7.17. Throttling the Agent
Some agent settings control how many resources the agent can access and how many tasks it can perform at one time. Throttling the agent has a twofold purpose: it limits how many resources on its host it can monopolize (which can improve performance on the host machine) and it keeps the agent from flooding the server with data and overloading or monopolizing the server.
Several different settings (listed in Table 7.3, “Agent Parameters for Throttling Agent Operations”) can be used to throttle different aspects of the agent performance. These settings operate independently of each other, but they can be more effective when the settings are made after considering the other values. For example, the queue size should be set larger then the command timeout period, unless the max-concurrent setting is increased. Changing one of these values has a different effect than adjusting all of these values.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| rhq.agent.client.queue-size | Sets the maximum number of commands the agent can queue up for sending to the JBoss ON server. The larger the number, the more memory the agent can use, and setting this to zero (0) means the queue size is unlimited. Setting this to 0 could allow the agent to queue up more commands than the machine has memory for, if the server goes offline for a long time. |
| rhq.agent.client.max-concurrent | Sets the maximum number of messages the agent can send to the server at any one time. A larger number allows the agent to process its queue more quickly, but this can also set the agent to use more CPU cycles. |
| rhq.agent.client.command-timeout-msecs | Sets the amount of time the agent waits for a reply from the JBoss ON server for an agent command before it aborts the command. A long interval can give the server the time it needs to complete some commands, but it also means that other messages are queued up waiting to be processed. |
| rhq.agent.client.retry-interval-msecs | Sets the time that the agent waits before retrying a command. Only commands with the guaranteed delivery tag are retried. |
| rhq.agent.client.send-throttling |
Sets a limit on the number of commands than an agent can send before it enters a quiet period, when the agent suspends sending commands. This setting only affects commands which can be throttled, which are commands that are sent to the server frequently and in large numbers, such as metric collection. Send-throttling prevents messages storms to the server.
This parameter sets both the number of commands and the quiet period, in the form commands:timeout_milliseconds. For example, 50:10000 sets a limit of 50 commands and a quiet period of 10000 milliseconds.
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| rhq.agent.client.queue-throttling |
Limits the amount of commands that can be dequeued in a given amount of time; this is the burst period. If more commands are attempted to be dequeued during the burst period than allowed, those dequeue requests are blocked until the next burst period begins.
As with send throttling, this parameter sets both the number of commands and the quiet period, in the form commands:timeout_milliseconds. For example, 50:10000 sets a limit of 50 commands and a quiet period of 10000 milliseconds.
Queue throttling prevents the agent from spinning the CPU by trying to process and send commands as fast as possible. Queue throttling is one way to reduce the amount of CPU required by the agent.
When setting the queue throttling value, be sure to set the queue size to a large enough value that the agent has room to queue up the additional commands.
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