PMDADM(1)

NAME
pmdadm - Device Mapper PMDA

SYNOPSIS
$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm/pmdadm [-D debug]

DESCRIPTION
pmdadm is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which exports metric values for Device Mapper on the local system.

This PMDA collects its data through the dmsetup(8) utility and the dmstats API and requires that the program is installed in order to function. In addition, at least one statistics region must be created using the dmstats(8) utility in order to get basic counter values. See below for examples.

Note that device-mapper statistics collection is not enabled by default and is not persistent across reboots (unless a system administrator has configured something to run in rc.local or equivalent). This is because there are overheads associated with statistics collection. In addition, the pmdadm PMDA does not automatically enable any statistics collection because it may not be the only consumer of the data.

INSTALLATION
Install the DM PMDA by using the Install script as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm
    # ./Install

To uninstall, the following must be done as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm
    # ./Remove

pmdadm is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly. The Install and Remove scripts notify pmcd when the agent is installed or removed.

CONFIGURATION
This PMDA uses the dmstats API (the userspace device-mapper support library) to capture device-mapper performance data.
Using this PMDA, users need the userspace device-mapper support library (libdevmapper) and the userspace command line tool dmstats(8). Before device-mapper metrics will be available for PCP, statistics regions have to be created. For example, to enable basic statistics for all local device-mapper logical devices, use the following command:

# dmstats create --alldevices

To create statistics regions with specified histogram boundaries, use the following:

# dmstats create --alldevices --bounds histogram_boundaries

Specify the boundaries of a latency histogram to be tracked for the region as a comma separated list of latency values. Latency values are given in nanoseconds. An optional unit suffix of ns, us, ms, or s may be given after each value to specify units of nanoseconds, microseconds, miliseconds or seconds respectively. For example,

# dmstats create --alldevices --bounds 10us,30us,50us,70us,90us

Further details and more complex examples can be found in dmstats(8).

METRICS

Basic Counters
    Basic counters provide access to the raw counter data from the kernel, allowing further processing to be carried out by another program.
    The Kernel provides thirteen separate counters for each statistics area. The first eleven of these match the counters provided in /proc/diskstats or /sys/block/*/*/stat. The final pair provide separate counters for read and write time.

    dmstats.read
        Count of reads completed this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.reads_merged
        Count of reads merged this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.read_bytes
        Count of kbytes read this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.reads_time
        Accumulated duration of all read requests per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.write
        Count of writes completed this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.writes_merged
        Count of writes completed this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.write_bytes
        Count of kbytes write this interval per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.writes_time
        Accumulated duration of all write requests per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.in_progress
        Count of requests currently in progress per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.io_ticks
        Nanoseconds spent servicing request per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.queue_ticks
        This field is incremented at each I/O start, I/O completion, I/O merge, or read of these stats by the number of I/Os in progress multiplied by the number of nanoseconds spent doing I/O since the last update of this field. This can provide an easy measure of both I/O completion time and the backlog that may be accumulating.

    dmstats.read_ticks
        Nanoseconds spent servicing reads per device-mapper device.

    dmstats.write_ticks
        Nanoseconds spent servicing writes per device-mapper device.

        Histogram fields
            Histograms measure the frequency distribution of user specified I/O latency intervals. Histogram bin boundaries are specified when a region is created.
            Instance name represents devicename, region id and bin boundaries.

            dmstats.histogram.hist_count
                A list of the histogram counts for the current statistics area in order of ascending latency value. Each value represents the number of I/Os with latency times falling into that bin's time range during the sample period.

            dmstats.histogram.hist.bins
                The number of latency histogram bins configured for the area.

EXAMPLES
# dmstats create looptest0 --bounds 10us,30us,50us
looptest0: Created new region with 1 area(s) as region ID 0

# pminfo -f dmstats.read dmstats.histogram.hist_count

dmstats.read
    inst [0 or "looptest0"] value 4099

dmstats.histogram.hist_count
    inst [0 or "looptest0:0:0s"] value 1
    inst [1 or "looptest0:0:10us"] value 3752
    inst [2 or "looptest0:0:30us"] value 250
    inst [3 or "looptest0:0:50us"] value 96

FILES

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm/help
    default help text file for the dm metrics

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm/Install
    installation script for the pmdadm agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/dm/Remove
    undo installation script for the pmdadm agent

$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/dm.log
    default log file for error messages from pmdadm

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).

DEBUGGING OPTIONS
The -D or --debug option enables the output of additional diagnostics on stderr to help triage problems, although the information is sometimes cryptic and primarily intended to provide guidance for developers rather than for end-users. debug is a comma separated list of debugging options; use pmdbg(1) with the -l option to obtain a list of the available debugging options and their meaning.

SEE ALSO
PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmstore(1), dmsetup(8) and dmstats(8).