PMPROXY(1)PMPROXY(1)NAMEpmproxy - proxy for performance metrics collector daemon
SYNOPSISpmproxy [-C dirname] [-f] [-i ipaddress] [-l logfile] [-L bytes] [-p
port[,port ...] [-P passfile] [-U username] [-x file]
DESCRIPTIONpmproxy acts as a protocol proxy for pmcd(1), allowing Performance Co-
Pilot (PCP) monitoring clients to connect to one or more pmcd(1)
instances via pmproxy.
Normally pmproxy is deployed in a firewall domain, or on a ``head''
node of a cluster where the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the hosts
where pmcd(1) is running may be unknown to the PCP monitoring clients,
although the IP address of the host where pmproxy is running is known
to these clients. Similarly, the clients may have network connectivity
only to the host where pmproxy is running, while there is network con‐
nectivity from that host to the hosts of interest where pmcd(1) is run‐
ning.
The behaviour of the PCP monitoring clients is controlled by either the
PMPROXY_HOST environment variable or through the extended hostname
specification (see PCPIntro(1) for details). If neither of these mech‐
anisms is used, clients will make their connections directly to
pmcd(1). If the proxy hostname syntax is used or PMPROXY_HOST is set,
then this should be the hostname or IP address of the system where
pmproxy is running, and the clients will connect to pmcd(1) indirectly
through the protocol proxy services of pmproxy.
The options to pmproxy are as follows.
-C dirname
Specify the path to the Network Security Services certificate
database, for (optional) secure connections. The default is
/etc/pki/nssdb. Refer also to the -P option. If it does not
already exist, this database can be created using the certutil
utility. This process and other certificate database mainte‐
nance information is provided in the PCPIntro(1) manual page and
the online PCP tutorials.
-f By default pmproxy is started as a daemon. The -f option indi‐
cates that it should run in the foreground. This is most useful
when trying to diagnose problems with establishing connections.
-i ipaddress
This option is usually only used on hosts with more than one
network interface (very common for firewall and ``head'' node
hosts where pmproxy is most likely to be deployed). If no -i
options are specified pmproxy accepts PCP client connections on
any of its host's IP addresses. The -i option is used to spec‐
ify explicitly an IP address that PCP client connections should
be accepted on. ipaddress should be in the standard dotted form
(e.g. 100.23.45.6). The -i option may be used multiple times to
define a list of IP addresses. When one or more -i options is
specified, attempted connections made on any other IP addresses
will be refused.
-l logfile
By default a log file named pmproxy.log is written in the cur‐
rent directory. The -l option causes the log file to be written
to logfile instead of the default. If the log file cannot be
created or is not writable, output is written to the standard
error instead.
-L bytes
PDUs received by pmproxy from PCP monitoring clients are
restricted to a maximum size of 65536 bytes by default to defend
against Denial of Service attacks. The -L option may be used to
change the maximum incoming PDU size.
-P passfile
Specify the path to a file containing the Network Security Ser‐
vices certificate database password for (optional) secure con‐
nections, and for databases that are password protected. Refer
also to the -C option. When using this option, great care
should be exercised to ensure appropriate ownership ("pcp" user,
typically) and permissions on this file (0400, so as to be
unreadable by any user other than the user running the pmproxy
process).
-U username
Assume the identity of username before starting to accept incom‐
ing packets from PCP monitoring clients.
-x file
Before the pmproxy logfile can be opened, pmproxy may encounter
a fatal error which prevents it from starting. By default, the
output describing this error is sent to /dev/tty but it may
redirected to file.
STARTING AND STOPPING PMPROXY
Normally, pmproxy is started automatically at boot time and stopped
when the system is being brought down. Under certain circumstances it
is necessary to start or stop pmproxy manually. To do this one must
become superuser and type
# $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy start
to start pmproxy, or
# $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy stop
to stop pmproxy. Starting pmproxy when it is already running is the
same as stopping it and then starting it again.
Normally pmproxy listens for PCP client connections on TCP/IP port num‐
ber 44322 (registered at http://www.iana.org/). Either the environment
variable PMPROXY_PORT -p command line option may be used to specify
alternative port number(s) when PMPROXY_PORT or the -p command line
option may be used to specify alternative port number(s) when pmproxy
is started; in each case, the specification is a comma-separated list
of one or more numerical port numbers. Should both methods be used or
multiple -p options appear on the command line, pmproxy will listen on
the union of the set of ports specified via all -p options and the
PMPROXY_PORT environment variable. If non-default ports are used with
pmproxy care should be taken to ensure that PMPROXY_PORT is also set in
the environment of any client application that will connect to pmproxy,
or that the extended host specification syntax is used (see PCPIntro(1)
for details).
FILES
PCP_PMPROXYOPTIONS_PATH
command line options and environment variable settings for
pmproxy when launched from $PCP_RC_DIR/pmproxy All the command
line option lines should start with a hyphen as the first char‐
acter. This file can also contain environment variable settings
of the form "VARIABLE=value".
./pmproxy.log
(or $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmproxy/pmproxy.log when started automatically)
All messages and diagnostics are directed here
/etc/pki/nssdb
default Network Security Services (NSS) certificate database
directory, used for optional Secure Socket Layer connections.
This database can be created and queried using the NSS certutil
tool, amongst others.
ENVIRONMENT
In addition to the PCP environment variables described in the PCP ENVI‐
RONMENT section below, there are several environment variables that
influence the interactions between a PCP monitoring client, pmcd and
pmcd(1).
PMCD_PORT
For the PCP monitoring client this (or the default port number)
is passed to pmproxy and used to connect to pmcd(1). In the
environment of pmproxy PMCD_PORT is not used.
PMPROXY_HOST
For the PCP monitoring client this is the hostname or IP address
of the host where pmproxy is running. In recent versions of PCP
(since version 3) this has been superceded by the extended host‐
name syntax (see PCPIntro(1) for details).
PMPROXY_PORT
For the PCP monitoring client this is the port on which pmproxy
will accept connections. The default is 44322.
PMCD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, PMCD_RECONNECT_TIMEOUT and PMCD_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
(see PCPIntro(1)) For the PCP monitoring client, setting these
environment variables will modify the timeouts used for interac‐
tions between the client and pmproxy (independent of which
pmcd(1) is being used). For pmproxy these same environment
variables control the timeouts between pmproxy and all pmcd(1)
instances (independent of which monitoring client is involved).
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 ALSOPCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdbg(1), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).
DIAGNOSTICS
If pmproxy is already running the message "Error: OpenRequestSocket
bind: Address already in use" will appear. This may also appear if
pmproxy was shutdown with an outstanding request from a client. In
this case, a request socket has been left in the TIME_WAIT state and
until the system closes it down (after some timeout period) it will not
be possible to run pmproxy.
In addition to the standard PCP debugging flags, see pmdbg(1), pmproxy
currently uses DBG_TRACE_CONTEXT for tracing client connections and
disconnections
Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMPROXY(1)
