CPU performance

Plugin: perf.plugin Module: perf.plugin

Overview

This collector monitors CPU performance metrics about cycles, instructions, migrations, cache operations and more.

It uses syscall (2) to open a file descriptor to monitor the perf events.

This collector is only supported on the following platforms:

• Linux

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

It needs setuid to use the necessary syscall to collect perf events. Netdata sets the permission during installation time.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn't support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per CPU performance instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
perf.cpu_cycles	cpu, ref_cpu	cycles/s
perf.instructions	instructions	instructions/s
perf.instructions_per_cycle	ipc	instructions/cycle
perf.branch_instructions	instructions, misses	instructions/s
perf.cache	references, misses	operations/s
perf.bus_cycles	bus	cycles/s
perf.stalled_cycles	frontend, backend	cycles/s
perf.migrations	migrations	migrations
perf.alignment_faults	faults	faults
perf.emulation_faults	faults	faults
perf.l1d_cache	read_access, read_misses, write_access, write_misses	events/s
perf.l1d_cache_prefetch	prefetches	prefetches/s
perf.l1i_cache	read_access, read_misses	events/s
perf.ll_cache	read_access, read_misses, write_access, write_misses	events/s
perf.dtlb_cache	read_access, read_misses, write_access, write_misses	events/s
perf.itlb_cache	read_access, read_misses	events/s
perf.pbu_cache	read_access	events/s

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

Install perf plugin

If you are using our official native DEB/RPM packages, make sure the netdata-plugin-perf package is installed.

Enable the perf plugin

The plugin is disabled by default because the number of PMUs is usually quite limited and it is not desired to allow Netdata to struggle silently for PMUs, interfering with other performance monitoring software.

To enable it, use edit-config from the Netdata config directory, which is typically at /etc/netdata, to edit the netdata.conf file.

cd /etc/netdata   # Replace this path with your Netdata config directory, if different
sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf

Change the value of the perf setting to yes in the [plugins] section. Save the file and restart the Netdata Agent with sudo systemctl restart netdata, or the appropriate method for your system.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is netdata.conf. Configuration for this specific integration is located in the [plugin:perf] section within that file.

The file format is a modified INI syntax. The general structure is:

[section1]
    option1 = some value
    option2 = some other value

[section2]
    option3 = some third value

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config netdata.conf

Options

You can get the available options running:

/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/perf.plugin  --help

Config options

Name	Description	Default	Required
update every	Data collection frequency.	1	no
command options	Command options that specify charts shown by the plugin. cycles, instructions, branch, cache, bus, stalled, migrations, alignment, emulation, L1D, L1D-prefetch, L1I, LL, DTLB, ITLB, PBU.	1	yes

Examples

All metrics

Monitor all metrics available.

[plugin:perf]
    command options = all

CPU cycles

Monitor CPU cycles.

Config

[plugin:perf]
    command options = cycles

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode