PMDALIBVIRT(1)

NAME
pmdalibvirt - libvirt PMDA

DESCRIPTION
pmdalibvirt is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which extracts live performance data from libvirt hypervisor and domains (VMs).

See the libvirt documentation for detailed description of each metric.

INSTALLATION
pmdalibvirt reads an optional ini-style configuration file

    •   $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt/libvirt.conf

This file can contain in its [pmda] section overriding values for the following PMDA options:

    •   user
    •   uri
    •   backing
    •   oldapi

By default, root, qemu:///system, False, and False are used as values for these options, respectively.

The backing setting can be used to expand block device information to cover backing chains with recent libvirt versions.

The old API setting can be used in environments where recent libvirt API additions are not available (e.g., RHEL 6 / libvirt-0.10.2) to provide some of the metrics available with the newer API. Regardless of the API version, no guest agent is needed for the metrics.

Note that using non-root user typically requires also libvirt side configuration; please refer to libvirt documentation for further details on this.

Once the needed setup is ready, you can test the connection and install the PMDA to enable access to the names and values for the libvirt performance metrics. To install, do the following as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt
    # ./connect
    # ./Install

To uninstall, do the following as root:

    # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt
    # ./Remove

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

FILES

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt/libvirt.conf
    configuration file for the pmdalibvirt agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt/connect
    connection test helper using the pmdalibvirt agent configuration

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt/Install
    installation script for the pmdalibvirt agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/libvirt/Remove
    undo installation script for the pmdalibvirt agent

$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/libvirt.log
    default log file for messages from the pmdalibvirt agent

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 ALSO
PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), virsh(1) and libvirtd(8).