pmie_check(1)

NAME
     pmie_check - administration of the Performance Co-Pilot inference engine

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/pcp/bin/pmie_check [-NsV] [-c control]

DESCRIPTION
     This shell script and associated control file may be used to create a
     customized regime of administration and management for the Performance
     Co-Pilot (see PCPintro(1)) inference engine, pmie(1).

     pmie_check may be run at any time, and is intended to check that the
     desired set of pmie(1) processes are running, and if not to re-launch any
     failed inference engines.  Use of the -s option provides the reverse
     functionality, allowing the set of pmie processes to be cleanly shutdown.

     pmie_check is controlled by a PCP inference engine control file that
     specifies the pmie instances to be managed.  The default control file is
     /var/pcp/config/pmie/control, but an alternate may be specified using the
     -c option.

     The control file should be customized according to the following rules.

     1.   Lines beginning with a ``#'' are comments.
     2.   Lines beginning with a ``$'' are assumed to be assignments to
          environment variables in the style of sh(1), and all text following
          the ``$'' will be eval'ed by the script reading the control file,
          and the corresponding variable exported into the environment.  This
          is particularly useful to set and export variables into the
          environment of the administrative script, e.g.
              $ PMCD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=20
          Warning:  The /var/pcp/config/pmie/control file is a potential
          security risk if it is writable by any user other than root.
     3.   There should be one line in the control file for each pmie instance
          of the form:

              host y|n logfile args

     4.   Fields within a line of the control file are separated by one or
          more spaces or tabs.
     5.   The first field is the name of the host that is the default source
          of the performance metrics for this pmie instance.
     6.   The second field indicates whether this pmie instance needs to be
          started under the control of pmsocks(1) to connect to a pmcd through
          a firewall (y or n).  Note that pmsocks is part of the pcp product
          distribution, rather than the pcp_eoe distribution, and as such may
          not be installed on your system.  Refer to PCPintro (1) for full
          details.
     8.   The third field is the name of the pmie activity log file. A useful
          convention is that pmie instances monitoring the local host with
          hostname myhost are maintained in the directory
          /var/adm/pcplog/myhost, while activity logs for the remote host
          mumble are maintained in /var/adm/pcplog/mumble.  This is consistent
          with the way pmlogger(1) maintains its activity logs and archive
          files.
     9.   All other fields are interpreted as arguments to be passed to
          pmie(1).  Most typically this would be the -c option.

     The following sample control lines specify one pmie instance monitoring
     the local host (wobbly), and another monitoring performance metrics from
     the host splat.

     wobbly  n  /var/adm/pcplog/wobbly  -c /var/pcp/config/pmie/config.default
     splat   n  /var/adm/pcplog/splat   -c /var/adm/pcplog/splat/cpu.conf

     A typical crontab(5) entry for periodic execution of pmie_check is given
     in /var/pcp/config/pmie/crontab and shown below.

     # every 30 minutes, check pmie instances are running
     25,55   *       *       *       *       /usr/pcp/bin/pmie_check

     Alternate redirection of the output from the cron(1) execution of the
     script may be controlled as follows:

     (1) The -V option to the script will enable verbose tracing of their
         activity.  By default the script generates no output unless some
         error or warning condition is encountered.

     (2) To redirect the e-mail from cron(1) away from the root login,

         + Instead of using the ``root'' login, create a special IRIX login
           with uid equal to 0, e.g. su_pcp.  The password may be locked
           and/or the shell invalid to prevent login or su (1), but the home
           directory should exist.  For example the following entry in
           /etc/passwd:

               su_pcp:x:0:0:PCP Housekeeping:/usr/people/su_pcp:/dev/null

         + Create a $HOME/.forward for su_pcp, else an entry in
           /usr/lib/aliases for su_pcp, redirecting the e-mail to a real user
           or user(s).

         + Add the ``crontab'' entries above to the crontab file for su_pcp
           not root, e.g. in the file /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/su_pcp

     The -N option enables a ``show me'' mode, where the actions are echoed,
     but not executed, in the style of ``make -n''.  Using -N in conjunction
     with -V maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging.

FILES
     /var/pcp/config/pmie/control
                       the default PCP inference engine control file
                       Warning:  this file is a potential security risk if it
                       is writable by any user other than root.
     /var/pcp/config/pmie/crontab
                       sample crontab for automated script execution by root

     logfile.lock      transient lock file which is named using the control-
                       specified pmie logfile names, and is used to guarantee
                       mutual exclusion during pmie_check execution - if
                       present, can be safely removed if pmie_check is not
                       running

     /var/adm/pcplog/NOTICES
                       PCP ``notices'' file used by pmie(1) and friends

SEE ALSO
     cron(1), chkconfig(1), pmie(1), PCPintro(1), and pmsocks(1).