---
layout: default
title: Performance Analyzer
nav_order: 58
has_children: true
redirect_from:
  - /monitoring-plugins/pa/
---

# Performance Analyzer

Performance Analyzer is an agent and REST API that allows you to query numerous performance metrics for your cluster, including aggregations of those metrics, independent of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). PerfTop is the default command line interface (CLI) for displaying those metrics.

To download PerfTop, see [Download](https://github.com/opensearch-project/perftop/releases) on the PerfTop release page.

You can also install it using [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/):

```bash
npm install -g @aws/opensearch-perftop
```

![PerfTop screenshot]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/images/perftop.png)

For enabling Performance Analyzer with tarball installations of OpenSearch, see [Configure Performance Analyzer for Tarball Installation](#configure-performance-analyzer-for-tarball-installations).

## Get started with PerfTop

The basic syntax is:

```bash
./opensearch-perf-top-<operating_system> --dashboard <dashboard>.json --endpoint <endpoint>
```

If you're using npm, the syntax is similar:

```bash
opensearch-perf-top --dashboard <dashboard> --endpoint <endpoint>
```

If you're running PerfTop from a node (i.e. locally), specify port 9600:

```bash
./opensearch-perf-top-linux --dashboard dashboards/<dashboard>.json --endpoint localhost:9600
```

Otherwise, just specify the OpenSearch endpoint:

```bash
./opensearch-perf-top-macos --dashboard dashboards/<dashboard>.json --endpoint my-cluster.my-domain.com
```

PerfTop has four pre-built dashboards in the `dashboards` directory, but you can also [create your own]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/monitoring-plugins/pa/dashboards/).

You can also load the pre-built dashboards (ClusterOverview, ClusterNetworkMemoryAnalysis, ClusterThreadAnalysis, or NodeAnalysis) without the JSON files, such as `--dashboard ClusterThreadAnalysis`.

PerfTop has no interactivity. Start the application, monitor the dashboard, and press Esc, Q, or Ctrl + C to quit.
{: .note }


### Other options

- For NodeAnalysis and similar custom dashboards, you can add the `--nodename <node_name>` argument if you want your dashboard to display metrics for only a single node.
- For troubleshooting, add the `--logfile <log-file>.txt` argument.


## Performance Analyzer configuration

### Storage

Performance Analyzer uses `/dev/shm` for temporary storage. During heavy workloads on a cluster, Performance Analyzer can use up to 1 GB of space.

Docker, however, has a default `/dev/shm` size of 64 MB. To change this value, you can use the `docker run --shm-size 1gb` flag or [a similar setting in Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file#shm_size).

If you're not using Docker, check the size of `/dev/shm` using `df -h`. The default value is probably plenty, but if you need to change its size, add the following line to `/etc/fstab`:

```bash
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,noexec,nosuid,size=1G 0 0
```

Then remount the file system:

```bash
mount -o remount /dev/shm
```


### Security

Performance Analyzer supports encryption in transit for requests. It currently does *not* support client or server authentication for requests. To enable encryption in transit, edit `performance-analyzer.properties` in your `$OPENSEARCH_HOME` directory:

```bash
vi $OPENSEARCH_HOME/config/opensearch-performance-analyzer/performance-analyzer.properties
```

Change the following lines to configure encryption in transit. Note that `certificate-file-path` must be a certificate for the server, not a root CA:

```
https-enabled = true

#Setup the correct path for certificates
certificate-file-path = specify_path

private-key-file-path = specify_path
```

## Enable Performance Analyzer for RPM/YUM installations

If you installed OpenSearch from an RPM distribution, you can start and stop Performance Analyzer with `systemctl`:
```bash
# Start OpenSearch Performance Analyzer
sudo systemctl start opensearch-performance-analyzer.service
# Stop OpenSearch Performance Analyzer
sudo systemctl stop opensearch-performance-analyzer.service
```

## Configure Performance Analyzer for tarball installations

In a tarball installation, Performance Analyzer collects data when it is enabled. But in order to read that data using the REST API on port 9600, you must first manually launch the associated reader agent process:

1. Make Performance Analyzer accessible outside of the host machine

   ```bash
   cd /usr/share/opensearch # navigate to the OpenSearch home directory
   cd config/opensearch-performance-analyzer/
   vi performance-analyzer.properties
   ```

   Uncomment the line `#webservice-bind-host` and set it to `0.0.0.0`:

   ```
   # ======================== OpenSearch performance analyzer plugin config =========================

   # NOTE: this is an example for Linux. Please modify the config accordingly if you are using it under other OS.

   # WebService bind host; default to all interfaces
   webservice-bind-host = 0.0.0.0

   # Metrics data location
   metrics-location = /dev/shm/performanceanalyzer/

   # Metrics deletion interval (minutes) for metrics data.
   # Interval should be between 1 to 60.
   metrics-deletion-interval = 1

   # If set to true, the system cleans up the files behind it. So at any point, we should expect only 2
   # metrics-db-file-prefix-path files. If set to false, no files are cleaned up. This can be useful, if you are archiving
   # the files and wouldn't like for them to be cleaned up.
   cleanup-metrics-db-files = true

   # WebService exposed by App's port
   webservice-listener-port = 9600

   # Metric DB File Prefix Path location
   metrics-db-file-prefix-path = /tmp/metricsdb_

   https-enabled = false

   #Setup the correct path for certificates
   certificate-file-path = specify_path

   private-key-file-path = specify_path

   # Plugin Stats Metadata file name, expected to be in the same location
   plugin-stats-metadata = plugin-stats-metadata

   # Agent Stats Metadata file name, expected to be in the same location
   agent-stats-metadata = agent-stats-metadata
   ```

1. Make the CLI executable:

   ```bash
   sudo chmod +x ./bin/performance-analyzer-agent-cli
   ```

1. Launch the agent CLI:

   ```bash
   OPENSEARCH_HOME="$PWD" OPENSEARCH_PATH_CONF="$PWD/config" ./bin/performance-analyzer-agent-cli
   ```

1. In a separate window, enable the Performance Analyzer plugin:

   ```bash
   curl -XPOST localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}'
   ```

   If you receive the `curl: (52) Empty reply from server` error, you are likely protecting your cluster with the security plugin and you need to provide credentials. Modify the following command to use your username and password:

   ```bash
   curl -XPOST https://localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}' -u 'admin:admin' -k
   ```

1. Finally, enable the Root Cause Analyzer (RCA) framework

   ```bash
   curl -XPOST localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/rca/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}'
   ```

   Similar to step 4, if you run into `curl: (52) Empty reply from server`, run the command below to enable RCA

   ```bash
   curl -XPOST https://localhost:9200/_plugins/_performanceanalyzer/rca/cluster/config -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"enabled": true}' -u 'admin:admin' -k
   ```