How to install further PMDA's for PCP?

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), all versions
• Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)
• Performance Domain Agents (PMDA)'s which are not installed per default

Issue

• How to use a non-default PMDA with PCP?
• I have installed PCP but I want to view and collect performance statistics with a plugin which is not enabled by default.
• How to monitor apache or postgresql or netfilter or similar with PCP?

Resolution

To install a non-default PMDA, you must run the PMDA's installer.

For example, the netfilter PMDA is not installed by default:

# pminfo | grep netfilter | wc -l
0

Change to the PMDA's directory and run its installer:

# cd /var/lib/pcp/pmdas/netfilter
# ./Install 
You will need to choose an appropriate configuration for installation of
the "netfilter" 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 b(oth) [b] 

Updating the Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS) ...
Terminate PMDA if already installed ...
Updating the PMCD control file, and notifying PMCD ...
Check netfilter metrics have appeared ... 2 warnings, 2 metrics and 0 values

The PMDA is now collecting:

# pminfo | grep netfilter
netfilter.ip_conntrack_count
netfilter.ip_conntrack_max

NOTE: Some non-default PMDAs do not log by default, their stats are only tracked in realtime by PMCD. You will need to edit pmlogger configuration so that data from the new PMDAs is saved. Please refer to the following article:

How can I customize the Performance Co-Pilot logging configuration

See Also

• Refer to the individual PMDA man page pmdafoo(1), the README documentation for each PMDA in /var/lib/pcp/pmdas/foo/README and the source code
• Index of Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) articles, solutions, tutorials and white papers
• Content from pcp.io is not included.PCP Quick Reference Guide
• Introduction to storage performance analysis with PCP
• Content from www.pcp.io is not included.Performance Co-Pilot User's and Administrator's Guide

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