Limiting the Scope of scrutinize Data Collection

scrutinize provides several options that let you narrow scope of the data collection, to reduce output size and improve performance:

You can use these options singly or in combination, to achieve the desired level of granularity.

Limiting the Time Span of Collected Data

You can use scrutinize --begin and --end options together or separately to limit the time frame of diagnostic data that is collected from vertica.log and editor.log:

You can specify begin and end time arguments as offsets from the current time or as absolute times:

Offset time format: ' DdHhMmSs'

For example:

'3d2h1m'
Absolute time format: 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'

For example:

'2014-01-02 13:29:59'

For example:

$ scrutinize --begin='2014-01-01 00:00:00' --end='2014-01-07 23:59:59'
$ scrutinize --begin='2014-01-01 00:00:00'
$ scrutinize --end='2014-01-07 23:59:59'
$ scrutinize --begin='2014-09-23 00:00:00' --end='1d''

Limiting the Amount of Collected Data

Two options let you limit how much data scrutinize collects:

--log-limit=limit
-l limit

Limits how much data is collected from Vertica logs, where limit specifies, in gigabytes, how much log data to collect, starting from the most recent log entry. By default, 1 GB of log data is collected.

For example, the following command specifies to collect 4 GB of log data:

$ scrutinize --log-limit=4
--include_gzlogs=num-files
-z num-files

Specifies to include num-files rotated log files (vertica.log*.gz) in the scrutinize output, where num-files can be one of the following:

  • An integer specifies the number of rotated log files to collect.
  • all specifies to collect all rotated log files.

By default, scrutinize includes three rotated log files.

For example the following command specifies to collect two rotated log files:

$ scrutinize --include_gzlogs=2 

Limiting Collection to Specific Cluster Nodes

By default, scrutinize collects data from all cluster nodes. You can specify that scrutinize collect from individual nodes in two ways:

--local_diags
-s
Specifies to collect diagnostics only from the host on which scrutinize was invoked.
--hosts=host-list
-n host-list

Specifies to collect diagnostics only from the hosts specified in host-list, where host-list is a comma-separated list of IP addresses or host names.

Example:

$ scrutinize -n host_1,host_2,host_3
$ scrutinize --hosts=127.0.0.1,host_3,host_1


Specifying the Type of Content to Collect

scrutinize provides several options that let you specify the type of data to collect:

--diag-dump

Limits the collection to database design, system tables, and Data Collector tables. Use this option to collect data to analyze system performance.

--diagnostics
Limits the collection to log file data and output from commands that are run against Vertica and its host system. Use this option to collect data to evaluate unexpected behavior in your Vertica system.
--type=type
-t type

Specifies the type of diagnostics collection to perform, where type can be one of the following arguments:

  • profiling: Gather profiling data.
  • context: Gather summary information.
--tasks=tasks
-T tasks

Specifies that scrutinize gather diagnostics on one or more tasks, as specified in a file or JSON list. This option is typically used together with the --exclude option.

Note: Use this option only in consultation with Vertica Customer Support

Excluding Types of Content

scrutinize provides two options that let you specify types of data to exclude from its collection:

--vsql-off
-v

Excludes Query and SystemTable tasks, which are used to connect to the database. This option can help you deal with problems that occur during an upgrade, and is typically used in the following cases:

  • Vertica is running but is slow to respond.
  • You haven't yet created a database but need help troubleshooting other cluster issues.
--exclude=tasks
-X tasks

Excludes one or more types of tasks from the diagnostics collection, where tasks is a comma-separated list of the tasks to exclude.

Note: This option is typically used only in consultation with your Vertica Customer Support contact.

Specify the tasks to exclude with the following case-insensitive arguments :

  • all: All default tasks
  • DC: Data Collector tables
  • File: Log files from the installation process, the database, and Administration Tools, such as vertica.log, dbLog, and adminTools.log
  • VerticaLog: Vertica logs
  • CatalogObject: Vertica catalog metadata, such as system configuration parameters
  • SystemTable: Vertica system tables that contain information about system, resources, workload, and performance
  • Query: Vertica metafunctions that use vsql to connect to the database, such as EXPORT_CATALOG()
  • Command: Operating system information, such as the length of time that a node has been up