6. Automate performance problem detection

1. Start pmieconf interactively (as the superuser).

   pmieconf -f ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo
   
   Updates will be made to ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo
   
   pmieconf>
   

2. List a single rule:

   pmieconf> list memory.swap_low
   
   rule: memory.swap_low  [Low free swap space]
   help: There is only threshold percent swap space remaining - the system
   may soon run out of virtual memory.  Reduce the number and size of
   the running programs or add more swap(1) space before it completely runs out.
   predicate =
      some_host (
           ( 100 * ( swap.free $hosts$ / swap.length $hosts$ ) )
           < $threshold$ && swap.length $hosts$ > 0 )
   vars: enabled = no
         threshold = 10%
   
   pmieconf>
   

3. List one rule variable:

   pmieconf> list memory.swap_low threshold
   
   rule: memory.swap_low  [Low free swap space]
         threshold = 10%
   
   pmieconf>
   

4. Lower the threshold for the memory.swap_low rule, and also change the pmie sample interval affecting just this rule. The delta variable is special in that it is not associated with any particular rule; it has been defined as a global pmieconf variable.

   pmieconf> modify memory.swap_low threshold 5
   
   pmieconf> modify memory.swap_low delta "1 sec"
   
   pmieconf>
   

5. Disable all of the rules except for the memory.swap_low rule so that we can see the effects of the change in isolation.

   This produces a relatively simple pmie configuration file:

   pmieconf> disable all
   
   pmieconf> enable memory.swap_low
   
   pmieconf> status
       verbose:  off
       enabled rules:  1 of 35
       pmie configuration file:  ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo
       pmie processes (PIDs) using this file:  (none found)
   
   pmieconf> quit
   

   Note

   We can also use the status command to verify that only one rule is enabled at the end of this step.

6. Run pmie with the new configuration file. Use a text editor to view the newly generated pmie configuration file (${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo), and then run the command:

   pmie -T "1.5 sec" -v -l ${HOME}/demo.log ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo
   memory.swap_low: false
   
   memory.swap_low: false
   
   cat ${HOME}/demo.log
   Log for pmie on venus started Mon Jun 21 16:26:06 2012
   
   pmie: PID = 21847, default host = venus
   
   [Mon Jun 21 16:26:07] pmie(21847) Info: evaluator exiting
   
   Log finished Mon Jun 21 16:26:07 2012
   

7. Notice that both of the pmieconf files used in the previous step are simple text files, as described in the pmieconf(5) man page:

   file ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo
   ${PCP_SYSCONF_DIR}/pmie/config.demo:  PCP pmie config (V.1)
   file ${PCP_VAR_DIR}/config/pmieconf/memory/swap_low
   ${PCP_VAR_DIR}/config/pmieconf/memory/swap_low:   PCP pmieconf rules (V.1)