pmdamssql - Man Page

pmdamssql is a Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which extracts live performance data from a running Microsoft SQL Server database server.

Firstly, pmdamssql requires installation of these support packages:

mssql-server

The primary Microsoft SQL Server database package.

msodbcsql18,  msodbcsql17 or msodbcsql

Microsoft SQL Server ODBC bindings.

pyodbc

General Python ODBC module with Microsoft SQL Server support enabled.

Next, pmdamssql reads an optional ini-style configuration file:

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql/mssql.conf

This file currently allows for two sections, one for configuring the library that connects to SQL server, the other for authenticating with SQL server.

[connection] section specifies values for the following settings (their default values are shown in parenthesis):

driver ({ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server})

ODBC driver string.

server (tcp:localhost)

SQL Server socket connection string.

timeout (2)

Connection timeout setting, in seconds.

[authentication] section specifies values for the two supported modes of authentication with SQL Server.

The default is to use SQL Server authentication, which requires a username and password to be provided. These are the following configuration settings (their default values are shown in parenthesis):

username (pcp)

Username to connect to the database.

password (empty)

Password to connect to the database.

Note that if a SQL Server Assessments API configuration file is found at /var/opt/mssql/secrets/assessment, then pmdamssql reads the username and password from that file preferentially. The format is simply a two line text file, the first containing the username and the second the password.

The second option is Windows authentication mode, where logins are created in SQL Server that are not based on operating system user accounts.

trusted (false)

Set to true to use Windows authentication when connecting to the database.

This is a Kerberos-style connection and credentials must be available before the PMDA is started (see kinit(1) for further details).

To install, the following must be done as root:

# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql
# ./Install

To uninstall, the following must be done as root:

# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql
# ./Remove

pmdamssql 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.

pmdamssql will automatically attempt to reconnect to the SQL Server if its connection is lost - e.g. if the SQL Server service is restarted.

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql/mssql.conf

configuration file for the pmdamssql agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql/Install

installation script for the pmdamssql agent

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mssql/Remove

undo installation script for the pmdamssql agent

$PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/mssql.log

default log file for messages from the pmdamssql agent

Note that the usual/default value for $PCP_PMDAS_DIR is /var/lib/pcp/pmdas and the default for $PCP_LOG_DIR is /var/log/pcp but these settings are platform dependent.

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).

PCPIntro(1), kinit(1) and pmcd(1).