PACEMAKER(8)

💖 PACEMAKER(8) — like, the whole cluster resource manager vibe 💖

Manual name: System Administration Utilities — yes bestie, this is one of those pages, the big system-admin ones 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

Pacemaker — she's part of the Pacemaker cluster resource manager, and honestly? She's the whole personality of it 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

crm_simulate <data source> <operation> [options]

That's the shape of it, ok? data source, operation, options. Simple as. 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

crm_simulate — simulate a Pacemaker cluster's response to events. That's the whole gig: you feed it a scenario, it tells you what the cluster would do. Iconic, no cap 🔥

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

💜 Help Options:

• -h, --help — show help options. The classic. The "wait what does this do again" button 🙈
• --help-all — show all help options. Every last one, go off 👑
• --help-output — show output help
• --help-operations — show operations options
• --help-synthetic — show synthetic cluster event options
• --help-artifact — show artifact options
• --help-source — show data source options

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🎀 Output Options:

• --output-as=FORMAT — specify output format as one of: text (default), xml. Pick your fighter 💅
• --output-to=DEST — specify file name for output (or - for stdout). Yes, dash means stdout, she's that girl ✨

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⚙️ Operations:

• -R, --run — process the supplied input and show what actions the cluster will take in response. Forecaster energy 🔮
• -S, --simulate — like --run, but also simulate taking those actions and show the resulting new status. Now we're actually doing it 💫
• -X, --in-place — like --simulate, but also store the results back to the input file. Careful bestie, she writes back to your input 😭
• -A, --show-attrs — show node attributes
• -c, --show-failcounts — show resource fail counts. The receipts 💀
• -s, --show-scores — show allocation scores
• -U, --show-utilization — show utilization information
• -P, --profile=DIR — process all the XML files in the named directory to create profiling data
• -N, --repeat=N — with --profile, repeat each test N times and print timings. Numbers go brrr ⏱️

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👾 Synthetic Cluster Events:

• -u, --node-up=NODE — simulate bringing a node online. Rise and shine bb 🌞
• -d, --node-down=NODE — simulate taking a node offline
• -f, --node-fail=NODE — simulate a node failing. We're in the drama arc now 💀
• -i, --op-inject=OPSPEC — generate a failure for the cluster to react to in the simulation. See `Operation Specification` help for more information.
• -F, --op-fail=OPSPEC — if the specified task occurs during the simulation, have it fail with return code ${rc}. The transition will normally stop at the failed action. Save the result with --save-output and re-run with --xml-file. See `Operation Specification` help for more information.
• -t, --set-datetime=DATETIME — set date/time (ISO 8601 format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601)
• -q, --quorum=QUORUM — set to '1' (or 'true') to indicate cluster has quorum. Yes literally the string, don't come at me 🫶
• -w, --watchdog=DEVICE — set to '1' (or 'true') to indicate cluster has an active watchdog device
• -g, --ticket-grant=TICKET — simulate granting a ticket. Slay, ticket granted 🎟️
• -r, --ticket-revoke=TICKET — simulate revoking a ticket
• -b, --ticket-standby=TICKET — simulate making a ticket standby
• -e, --ticket-activate=TICKET — simulate activating a ticket

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📁 Artifact Options:

• -I, --save-input=FILE — save the input configuration to the named file
• -O, --save-output=FILE — save the output configuration to the named file
• -G, --save-graph=FILE — save the transition graph (XML format) to the named file
• -D, --save-dotfile=FILE — save the transition graph (DOT format) to the named file
• -a, --all-actions — display all possible actions in DOT graph (even if not part of transition). Show everything, main character energy 👑

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🔍 Data Source:

• -L, --live-check — connect to CIB manager and use the current CIB contents as input. Live, not memorex 💅
• -x, --xml-file=FILE — retrieve XML from the named file
• -p, --xml-pipe — retrieve XML from stdin

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🧚 Application Options:

• -$, --version — display software version and exit. Yes the option is literally a dollar sign, iykyk 💸
• -V, --verbose — increase debug output (may be specified multiple times). Stack her, she loves it ✨
• -Q, --quiet — display only essential output. Minimalist queen 🌿

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🌈 OPERATION SPECIFICATION 🌈

ok so the OPSPEC in any command line option is of the form:

${resource}_${task}_${interval_in_ms}@${node}=${rc}

like, for example: memcached_monitor_20000@bart.example.com=7 🍓

${rc} is an OCF return code. For more information on these return codes, refer to https://clusterlabs.org/pacemaker/doc/2.1/Pacemaker_Administration/html/agents.html#ocf-return-codes

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💫 EXAMPLES 💫

Pretend a recurring monitor action found memcached stopped on node fred.example.com and, during recovery, that the memcached stop action failed:

crm_simulate -LS --op-inject
memcached:0_monitor_20000@bart.example.com=7 --op-fail
memcached:0_stop_0@fred.example.com=1 --save-output
/tmp/memcached-test.xml

Now see what the reaction to the stop failed would be:

crm_simulate -S --xml-file /tmp/memcached-test.xml

Literal chef's kiss scenario construction 🤌

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Andrew Beekhof and the Pacemaker project contributors 🫶

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ngl bestie, if you're messing with -X/--in-place, remember she stores the results back to the input file — back that thing up first, fr fr 😭

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okay that's the whole page!! this one's from Pacemaker version 3.0.3+20260728.7052..., dated September 2026, and it lives as the PACEMAKER(8) page under System Administration Utilities — mwah, go simulate something gorgeous 💖✨🎀