Abstract:
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is the de facto standard for system-level performance monitoring in Fedora, RHEL, and their derivatives. While the default configuration provides a solid baseline, production systems often require tailored settings for efficient and effective data collection. A high-performance database may need high-resolution metrics for fine-grained analysis, whereas a constrained VM or IoT node needs minimal overhead.

This article is a practical, hands-on guide for system administrators and performance engineers to tune the pmlogger service—the component responsible for data logging in PCP. It will cover how to adjust sampling intervals, manage data retention, and customize configurations for various use cases, allowing users to unlock the full power of PCP for their environments.

Outline:

• Introduction
  • Overview of PCP and its capabilities.
  • Why tuning PCP matters.
  • What the article covers.
• Prerequisites
  • Installing PCP.
  • Enabling core services.
• Understanding pmlogger
  • The role of pmcd and pmlogger.
  • Key configuration files.
• Scenario-Based Tuning
  • Scenario 1: High-frequency data capture (e.g., debugging issues).
  • Scenario 2: Lightweight monitoring for VMs and edge nodes.
  • Verifying configuration changes.
• Managing Data Retention
  • Configuring retention policies and archive size.
• Conclusion
  • Summary of tuning options.
  • Encouragement to experiment and adapt PCP for diverse workloads.

Target Audience:
System administrators, DevOps engineers, and performance analysts using Fedora, RHEL, CentOS Stream, or other enterprise Linux distributions.

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/article-proposal-unlocking-system-performance-a-practical-guide-to-tuning-pcp-on-fedora-rhel/156244