FENCE_AGENT(8)

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💖 FENCE_AGENT(8) 💖

ok so this is a page from the System Manager's Manual bestie, and it's literally all about fence_bladecenter 🦋 it's giving very much "sysadmin group chat at 3am" energy and I'm obsessed. it documents FENCE_AGENT(8), so yeah, that's the manual name, that's the vibe, we move 💅

✨ NAME ✨

fence_bladecenter — the fence agent for IBM BladeCenter 🎀 no cap, that's the whole name section, short and iconic

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

fence_bladecenter is a Power Fencing agent that you can use with IBM Bladecenters — but like, only the ones with firmware recent enough that it ships with telnet support, ok? don't come for me if your firmware is ancient 🙈 it logs into a Brocade chasis via telnet or ssh and then uses the command line interface to power blades on and off ⚡

and the way this agent is flexible?? it accepts options on the command line and from stdin 🫶 like, when fenced execs the agent it sends the parameters through stdin. but you can also just run the agent by itself with command line options, which is lowkey so useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts 💅

Vendor URL: http://www.ibm.com 🌐

👑 PARAMETERS 👑

here's the whole menu bestie, every single one, I'm not skipping a thing 💖

  • -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action (Default Value: reboot) 🔁
  • -c, --command-prompt=[prompt] — forces a Python regex for the command prompt (Default Value: ['system>']) 🐍
  • -k, --identity-file=[filename] — identity file (private key) for SSH 🔑
  • -4, --inet4-only — forces the agent to use IPv4 addresses only 🍓
  • -6, --inet6-only — forces the agent to use IPv6 addresses only 🌈
  • -a, --ip=[ip] — IP address or hostname of the fencing device. This parameter is always required. ⚠️
  • -u, --ipport=[port] — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with the device (Default Value: 23) 🚪
  • -p, --password=[password] — login password or passphrase 🔐
  • -S, --password-script=[script] — script to run to retrieve the password 📜
  • -n, --plug=[id] — physical plug number on the device, UUID, or identification of the machine. This parameter is always required. ⚠️
  • -x, --ssh — use SSH connection 🧚
  • --ssh-options=[options] — SSH options to use 🛠️
  • -l, --username=[name] — login name. This parameter is always required. ⚠️
  • -q, --quiet — disable logging to stderr. does not affect --verbose or --debug-file or logging to syslog 🤫
  • -v, --verbose — verbose mode. multiple -v flags can be stacked on the command line (e.g., -vvv) to increase verbosity 📢
  • --verbose-level — level of debugging detail in the output. defaults to the number of --verbose flags specified on the command line, or to 1 if verbose=1 in a stonith device configuration (i.e., on stdin) 🔍
  • -D, --debug-file=[debugfile] — write debug information to the given file 📝
  • -V, --version — display version information and exit 👋
  • -h, --help — display help and exit 🆘
  • --plug-separator=[char] — separator for the plug parameter when you're specifying more than 1 plug (Default Value: ,) ✂️
  • -C, --separator=[char] — separator for the CSV created by the list operation (Default Value: ,) 📊
  • --delay=[seconds] — wait X seconds before fencing is started (Default Value: 0) ⏳
  • --disable-timeout=[true/false] — disable timeout (true/false) (default: true when run from Pacemaker 2.0+) ⏰
  • --login-timeout=[seconds] — wait X seconds for the cmd prompt after login (Default Value: 5) 🕔
  • --missing-as-off — missing port returns OFF instead of failure 🚫
  • --power-timeout=[seconds] — test X seconds for status change after ON/OFF (Default Value: 20) ⚡
  • --power-wait=[seconds] — wait X seconds after issuing ON/OFF (Default Value: 10) 😴
  • --shell-timeout=[seconds] — wait X seconds for the cmd prompt after issuing a command (Default Value: 3) 🐚
  • --stonith-status-sleep=[seconds] — sleep X seconds between status calls during a STONITH action (Default Value: 1) 💤
  • --retry-on=[attempts] — count of attempts to retry power on (Default Value: 1) 🔄
  • --ssh-path=[path] — path to the ssh binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/ssh) 🛤️
  • --telnet-path=[path] — path to the telnet binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/telnet) 🛤️

🔥 ACTIONS 🔥

every action this agent can do, and yes I'm listing all of them 💖

  • on — power on the machine. ⚡
  • off — power off the machine. 💀
  • reboot — reboot the machine. 🔁
  • status — this returns the status of the plug/virtual machine. 📊
  • list — list available plugs with aliases/virtual machines, if there's support for more than one device. returns N/A otherwise. 📋
  • list-status — list available plugs with aliases/virtual machines and their power state, if it can be obtained without additional commands. 🧐
  • monitor — check the health of the fence device. 🩺
  • metadata — display the XML metadata describing this resource. 📄
  • manpage — the operational behavior of this is not known. 🤷‍♀️
  • validate-all — validate if all required parameters are entered. ✅
ngl bestie, that manpage action is giving mystery box energy, we genuinely do not know what it does 😭

🎀 STDIN PARAMETERS 🎀

same energy, different naming convention — these are the stdin versions, and I'm keeping every single Obsoletes note because that's important fr fr 💜

  • action — fencing action (Default Value: reboot) 🔁
  • command_prompt — force Python regex for command prompt (Default Value: ['system>']). Obsoletes: cmd_prompt 🐍
  • identity_file — identity file (private key) for SSH 🔑
  • inet4_only — forces the agent to use IPv4 addresses only 🍓
  • inet6_only — forces the agent to use IPv6 addresses only 🌈
  • ip — IP address or hostname of the fencing device. This parameter is always required. Obsoletes: ipaddr ⚠️
  • ipport — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with the device (Default Value: 23) 🚪
  • password — login password or passphrase. Obsoletes: passwd 🔐
  • password_script — script to run to retrieve the password. Obsoletes: passwd_script 📜
  • plug — physical plug number on the device, UUID, or identification of the machine. This parameter is always required. Obsoletes: port ⚠️
  • ssh — use SSH connection. Obsoletes: secure 🧚
  • ssh_options — SSH options to use 🛠️
  • username — login name. This parameter is always required. Obsoletes: login ⚠️
  • quiet — disable logging to stderr. does not affect --verbose or --debug-file or logging to syslog 🤫
  • verbose — verbose mode. multiple -v flags can be stacked on the command line (e.g., -vvv) to increase verbosity 📢
  • verbose_level — level of debugging detail in the output. defaults to the number of --verbose flags specified on the command line, or to 1 if verbose=1 in a stonith device configuration (i.e., on stdin) 🔍
  • debug_file — write debug information to the given file. Obsoletes: debug 📝
  • version — display version information and exit 👋
  • help — display help and exit 🆘
  • plug_separator — separator for the plug parameter when you're specifying more than 1 plug (Default Value: ,) ✂️
  • separator — separator for the CSV created by the list operation (Default Value: ,) 📊
  • delay — wait X seconds before fencing is started (Default Value: 0) ⏳
  • disable_timeout — disable timeout (true/false) (default: true when run from Pacemaker 2.0+) ⏰
  • login_timeout — wait X seconds for the cmd prompt after login (Default Value: 5) 🕔
  • missing_as_off — missing port returns OFF instead of failure 🚫
  • power_timeout — test X seconds for status change after ON/OFF (Default Value: 20) ⚡
  • power_wait — wait X seconds after issuing ON/OFF (Default Value: 10) 😴
  • shell_timeout — wait X seconds for the cmd prompt after issuing a command (Default Value: 3) 🐚
  • stonith_status_sleep — sleep X seconds between status calls during a STONITH action (Default Value: 1) 💤
  • retry_on — count of attempts to retry power on (Default Value: 1) 🔄
  • ssh_path — path to the ssh binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/ssh) 🛤️
  • telnet_path — path to the telnet binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/telnet) 🛤️
heads up bestie: the three parameters marked always required — ip, plug and username — are literally always required, no exceptions, no skipping, do not pass go 💅

and that's the whole page!! this was fence_bladecenter (Fence Agent), dated 2009-10-20, from the FENCE_AGENT(8) manual 🦋 tysm for reading, go forth and fence responsibly, ily, bye bestie 💖✨🎀

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