RMC Interface

Overview

The RMC plugin brings RMC variables of any Refinitiv market data system (RTDS) component seamlessly and in real-time into the Geneos environment. When integrated, these parameters become fully manageable.

In addition to translating RMC variables, the RMC plugin provides additional value added functionality such as:

The ability to pick and display selected RMC variables, removing the complexity of the built-in tools (adhmon, adsmon).
Provide rate of change calculation. Actual values of some of the parameters, such as the total number of updates, for example, are irrelevant by themselves. The rate of change of those parameters is much more useful.

Basic configuration

Template

The template section is used to pick and display the desired variables. You can select from two modes:

data — enables you to pick and display RMC variables, as desired.
Rmc template — enables you to reuse an existing data template into a new RMC Interface sampler.

Instance

Instance number of the RMC component being monitored.

Name
Number

Mandatory: Yes

Shared memory key

Shared memory used by the RMC component being monitored.

Data template

When you opt for the data option, you can define the dataview from scratch:

Headlines

This section defines up to six headline-type variables that are shown at the top of the view.

When you define a variable, you must provide both name and RMC name.

Headline field Description

Name Title to display against the headline on the view.

Headline field	Description
Name	Title to display against the headline on the view.
Rmc name	RMC name identifying the source managed variable. For more information, see $HOST and $INSTANCE substitutions. Mandatory: Yes
options	Provides the option to show the variable as a rate. When Show as rate is enabled, then you can configure the following options: Options — `Signed wrap` or `Unsigned wrap`. Calculation method — `Change between samples` or `Change between syncs`. Mandatory: No For more information on the Show as rate options, see Rate calculation.

Rmc name

RMC name identifying the source managed variable.

For more information, see $HOST and $INSTANCE substitutions.

Mandatory: Yes

options

Provides the option to show the variable as a rate.

When Show as rate is enabled, then you can configure the following options:

Options — Signed wrap or Unsigned wrap.
Calculation method — Change between samples or Change between syncs.

Mandatory: No

For more information on the Show as rate options, see Rate calculation.

Options

When you create a data template, you can choose from two approaches:

Records option

The records option constructs a list of variables in the view. This option should be used when the variable names are known at the time the template is created.

The records section is similar to the headlines section, except the variables are displayed in a list and the number of the variables is not limited to six—you can define up to 1000 variables.

The other difference from the headlines section is that records section must be in the template on its own—a template cannot have both a LIST section and a TABLE section.

For more information, see the RMC Interface Records Option.

Table option

The table option constructs a table in the view. Use this when the full variable names are not known at the time the template is created.

For example, when monitoring Sink Distributor User Mounts it is not possible to fully specify the variable names, as new mounts may come and go. Instead, a pattern that the variable names fall into is specified.

For more information, see the RMC Interface Table Option.

RMC Interface Records Option

The records option constructs a list of variables in the view. This option should be used when the variable names are known at the time the template is created.

The records section is similar to the headlines section, except the variables are displayed in a list and the number of the variables is not limited to six—you can define up to 1000 variables.

The other difference from the headlines section is that records section must be in the template on its own—a template cannot have both a LIST section and a TABLE section.

Records option configuration

RMC data template records option

When you opt a data template and choose the records option, here are the ways you can configure the table:

Field	Description
Name	Title to display against the records on the view.
options (middle column)	Denotes the field content type: `value` — The RMC name identifying the source managed variable. For more information, see $HOST and $INSTANCE substitutions in RMC Interface. `Show as percentage` — Allows for the creation of new columns which are based on existing field data. These are a percentage representation of two data items. Indicate a Numerator and a Denominator.
options (right column)	Provides the option to show the variable as a rate. When Show as rate is enabled, then you can configure the following options: Options — `Signed wrap` or `Unsigned wrap`. Calculation method — `Change between samples` or `Change between syncs`. Mandatory: No For more information on the Show as rate options, see Rate calculation in RMC Interface.

RMC Interface Table Option

The table option constructs a table in the view. Use this when the full variable names are not known at the time the template is created.

Table option configuration

RMC Interface data template table option

When you opt a data template and choose the table option, here are the ways you can configure the table:

Record seed

This option is used to retrieve data from recurring variable strings, such as user, mounts, services, and so on.

The record seed replaces the recurring variables followed by the various fields to be retrieved.

For more information, see $HOST and $INSTANCE substitutions in RMC Interface.

Mandatory: Yes

Key like

The key in the variable name must map to a text string that is unique across all the records in the RMC data stream.

Sometimes it is necessary to only pick the records that have the key that match a specific pattern. For example, when monitoring Service instances, the key must have a text followed by a number. If this pattern restriction is not specified, the Service summary records (text without number) will also be displayed.

The key forms the changeable part of the record seed. This can be the username, serverId, service name, and so on. The key can be several variable parts.

Key pattern can be specified using combinations of matchElements in any order.

Match Element	Description
Number	Matches any combination of 0-9 up to a '.'
Text	Matches any combination of characters up to a '.' or a number.
Any	Matches any combination of characters up to a '.'

Mandatory: Yes

Fields

Define the fields that will be shown in the table.

Field	Description
Name	Name of the column that shows this field. Mandatory: Yes
options (second column)	Denotes the field content type: `value` — RMC name identifying the source managed variable. For example, attributes or consumer name. `Key element` — If the <key> pattern is composed of multiple elements, this setting adds a column to display a corresponding element, denoted by its position in the <key> pattern. For a <key> pattern matching "route.2209.dataStreams", key element 1 would show "route", element 2 "2209", and element 3 "dataStreams". `Key template` — Displays the matched <key> pattern in the format specified by the template. The key template can be any combination of the key elements and string literals. For a <key> pattern matching "route.2209.dataStreams", the following key template will display the key as "route-2209-dataStreams": `Show as percentage` — Allows for the creation of new columns which are based on existing field data. These are a percentage representation of two data items. Indicate a Numerator and a Denominator.
Strip	Some RMC variables contain additional information that may not be desired, this command can be used to truncate the contents of a variable at a predefined position. You have the option to truncate `after` or `before` a specified string.
options (right column)	Provides the option to show the variable as a rate. When Show as rate is enabled, then you can configure the following options: Options — `Signed wrap` or `Unsigned wrap`. Calculation method — `Change between samples` or `Change between syncs`. Mandatory: No For more information on the Show as rate options, see Rate calculation in RMC Interface.

Unified strings

This is an optional parameter that indicates that the specified unified strings are to be considered as a single element that matches a single element in the pattern specified with Key like.

For example, if a.b.c is specified as a unified string, then the record 'a.b.c.1.d' will match the pattern Text + Number + Text.

Wildcards can be used in unified strings. Each * will match a single dot-separated element in the key.

For example, *.a.b will match 'xxx.a.b' but not 'xxx.yyy.a.b'.

Mandatory: No

Show key

This parameter may be specified to produce a field in the display which will indicate how the key has been constructed. This can be useful for initial setting up of the template, or debugging.

Mandatory: No

Default: False

Rmc template

This option enables you to create a detached table or record, which can be used by more than one RMC Interface sampler.

When you select this option, the RMC Interface sampler defines or attaches itself to an RMC template from static variables. If the template does not exist, then the sampler prompts you to create a new one using the data template options.

For more information on the data template option, see Data template.

Rate calculation

When defining fields in the data template, you have the option to show values as rates.

RMC Interface showAsRate window

showAsRate Options

Some RMC variables contain counters that are incremented since the RMDS component is started; for example, the total messages received. In itself, this number is not useful; however, the rate of change of this number is a useful parameter to monitor:

Signed wrap — monitors for signed wrap-around in the value of the variable being monitored.
Unsigned wrap — monitors for unsigned wrap-around in the value of the variable being monitored.

Calculation method

Change between samples — calculates the rate based on the difference between the current value and the value when the previous sample occurred. This means that the rate is calculated based on the current and the last sampled value, which could be the same value.
Change between syncs — the default method used when no method is explicitly set in the configuration. This method exhibits the gradually declining rate, as it calculates the rate based on the difference between the current value and the last value received into the data store from a sync. This means that the rate is calculated based on the current value and the last value read and stored by the plugin not equal to the current value. The gradually declining rate is expected.

Advanced configuration

RMC Interface plug-in advanced configuration options

Applications

When dealing with mounts, this option enables the RMC Interface sampler to translate an application ID to a name string.

Option	Description
Name	The name string that shows on the dataview for a given application ID. Names must not have spaces or delimiters.
Key	The application ID which you want to appear as a name string.

Option

Description

Name

The name string that shows on the dataview for a given application ID.

Names must not have spaces or delimiters.

Key

The application ID which you want to appear as a name string.

Mandatory: No

Interface file

Name and location of the download template. The interface file is automatically created when you configure the RMC Interface sampler.

Default format: RMC_<sampler name>.rif.download

Mandatory: No

Mt time

Amount of time, in milliseconds, to spend processing incoming data in main thread.

Mandatory: No

Process

Use this option to tie the detection to a single named process instance.

Option	Description
Name	Name of the actual publishing process that writes to the shared memory. If this is set then the plugin will verify that the process is up to validate the shared memory state.
Args	Arguments passed to the actual publishing process. This helps to identity the process - e.g -install .gw

For more information, see Shared Memory Status Detection.

Mandatory: No

Shared memory test

Enables the shmget() shared memory tests within the RMC plugin. This is enabled by default. When disabled, the plugin proceeds with monitoring without checking the shared memory status. Disable only when diagnosing syncing issues between the plugin and the RMC component/s being monitored.

Default: Enabled

Timing record

Option	Description
Use timing record	Enables shared memory status detection method using time statistics read from the shared memory. This can be used together with the default shared memory status test.
Time out	Time out value in seconds. Default value: 15
Variable name	Name of the variable that contains the timing record from the shared memory statistics.

For more information, see Shared Memory Status Detection.

Mandatory: No

Debug tab

private

Private testing and debugging settings.

Mandatory: No

$HOST and $INSTANCE substitutions

RMC variable names can include $host and $instance. In this case, the $host is replaced with the hostname of the machine the plugin is running on and $instance is replaced with the INSTANCE variable of the SAMPLER_DESCRIPTOR.

Recording of the RMC Datastream

For troubleshooting purposes and to get a simpler overview of the content of the shared memory, you can use the rmc recorder tool. This can be downloaded from the utilities section.

For example:

./rmcRecorder.linux_64 -k 80

This can also be piped into a file using >><filename>

-k indicated that we are querying shared memory key 80 (standard ADH)

Shared Memory Status Detection

The plugin can use either of the following methods, or a combination of the two, to detect the state of a component, such as the adh, ads, and so on:

Default mode

The default mode of operation verifies that the shared memory segment identified by the key is available, as well as if the creator process of the shared memory segment is up. This mode can also detect if a shared memory segment is reused by a restarted RMC component, and allows the plugin to resync with the new process.

Timing record check mode

This is an alternate mode of operation to check if the publishing process is up and the data provided is current, in the case where an existing shared memory segment may have gone stale and is no longer being updated.

Most, but not all, of the publishing services provide Shared Memory Statistics information. This data is updated on a 5 second interval. By setting the correct Timing Record parameters in the Sampler Descriptor, we can use this information to detect if the shared memory is running:

Timing Record > Use timing record specifies if we want to enable this mode of shared memory detection.
Timing Record > Time out specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds before declaring the shared memory is invalid since the last update received.
Timing Record > Variable name specifies the variable that holds the timing record information.

Example

$host.$instance.src_dist.admin.MemoryStats/time = value: 1336501974

Using this mode alone, the plugin may not be able to recover and re-sync with a restarted RMC component if the previous instance of the component crashed or was forcibly killed (kill -9), and the shared memory resources were manually removed (ipcrm). It is advisable to use this mode together with either the default mode or the process check mode.