Should pcp2graphite run as a service?

[lmiccini]

Hi,

$subject says it all. I am relying on pcp2graphite to forward metrics to a carbon/graphite instance.
I ended up having to write a pcp2graphite.service systemd unit file to keep it running.

Should pcp provide such init file/systemd unit file (or document the need for it) or maybe we have other options available / in the works (like a "metrics forwarding facility" that can then use pcp2graphite)?

Thanks!

[fche]

Luca, please consider sending your .service file for inclusion in pcp. (For such a trivial service, perhaps even just including a template in the pcp2graphite man page could be sufficient, since configuration rather than invocation mechanics represents the bulk of the content.)

[lmiccini]

Hi Frank, I agree on the manpage.

Here it is anyway:

[Unit]
Description=Performance Co-Pilot data pump
Documentation=man:pcp2graphite(8)
After=pmcd.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/pcp2graphite -m pcp-%H. -g <graphite_host> kernel mem
network disk filesys

[fche]

(By the way, have you found it a problem that pcp2graphite reopens a new socket to graphite at every time interval? Some versions of carbon can apparently accept persistent connections; was thinking pcp2graphite should grow an option for that.)

[lmiccini]

I can live with the current behaviour, but that sounds like an improvement for sure.
I can submit a pull request for the man page if you like.

[fche]

yes please!

[lmiccini]

submitted #25

[natoscott]

Looks like consensus earlier was that a man page update suffices here, which has long been merged - closing.