Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information about how to use the NFCMD command line utility in Neverfail Heartbeat V6 and Later.

More Information

The nfcmd utility can be used to connect to the Heartbeat server, issue a command, and wait for the command to complete or for a particular heartbeat event.

Procedure

Syntax

The command line syntax is:

nfcmd Host-or-ip Command [ Arguments ][ Flags ]

where:

Any of the commands accepted by the nfclient utility can be issued using the nfcmd utility. The following table lists the common commands and their forms in each version.

The Heartbeat service sends event messages to client utilities in response to commands or when it changes internal state. The following table lists some of the common events you might want to wait for when using the nfcmd utility.

NFCMD commands can be used to show the current state of the Neverfail cluster and applications. The following are examples:

Information about the cluster state:

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller GroupType   

- Identifies the cluster as binary (Primary and Secondary pair) or ternary (Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary)

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller Host  

- Displays the server's identity

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller ActiveServer 

- Identifies the active server

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller Chain   

- Identifies the replication chain, for example [Primary > Secondary > Tertiary] or [Secondary > Primary > Tertiary]

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller SummaryClusterState  

-  Displays the replication chain and synchronization status between peers. It can be interpreted as:

==>  link replicating in synch

=/=> link replicating not in synch

---  link not replicating

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty Controller ReplicationEnabled  

- Is the replication enabled? Result = true/false

Information about the application state:

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty AMFramework ApplicationsHealth  

- Displays the application health  status. It can be interpreted as:

• OK - all services, rules ok.
• PotentialProblem  - A potential problem has been encountered - A performance threshold has been exceeded but not for the full duration
• Warning  - A performance threshold has been consistently above the threshold.
• Critical - The application is no longer providing service to clients.
• Unknown - Unknown application health
• Unmonitored - The application is not monitored

nfcmd localhost getSingleProperty AMFramework ApplicationsState  

- Displays the on of the following application states:

• Stopped
• Started
• Starting
• Stopping

Adding a new replication filter

nfcmd localhost AMFramework.doAddUserSponsoredInclusionFileFilter "c:\protected\**"

Note: The above monitoring commands will only work for Neverfail Heartbeat v6.2 and later.

Comments

The nfcmd utility connects to the Heartbeat server and logs in using the credentials of the currently logged in user. By default, the Heartbeat service allows administrators on the local server to log on using nfcmd and execute commands. If you are not using an administrator account, or you are running nfcmd on another server, then you will have to register the hostname and user name you want to use when running nfcmd . To register, you can run the nfcmd utility on the local server and issue the AddUser command, like this:

 nfcmd localhost addTrustedClient   myHostIP   myUserName   myPrivs 

where:

For example, to allow user tom on the system with the IP 192.168.99.100 , you could run the following command on the server where the Heartbeat service is running:

 nfcmd localhost addTrustedClient 192.168.99.100 tom administrator 

User tom can then use nfcmd running on the system with the IP 192.168.99.100 to send commands to the Heartbeat service.

The Heartbeat service runs on both active and passive servers. Normally whichever server is active will be reachable using the principal (public) IP address – that is, the IP address that clients of the protected applications use to connect to the protected applications. Sometimes the two servers will be reachable using other IP addresses. The nfcmd utility can use any of the reachable addresses to send commands to the Heartbeat service. The major commands listed above will have the same effect when issued to either one of a connected pair of Heartbeat servers.

Enable split brain avoidance - nfcmd commands

1. Enable PreventFailoverWhenActiveVisible
1. nfcmd localhost setpe Controller PreventFailoverWhenActiveVisible true
2. Set ping routes between Primary and Secondary (where 10.1.2.3 is Engine management IP address on Primary and 10.1.2.4 on Secondary)
   
1. nfcmd localhost setpe Monitor ISCPingTargets {[keyType=com.neverfail.controller.NFServer,valueType=com.neverfail.monitor.ISCTargetConfig](PRIMARY=[10, 1,2,3;10.1.2.4]),(SECONDARY=[10.1.2.4;10.1.2.3])}
   
3. Unset ping routes between Primary and Secondary
1. nfcmd localhost setpe Monitor ISCPingTargets {[keyType=com.neverfail.controller.NFServer,valueType=com.neverfail.monitor.ISCTargetConfig](PRIMARY=),(SECONDARY=)}
   

1. nfcmd localhost NewFileStateMgr.doUpdateAutoDeletes true
   

2. nfcmd localhost NewFileStateMgr.doAutoDeleteTask

1. nfcmd localhost stopWOA (in V5.3.[n] and earlier) or nfcmd localhost Controller.doStopWOA (in V5.4.[n]–V5.5[n])
   Stop replication. Leave the protected applications running. Leave the Heartbeat service running.

1. nfcmd localhost start -ecom.neverfail.newfilestatemgr.events.FileSystemCheckingDoneEvent –t60000 (in V5.3.[n] and earlier) or
   nfcmd localhost Controller.doStart -ecom.neverfail.newfilestatemgr.events.FileSystemCheckingDoneEvent -t60000 (in V5.4.[n]–V5.5[n])
   Start replication. Start the protected applications if they’re not already running. Wait for up to 60 seconds for the file system check to finish.

The nfcmd utility returns a status value when it completes. If you use nfcmd in a batch script, you may want to check the return code to see if the operation was successful. A batch script can check the return code using the if [not] errorlevel <number> then… command or by reading the %errorlevel% environment variable immediately after executing the nfcmd utiltity. Consult the DOS command documentation before use – note in particular that if errorlevel <number> returns true if errorlevel >= <number>.

The following table lists the return codes:

Applies To

Neverfail Continuity Engine - all versions

Related Information

Knowledgebase Article # 442 , How to Use the NFCMD Command Line Utility (Neverfail Heartbeat V4.7–5.5[n]).

KBID-1866