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NjmonAixV83ManualPage
njmon for AIX version 83 Manual Page
If you install with the "ninstall" supplied simple shell script as root user, it installs the manual pages for njmon and nimon (the same page covers both).
Access with the regular UNIX/Linux command: man njmon
njmon & nimon(1) General Commands Manual njmon & nimon(1)
NAME
njmon and nimon are the same program
- njmon: save performance statistics in JSON format.
- nimon: save same stats in InfluxDB Line Protocol format.
BRIEFLY
Performance statistics agent outputting in
- JSON format for Time-Series databases including InfluxDB.
- InfluxDB Line Protocol format directly to InfluxDB.
Default is stdout to allow using a shell pipe to other commands.
The ninstall shell script puts njmon and nimon into /usr/lbin.
The nmeasure programs allow adding your own data to InfluxDB.
Version
Version: 83
SYNOPSIS
Core options to save to save the statistics to a file.
njmon -s seconds -c count [-m directory -f]
Other options
-a file -b -B -c count -C -d -D -e -h -k -K pidfile -L -V -n -o -O
org -P -q tags -r -R -t percent -T token -u -U -v -W -? -@ -!
njmon specific options
-i njmond-hostname -p njmond-portno -e -I
nimon specific options
-i InfluxDB-hostname [-p InfluxDB-portno] [-x InfluxDB-database] [-y
InfluxDB-username [-z InfluxDB-password]] -H -w -J
DESCRIPTION
These are the njmon command options in alphabetical order.
-a file
Read the command line arguments from a file (so no passwords are
seen in the ps command output). Place just the command arguments
into a config file (not including the command name). Use the same
arguments, all on the first line, space separated. Only have the -a
option on the actual command line. Example:
nimon -c 1440 -s 60 -i myinflux -x njmon -y fred -z abc123
Create a file called njmon.conf: -c 1440 -s 60 -i myinflux -x njmon
-y fred -z abc123 Then run the command: njmon -a njmon.conf Note:
user and and passwords need to be setup in the InfluxDB configura‐
tion (not used much).
-A hostname
User supplied host override - ignoring the actual hostname. Some
people have different servers with the same hostname!
-b For Process stats, switch off adding pid to the process names:
"ksh_76927" becomes "ksh". This can help if you want to add up the
the numbers for all processes with the same name.
-B Adds extra raw mode statistics - without maths to convert to aver‐
ages or rates in the last period. These are not user friendly but
can help if you want to do the maths. Look for measures and statis‐
tics containing "raw".
-c count
Number of snapshots of the statistice to save and then stop (default
forever).
-C Shared CPU/Processor Pool, you need to enable performance data col‐
lection on the HMC.
-d Switch on debugging output. Note the may ruin the JSON or line pro‐
tocol format. So also use the -f option to saved to a file.
-D Skip dangerous libperfstat function that can cause problems. Tempo‐
rary fix for some older AIX versions.
-e NJMON mode only. Switch on elastic mode (also called elasticsearch,
ELK stack) with sub-arrays (with []) instead of sub-JSON data struc‐
tures for variable numbers of resources like filesystems, disks,
networks etc.
-f file
Output to file (not stdout) to two files below:
NJMON saves to hostname_<year><month><day>_<hour><minutes>.json NI‐
MON saves to hostname_<year><month><day>_<hour><minutes>.influxlp
Debug & Errors are saved hostname_<year><month><day>_<hour><min‐
utes>.err
In NIMON mode: If you add a second "f" like "-ff" or "-f -f" then
the .influxlp output file has a nano seconds since epoch start time‐
stamp at the end of every measure. This should allow it to be in‐
serted in to the InfluxDB using the "influx" command.
In NJMON mode: If you add a second "f" like -ff or -f -f then each
snapshot has its own file. The file name format is host‐
name_<year><month><day>_<hour><minutes>_<6 digit sequence_num‐
ber>.json. The sequence number starts at 000000. There is only a
single error file.
-H NIMON mode only. This option makes nimon send to InfluxDB the full
hostname (as the host tag). The short hostname is the default.
This is important if many servers have the same short name in dif‐
ferent domains. For example, myserver.achme.com normally has
host=myserver. With the -H option the Fully Qualified Domain Name
(FQDN)i s used host=myserver.achme.com. With NJMON mode the host‐
name is extracted from the stats by njmond.py. If you need full
hostnames tags for JSON data modify the njmond.py program.
-h Output these hints, help details and then stop.
-i IP-Address or -i Hostname
NJMON mode: IP Address or Hostname of the central server running nj‐
mond.py.
NIMON mode. IP Address or Hostname of the InfluxDB server.
-I Force switch to running in NIMON mode (regardless of the command
name used) for InfluxDB Line Prootocl output format.
-J Force switch to running in NJMON mode (regardless of the command
name used) for JSON output format.
-k If the file /tmp/njmon.pid is not found this njmon continues run‐
ning. For nimon the file is called /tmp/nimon.pid. If the file is
found, the process PID is read from it & if it is found that the
process is running then this njmon (or nimon) silently exits. If no
process is found running with this PID then this njmon continues
running. This allows you to try starting njmon or nimon say once an
hour from crontab. This will restart the njmon or nimon only if the
previous one stopped. njmon/nimon will remove the njmon.pid or ni‐
mon.pid file when it stops normally. njmon/nimon will produce a
warning and stop, if it detects the .pid file but can't gain access.
Usually, due to not being the file owner or having the wrong file
permisions.
-K pidfile
This is same as the -k option but the user decides the directory and
filename for the file containing the Process Identity (PID). Also,
you can run multiple njmon processes, using different PID files.
Some users prefer to use a file in, for example, /var/logs but that
requires root access. Others prefer to avoid /tmp and use /home/nj‐
mon. njmon will produce a warning and stop, if it detects the .pid
file but can't gain access. Usually, due to not being the file
owner or having the wrong file permisions.
-L Don't collect Logical Volume stats to reduce the CPU processing
time. If not the root user then these are silently switched off.
-m directory
The program will change to the directory before creating files.
-n No PID for the child procees if printed out at start up. I child
process is create to make a new process group so that this program
does not get stopped if you log out.
-o If using Oracle ASM raw disks have zero size. This options requests
using "bootinfo -s" to find out the ASM disk sizes.
-O org Set the organisation. This is use in nimon mode and required for In‐
fluxDB 2+. InfluxDB 2+ uses this to separate datam users and dash‐
boards. This could ne a company name, if hostinf for more than one.
Or a department name or group os users or a workload.
-p port-number
NJMON mode. Network port number of the central njmond.py server.
Many users use 8181 as the port number.
NIMON mode. Network port number of the InfluxDB server. If not set
the default InfluxDB port number of 8086 is used. The InfluxDB port
number can be set in the InfluxDB config file.
-P Switch on the collection of process statistics (Note: these can be
very large). Processes using less than the CPU threshold are ig‐
nored. See -t percent option. This reduces the collection of sta‐
tistics for processes not using any CPU time.
-q influxDB-tags
The tag format is a comma separated tagname=tagvalue both parts are
strings. No double or single quotes. For example: -q dept=foo‐
bar,area=51 This option adds user defined tags that might include:
location, owner, workload, department spp, ssp or HAcluster. See
InfluxDB documentation for the definition of the Line Protocol tag
syntax. No spaces are allowed in the tags string.
New in njmon version 81 there is a new tags measure contaning origi‐
nal and user defined tags. These can be added to Grafana single
stats text boxes.
NIMON mode. nimon InfluxDB default tags are: hostname, os, archi‐
tecture, serial_no, mtm and now includes the additional tags auto‐
matically. There is also a new measure called tags with keys of the
default tags and additional tags with "_tag" added to the names.
NJMON mode. njmon when sending data to InfluxDB via njmond has In‐
fluxDB tags are: hostname, os, architecture, serial_no and mtm.
These are extracted from the JSON data by njmond. njmond would need
to be changed to add the additional tags. njmond may be updated in
the future to use these the tags measuremen for the tags.
-r Random pause at the start. Stops cron starting every njmon in sync
on many endpoints (VM) with network time protocal.
-R Reduced mode, don't collect CPU core thread: logical CPUs like
cpu_logicals, cpu_physicals, syscall stats nor netbuffers.
-s seconds
Seconds between snapshots of data (default 60 seconds).
-t percent
Process CPU cut-off threshold percent. Default 0.001. Processes us‐
ing less than this value are not included in the statistics thuse
removing processes using no (or very little) CPU clock cycles and
drastically reducing the data for proesses.
-T token
For NIMON mode, InfluxDB 2+ uses a different REST API and this op‐
tion switches NIMON to the the API. The Security Token is foun in
the InfluxDB 2+ CLI or GUI. It is about 50 characters (Lower and up‐
percase and numbers and some symbol letters). See also the -O org
optio.
-v Only available if njmon or nimon compiled with VIOS support. Compile
with -D VIOS This adds VIOS virtual disk and networks statistics.
-u Only available if njmon compiled with VIOS support. Compile with -D
SSP This adds VIOS Shared Storage Pools (SSP) statistics.
-U Only available if njmon compiled with VIOS support. Compile with -D
SSP This adds VIOS Shared Storage Pools (SSP) statistics for each
node.
-V Don't collect Volume Group stats to reduce the CPU processing time.
If not the root user then these are silently switched off.
-w NIMON mode only. Switch on InfluxDB telegraf output mode, Which ex‐
cludes the HTTP POST string.
-W Ignore warning messages. Use this to supress messages that you you
no longer want to see.
-x database
NIMON mode only. InfluxDB database name (created with influx com‐
mand then: create database njmon and exit). Note: nimon and njmon
can share the same database and it is normally called "njmon". If
not specified "njmon" is the default. In InfluxDB2 this is now
called a bucket.
-y username
NIMON mode only. InfluxDB server username for authentication.
Mandatory, if you have set up InfluxDB to enforce username and pass‐
word autentication. The Default is no username and password is nec‐
essary and the username is ignored.
-z password
NIMON mode only. InfluxDB server password for authentication.
Mandatory, if you have set up InfluxDB to enforce username and pass‐
word autentication. The Default is no username and password is nec‐
essary and the password is ignored.
-? Same as the -h Help option.
-! Output the full version information and stop. For example: Version
njmon4AIX7-v80-13/05/2022
-@ Switch on Workload Manager stats (see wlmstat command)
Notes on Spectrum Scale (GPFS)
njmon automatically collects GPFS if /usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/mmksh and
/usr/lpp/mmfs/bin/mmpmon are found on the system. However, if GPFS
is present but off it can get confused. Use: export NOGPFS=1 to set
a shell variable before running njmon or nimon will disable GPFS
stats. You can also compile out GPFS support with -D NOGPFS
EXAMPLES for using njmon
1 Simple use
Every minute (60 seconds), all day (1440 minutes), njmond server
hostname, default InfluxDB port (8181).
1 Syntax
njmon -s 60 -c 1440 -i centralbox -p 8181
2 Piping the JSON output in to a data handler
Every 1 minute (-c 60) all day (1440 minutes in a day), InfluxDB
server hostname influxbox, default InfluxDB port (-p 8086) and user‐
name /password.
2 Syntax
njmon -s 60 -c 1440 | myprog
3 Add prosses and remove LVM data
Add process statistics (-P) and remove LV + VG data (-LV).
3 Syntax
njmon -s60 -c 1440 -PLV -i centralbox -p 8181
4 Every half minute
Collect statistics twice a minute (-s 30) and all day (2880 half
minutes in a day).
4 Syntax
njmon -s30 -c 2880 -i centralbox -p 8181
5 Add VIOS statistics
Adding VIOS extra statistics for virtual resources and including SSP
- requires njmon version with VIOS compiled in.
5 Syntax
njmon -s30 -c 2880 -vuU -i centralbox -p 8181
6 Crontab
Crontab entry start at 4 minutes after midnight, save data every 30
seconds for a day.
6 Syntax
4 0 * * * /usr/lbin/njmon -s30 -c 2880 -vuU -i centralbox -p 8181
2>/dev/null
7 Crontab with kill option
Crontab entry starting hourly and checking if the previous njmon is
still running (if it is this njmon stops itself). This uses a PID
file called /tmp/njmon.pid.
7 Syntax
0 * * * * /usr/lbin/njmon -s 60 -k -i centralbox -p 8181 2>/dev/null
8 Using a PID file
Naming a PID file so it is not in /tmp which might be erased
8 Syntax
0 * * * * /usr/lbin/njmon -s 60 -K /home/nag/njmon.pid -i centralbox
-p 8181 2>/den/null
9 Saving to a local file
Save the njmon data to take a file (-f). This file can be loaded in
to InfluxDB later with njmon2influx.py. The two files will end .err
and .influxlp (lp = Line Protocol).
9 Syntax
njmon -s 10 -c 30 -f
10 Saving to a file and a specific directory
njmon moves to the directory /tmp before creating any files. Save
the njmon data to take a file (-f). This can be loaded in to In‐
fluxDB later.
10 Syntax
njmon -s 60 -c 1440 -m /tmp -f
11 Use ssh to start the njmonagent on a remote endpoint, return the
data over ssh and pipe to the InfluxDB
11 Syntax
0 * * * * /usr/bin/ssh /usr/lbin/njmon -s 15 -c 5760 | /usr/lbin/nj‐
mon2influxturbo.py
12 Using a conf file
Using a configuration file to contain the njmon arguments. This
means the arguments are not seen in the ps command output. Use the
-a argument-file option.
12 Syntax
For example command line: /usr/lbin/njmon -a /etc/njmon.conf
12 An example /etc/njmon.config file contains just the options:
-s 60 -c 1440 -i centralbox -p 8181
13 Output the version njmon and stop
13 Syntax
njmon -!
EXAMPLES for using nimon
1 Simple use
Every minute (60 seconds), all day (1440 minutes), InfluxDB server
hostname, default InfluxDB port (8086), database njmon.
1 Syntax
nimon -s 60 -c 1440 -i influxbox -x njmon
2 With user & password
Every 1 minute (-c 60) all day (1440 minuts in a day), InfluxDB
server hostname influxbox, InfluxDB port (-p 8086) and username /p
assword.
2 Syntax
nimon -s 60 -c 1440 -i influxbox -p 8086 -x njmon -y Nigel -z passwd
3 Add prosses and remove LVM data - assuming the database of njmon and the
InfluxDB port of 8086
Add process statistics (-P) and remove LV + VG data (-LV).
3 Syntax
nimon -s60 -c 1440 -PLV -i influxbox
4 Every half minute with a non-default port of 8888
Collect statistics twice a minute (-s 30) and all day (2880 half
minutes in a day).
4 Syntax
nimon -s30 -c 2880 -i influxbox -p 8888 -x njmon
5 Add VIOS statistics
Adding VIOS extra statistics for virtual resources and including SSP
- requires nimon version with VIOS compiled in.
5 Syntax
nimon -s30 -c 2880 -vuU -i influxbox
6 Crontab
Crontab entry start at 4 minutes after midnight, save data every 30
seconds for a day.
6 Syntax
4 0 * * * /usr/lbin/nimon -s30 -c 2880 -vuU -i influxbox 2>/dev/null
7 Crontab with kill option
Crontab entry starting hourly and checking if the previous nimon is
still running (if it is this nimon stops itself). This uses a PID
file called /tmp/nimon.pid.
7 Syntax
0 * * * * /usr/lbin/nimon -s 60 -k -i influxbox 2>/dev/null
8 Using a PID file
Naming a PID file so it is not in /tmp which might be erased
8 Syntax
0 * * * * /usr/lbin/nimon -s 60 -K /home/nag/nimon.pid -i influxbox
2>/dev/null
9 Saving to a local file
Save the nimon data to take a file (-f). This file can not be
loaded in to InfluxDB due to it not having time and date stamp. The
data and time are added by InfluxDB as th e data is loaded. The two
files will end .err and .influxlp (lp = Line Protocol).
9 Syntax
nimon -s 10 -c 3 -f
10 Saving to a file and a specific directory
nimon moves to the directory /tmp before creating any files. Save
the nimon data to take a file (-f). This can not be loaded in to
InfluxDB
10 Syntax
nimon -s 1 -c 3 -m /tmp -f
11 Prometheus, elastic (ELK) and Splunk support
Send data to telegraf and then onto Prometheus, elastic (ELK) or
Splunk. You will have to set up telegraf with an InfluxDB input
plugin and an output plugin of type Prometheus. Then point
Prometheus at the telegraf server to collect the data. Similar for
elastic and Splunk.
11 Syntax
nimon -s 15 -c 5760 -w -i telegraf_server -p 8888
12 Using a conf file
Using a configuration file to contain the nimon arguments. This
means the arguments are not seen in the ps command output. Use the
-a argument-file option.
12 Syntax
For example command line: /usr/lbin/nimon -a /etc/njmon.conf
12 An example /etc/njmon.config file contains just the options:
-s 60 -c 1440 -i influxbox
13 Output the version nimon and stop
13 Syntax
nimon -@
14 Simple example but using InfluxDB 2+
10 Syntax
nimon -k -s 30 -i influx_hostname -O IBM -T HyS7g1TT-...KK==
SIGNALS
Dynamically, toggle on verbose debug output using SIGUSR1. This is good for
problem determination and njmon development.
kill -USR1 <njmon-pid>
FILES
/usr/lbin/njmon
The executable command
SEE ALSO
nimon(1) nimon is like njmon but outputs InfluxDB Line Protocol data.
Online njmon Manual website
See http://nmon.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php?n=Site.NjmonManualPage
njmon Download Project website
From http://nmon.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php?n=Site.Njmon
AIXpert Blog Articles on nimon and njmon
https://ibm.biz/AIXpertBlog
perfstat Library website
This is the source of most of the statistics documentation
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_72/filesrefer‐
ence/libperfstat.h.html
Grafana dashboards (assuming InfluxDB hold the data)
https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards?search=njmon
AUTHOR
Nigel Griffiths nigelargriffiths@hotmail.com @mr_nmon
BUGS
None, of course. But just in case, please report issues to the author by
email.
AIX and VIOS njmon & nimon(1)