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PERCONA MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATION

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Configure the pmm-agent daemon

pmm-agent is the daemon process that runs on each monitored host. It manages exporters, collects metrics, and handles communication between your databases and PMM Server.

You typically don’t interact with pmm-agent directly, pmm-admin communicates with PMM Server, which then sends commands to pmm-agent.

NAME

pmm-agent: The PMM Client daemon program.

Syntax

pmm-agent [command] [options]

Description

pmm-agent, part of the PMM Client package, runs as a daemon process on all monitored hosts.

Commands

pmm-agent run
Run pmm-agent (default).
pmm-agent setup [node-address] [node-type] [node-name]

Configure local pmm-agent (requires root permissions)

Running setup again for a registered pmm-agent keeps its registration, along with the Node and every Service on it:

  • The Node is registered again only when the PMM Server address changed, when PMM Server no longer knows the pmm-agent on that Node, or with --force.
  • If PMM Server has the pmm-agent on a Node with another name, setup stops. Re-run it with that name as the node-name argument to keep that Node together with its Services, or use --force to register the name you gave as a new Node instead, which leaves the other Node and its Services on PMM Server with nothing monitoring them.
  • Settings which describe the Node, such as --custom-labels, --disable-collectors or the node-type argument, only take effect when the Node is registered. setup lists the ones it did not apply, and reports a registered Node address or type which differs from the one you gave.
  • The credentials given to setup only serve to register the Node. A registered pmm-agent keeps its service token, and setup says so when the credentials you gave were not the ones used.
  • Without --config-file, as when pmm-admin config runs setup, the configuration file is left unchanged, so settings it holds beyond the flags given are kept.
  • If PMM Server cannot be reached, or answers something pmm-agent cannot interpret, the registration is kept, a warning is written to standard error and setup still succeeds, so that a Client can be set up while PMM Server is unavailable.
  • If the configuration file is encrypted, pass --config-file-key-file. Without the key setup cannot tell whether the pmm-agent is registered, and stops instead of guessing.
  • --skip-registration needs an Agent ID already in hand, from --id, PMM_AGENT_ID, or a configuration file given with --config-file. It stops when nothing supplied one, rather than adopting the ID of a configuration file it only located through the running pmm-agent.
pmm-agent help [command]
Show help (for command) and exit.

Options and environment

Most options can be set via environment variables (shown in parentheses).

Option Environment variable Description
--server-password=SERVER-PASSWORD PMM_AGENT_SERVER_PASSWORD Password to connect to PMM Server.
--server-username=SERVER-USERNAME PMM_AGENT_SERVER_USERNAME Username to connect to PMM Server.
--server-address=host:port PMM_AGENT_SERVER_ADDRESS PMM Server address and port number.
--server-insecure-tls PMM_AGENT_SERVER_INSECURE_TLS Skip PMM Server TLS certificate validation.
--az=AZ PMM_AGENT_SETUP_AZ Node availability zone.
--config-file=path_to/pmm-agent.yaml PMM_AGENT_CONFIG_FILE Configuration file path and name.
--config-file-key-file PMM_AGENT_CONFIG_FILE_KEY_FILE Path to RSA private key for config file encryption. See Encrypt the PMM Client configuration file.
--config-file-key-password PMM_AGENT_CONFIG_FILE_KEY_PASSWORD Password for the RSA private key (if password-protected).
--container-id=CONTAINER-ID PMM_AGENT_SETUP_CONTAINER_ID Container ID.
--container-name=CONTAINER-NAME PMM_AGENT_SETUP_CONTAINER_NAME Container name.
--debug PMM_AGENT_DEBUG Enable debug output.
--distro=distro PMM_AGENT_SETUP_DISTRO Node OS distribution (default is auto-detected).
--force PMM_AGENT_SETUP_FORCE Register the Node even if this pmm-agent is registered, removing any existing Node with that name and its Services and Agents.
--id=... PMM_AGENT_ID ID of this pmm-agent.
--listen-address=LISTEN-ADDRESS PMM_AGENT_LISTEN_ADDRESS Agent local API address.
--listen-port=LISTEN-PORT PMM_AGENT_LISTEN_PORT Agent local API port.
--machine-id=machine-id PMM_AGENT_SETUP_MACHINE_ID Node machine ID (default is auto-detected).
--metrics-mode=auto PMM_AGENT_SETUP_METRICS_MODE Metrics flow mode for agents node-exporter. Can be push (agent will push metrics), pull (server scrapes metrics from agent) or auto (chosen by server).
--node-model=NODE-MODEL PMM_AGENT_SETUP_NODE_MODEL Node model.
--proc-mounts-path=PATH PMM_AGENT_SETUP_PROC_MOUNTS_PATH Path to the proc/mounts file used by the node_exporter.
--expose-exporter If you enable this flag, any IP address on the local network and anywhere on the internet can access node exporter endpoints. If the flag is disabled, node exporter endpoints can be accessed only locally.
--paths-base=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_BASE Base path for PMM client, where all binaries, tools and collectors are located. If not set, default is /usr/local/percona/pmm.
--paths-exporters_base=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_EXPORTERS_BASE Base path for exporters to use. If not set, or set to a relative path, uses value of --paths-base prepended to it.
--paths-mongodb_exporter=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_MONGODB_EXPORTER Path to mongodb_exporter.
--paths-mysqld_exporter=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_MYSQLD_EXPORTER Path to mysqld_exporter.
--paths-node_exporter=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_NODE_EXPORTER Path to node_exporter.
--paths-postgres_exporter=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_POSTGRES_EXPORTER Path to postgres_exporter.
--paths-proxysql_exporter=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_PROXYSQL_EXPORTER Path to proxysql_exporter.
--paths-pt-summary=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_PT_SUMMARY Path to pt-summary.
--paths-pt-mysql-summary=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_PT_MYSQL_SUMMARY Path to pt-mysql-summary.
--paths-pt-pg-summary=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_PT_PG_SUMMARY Path to pt-pg-summary.
--paths-tempdir=PATH PMM_AGENT_PATHS_TEMPDIR Temporary directory for exporters.
--ports-max=PORTS-MAX PMM_AGENT_PORTS_MAX Highest allowed port number for listening sockets.
--ports-min=PORTS-MIN PMM_AGENT_PORTS_MIN Lowest allowed port number for listening sockets.
--region=REGION PMM_AGENT_SETUP_REGION Node region.
--skip-registration PMM_AGENT_SETUP_SKIP_REGISTRATION Skip registration on PMM Server.
--trace PMM_AGENT_TRACE Enable trace output (implies --debug).
--version Show application version, PMM version, time-stamp, git commit hash and branch.
-h, --help Show help (synonym for pmm-agent help).

Config file

PMM manages the configuration file, and it’s not recommended to modify it manually. However, if necessary, you can make adjustments to specific properties in the config file, such as the username or password used for authorization through service accounts.

To do this, set the username to service_token and add your service token as the password. For more information about service account authorization, see Service accounts authentication.

To protect the credentials stored in this file, you can optionally encrypt the PMM Client configuration file. See Encrypt the PMM Client configuration file.

Usage and examples of paths-base flag

Since 2.23.0 this flag could be used for easier setup of PMM agent. With this flag the root permissions for PMM client aren’t needed anymore and it will be fully working.

Examples:

  • Case 1: There are no root permissions for /usr/local/percona/pmm folder or there is a need to change default folder for PMM files. Command: 

    pmm-agent setup --paths-base=/home/user/custom/pmm --config-file=pmm-agent.yaml --server-insecure-tls --server-address=127.0.0.1:443 --server-username=admin --server-password=admin
    Config output: 
    # Updated by `pmm-agent setup`.
---
id: be568008-b1b4-4bd9-98c7-392d1f4b724e
listen-address: 127.0.0.1
listen-port: 7777
server:
    address: 127.0.0.1:443
    username: admin
    password: admin
    insecure-tls: true
paths:
    paths_base: /home/user/custom/pmm
    exporters_base: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters
    node_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/node_exporter
    mysqld_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/mysqld_exporter
    mongodb_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/mongodb_exporter
    postgres_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/postgres_exporter
    proxysql_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/proxysql_exporter
    rds_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/rds_exporter
    azure_exporter: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/azure_exporter
    vmagent: /home/user/custom/pmm/exporters/vmagent
    tempdir: /tmp
    pt_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-summary
    pt_pg_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-pg-summary
    pt_mysql_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-mysql-summary
    pt_mongodb_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-mongodb-summary
ports:
    min: 42000
    max: 51999
debug: false
trace: false
    As could be seen above, base for all exporters and tools was changed only by setting --paths-base. With this tag the folder for PMM that doesn’t require root access could be specified.

  • Case 2: The older --paths-exporters_base flag could be passed along with the --paths-base Command: 

    pmm-agent setup --paths-base=/home/user/custom/pmm --paths-exporters_base=/home/user/exporters --config-file=pmm-agent.yaml --server-insecure-tls --server-address=127.0.0.1:443 --server-username=admin --server-password=admin
    Config output: 
    # Updated by `pmm-agent setup`.
---
id: afce1917-8836-4857-b3e5-ad372c2ddbe5
listen-address: 127.0.0.1
listen-port: 7777
server:
    address: 127.0.0.1:443
    username: admin
    password: admin
    insecure-tls: true
paths:
    paths_base: /home/user/custom/pmm
    exporters_base: /home/user/exporters
    node_exporter: /home/user/exporters/node_exporter
    mysqld_exporter: /home/user/exporters/mysqld_exporter
    mongodb_exporter: /home/user/exporters/mongodb_exporter
    postgres_exporter: /home/user/exporters/postgres_exporter
    proxysql_exporter: /home/user/exporters/proxysql_exporter
    rds_exporter: /home/user/exporters/rds_exporter
    azure_exporter: /home/user/exporters/azure_exporter
    vmagent: /home/user/exporters/vmagent
    tempdir: /tmp
    pt_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-summary
    pt_pg_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-pg-summary
    pt_mysql_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-mysql-summary
    pt_mongodb_summary: /home/user/custom/pmm/tools/pt-mongodb-summary
ports:
    min: 42000
    max: 51999
debug: false
trace: false
    As could be seen above the behavior for the --paths-base was the same, but paths for all exporters were overwritten by the --paths-exporter_base flag.

Summary: Flag --paths-base will set path for all exporters and tools, but each one could be overridden by specific flag (like --paths-mongodb_exporter, --paths-pt-mysql-summary and etc).

LOGGING

By default, pmm-agent sends messages to stderr and to the system log (syslogd or journald on Linux).

To get a separate log file, edit the pmm-agent start-up script.

systemd-based systems

  • Script file: /usr/lib/systemd/system/pmm-agent.service
  • Parameter: StandardError
  • Default value: file:/var/log/pmm-agent.log

Example:

StandardError=file:/var/log/pmm-agent.log

initd-based systems

  • Script file: /etc/init.d/pmm-agent
  • Parameter: pmm_log
  • Default value: /var/log/pmm-agent.log

Example:

pmm_log="/var/log/pmm-agent.log"