FENCE_AGENT(8)

okay so bestie you just landed on FENCE_AGENT(8) — the System Manager's Manual, section 8, the "admin commands" shelf 💅. This particular page is all about fence_lpar, and yes it's giving very serious IBM energy but honestly? iconic. Let's get into it. 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

fence_lpar — fence agent for IBM LPAR. That's the whole vibe, short and sweet, we love a concise queen. 👑

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So fence_lpar is a Power Fencing agent for IBM LPAR. Think of it as the girl who can literally yank the power cord on your machine when it's being dramatic. 😭

Here's the tea: the fence agent takes options from the command line and from stdin. When fenced execs the agent, it sends all the parameters through stdin — like a little group chat handoff. But you can also just run the agent by itself with command line options, which is lowkey so useful for testing and for flipping outlets on or off from scripts. Slay. 🎀

Vendor URL: http://www.ibm.com

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🎛️ PARAMETERS 🎛️

Every single dial, switch and knob, no gatekeeping:

• -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action itself (Default Value: reboot)
• -c, --command-prompt=[prompt] — force a Python regex for the command prompt (Default Value: [':~>', ']\\$', '\\$ '])
• -H, --hmc-version=[version] — force which HMC version to use, one of 3|4|ivm (Default Value: 4)
• -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 fencing device. This parameter is always required.
• -u, --ipport=[port] — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with device (Default Value: 22)
• -s, --managed=[id] — managed system name. This parameter is always required.
• -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 device, UUID or identification of machine. This parameter is always required.
• -x, --ssh — use SSH connection (Default Value: 1)
• --ssh-options=[options] — SSH options to use
• -l, --username=[name] — login name. This parameter is always required.
• -q, --quiet — disable logging to stderr. Heads up: it 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. stack 'em like bracelets. ✨
• --verbose-level — level of debugging detail in 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 given file
• -V, --version — display version information and exit
• -h, --help — display help and exit
• --plug-separator=[char] — separator for plug parameter when specifying more than 1 plug (Default Value: ,)
• -C, --separator=[char] — separator for CSV created by '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 cmd prompt after login (Default Value: 15)
• --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: 0)
• --shell-timeout=[seconds] — wait X seconds for cmd prompt after issuing 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 ssh binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/ssh)

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⚡ ACTIONS ⚡

The whole menu of moods this agent can serve:

• on — power on machine. 💡
• off — power off machine.
• reboot — reboot machine.
• status — this returns the status of the plug/virtual machine.
• list — list available plugs with aliases/virtual machines if there is support for more then 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 fence device 🩺
• metadata — display the XML metadata describing this resource.
• manpage — the operational behavior of this is not known. ngl nobody knows what this one does, it's the mystery sister 💀
• validate-all — validate if all required parameters are entered.

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📥 STDIN PARAMETERS 📥

When fenced execs the agent it slides all of these in through stdin, bestie. Same info, snake_case fit check 🐍:

• action — fencing action (Default Value: reboot)
• command_prompt — force Python regex for command prompt (Default Value: [':~>', ']\\$', '\\$ ']). Obsoletes: cmd_prompt
• hmc_version — force HMC version to use 3|4|ivm (Default Value: 4)
• identity_file — identity file (private key) for SSH
• inet4_only — forces agent to use IPv4 addresses only
• inet6_only — forces agent to use IPv6 addresses only
• ip — IP address or hostname of fencing device. This parameter is always required. Obsoletes: ipaddr
• ipport — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with device (Default Value: 22)
• managed — managed system name. This parameter is always required.
• password — login password or passphrase. Obsoletes: passwd
• password_script — script to run to retrieve password. Obsoletes: passwd_script
• plug — physical plug number on device, UUID or identification of machine. This parameter is always required. Obsoletes: port
• ssh — use SSH connection (Default Value: 1). 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 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 given file. Obsoletes: debug
• version — display version information and exit
• help — display help and exit
• plug_separator — separator for plug parameter when specifying more than 1 plug (Default Value: ,)
• separator — separator for CSV created by '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 cmd prompt after login (Default Value: 15)
• 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: 0)
• shell_timeout — wait X seconds for cmd prompt after issuing 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 ssh binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/ssh)

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real talk: if you forget the always-required ones (ip, managed, plug, username) the agent is gonna have a whole meltdown. validate-all is right there, use it. 🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! This was fence_lpar (Fence Agent), dated 2009-10-20 — a true vintage icon that's still out here fencing. Go forth and reboot responsibly, mwah 💖🎀🦋