).

pmval

Displays the current value of a performance metric.

4.10. PCP metric groups for XFS

Metric Group

Metrics provided

xfs.*

General XFS metrics including the read and write operation counts, read and write byte counts. Along with counters for the number of times inodes are flushed, clustered and number of failure to cluster.

xfs.allocs.*

xfs.alloc_btree.*

Range of metrics regarding the allocation of objects in the file system, these include number of extent and block creations/frees. Allocation tree lookup and compares along with extend record creation and deletion from the btree.

xfs.block_map.*

xfs.bmap_tree.*

Metrics include the number of block map read/write and block deletions, extent list operations for insertion, deletions and lookups. Also operations counters for compares, lookups, insertions and deletion operations from the blockmap.

xfs.dir_ops.*

Counters for directory operations on XFS file systems for creation, entry deletions, count of “getdent” operations.

xfs.transactions.*

Counters for the number of meta-data transactions, these include the count for the number of synchronous and asynchronous transactions along with the number of empty transactions.

xfs.inode_ops.*

Counters for the number of times that the operating system looked for an XFS inode in the inode cache with different outcomes. These count cache hits, cache misses, and so on.

xfs.log.*

xfs.log_tail.*

Counters for the number of log buffer writes over XFS file sytems includes the number of blocks written to disk. Metrics also for the number of log flushes and pinning.

xfs.xstrat.*

Counts for the number of bytes of file data flushed out by the XFS flush deamon along with counters for number of buffers flushed to contiguous and non-contiguous space on disk.

xfs.attr.*

Counts for the number of attribute get, set, remove and list operations over all XFS file systems.

xfs.quota.*

Metrics for quota operation over XFS file systems, these include counters for number of quota reclaims, quota cache misses, cache hits and quota data reclaims.

xfs.buffer.*

Range of metrics regarding XFS buffer objects. Counters include the number of requested buffer calls, successful buffer locks, waited buffer locks, miss_locks, miss_retries and buffer hits when looking up pages.

xfs.btree.*

Metrics regarding the operations of the XFS btree.

xfs.control.reset

Configuration metrics which are used to reset the metric counters for the XFS stats. Control metrics are toggled by means of the pmstore tool.

4.11. Per-device PCP metric groups for XFS

Metric Group

Metrics provided

xfs.perdev.*

General XFS metrics including the read and write operation counts, read and write byte counts. Along with counters for the number of times inodes are flushed, clustered and number of failure to cluster.

xfs.perdev.allocs.*

xfs.perdev.alloc_btree.*

Range of metrics regarding the allocation of objects in the file system, these include number of extent and block creations/frees. Allocation tree lookup and compares along with extend record creation and deletion from the btree.

xfs.perdev.block_map.*

xfs.perdev.bmap_tree.*

Metrics include the number of block map read/write and block deletions, extent list operations for insertion, deletions and lookups. Also operations counters for compares, lookups, insertions and deletion operations from the blockmap.

xfs.perdev.dir_ops.*

Counters for directory operations of XFS file systems for creation, entry deletions, count of “getdent” operations.

xfs.perdev.transactions.*

Counters for the number of meta-data transactions, these include the count for the number of synchronous and asynchronous transactions along with the number of empty transactions.

xfs.perdev.inode_ops.*

Counters for the number of times that the operating system looked for an XFS inode in the inode cache with different outcomes. These count cache hits, cache misses, and so on.

xfs.perdev.log.*

xfs.perdev.log_tail.*

Counters for the number of log buffer writes over XFS filesytems includes the number of blocks written to disk. Metrics also for the number of log flushes and pinning.

xfs.perdev.xstrat.*

Counts for the number of bytes of file data flushed out by the XFS flush deamon along with counters for number of buffers flushed to contiguous and non-contiguous space on disk.

xfs.perdev.attr.*

Counts for the number of attribute get, set, remove and list operations over all XFS file systems.

xfs.perdev.quota.*

Metrics for quota operation over XFS file systems, these include counters for number of quota reclaims, quota cache misses, cache hits and quota data reclaims.

xfs.perdev.buffer.*

Range of metrics regarding XFS buffer objects. Counters include the number of requested buffer calls, successful buffer locks, waited buffer locks, miss_locks, miss_retries and buffer hits when looking up pages.

xfs.perdev.btree.*

Metrics regarding the operations of the XFS btree.