FENCE_AGENT(8)

🎀 fence_rcd_serial, bestie 🎀

okay so real talk, this is the man page for fence_rcd_serial — it lives in section 8 of the System Manager's Manual (that's FENCE_AGENT(8) for the citation girlies), and it's genuinely one of the most unhinged-little-gadget fence agents out there. sit down, hydrate, let's get into it 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

fence_rcd_serial — the rcd_serial fence agent. that's it, that's the name 🦋

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

fence_rcd_serial is a Power Fencing agent that operates a serial cable which toggles a reset of an opposing server by hitting the reset switch on its motherboard. the cable itself is simple — no power, no network, no moving parts. literally just vibes and copper. an example of the cable lives here: https://smcleod.net/rcd-stonith/, and the circuit design is available in the fence-agents src as SVG 👑

this fence agent accepts options on the command line as well as from stdin. fenced sends parameters through stdin when it execs the agent. but also, the agent can be run all by itself with command line options — which is super useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts. main character energy for a little serial cable, ngl 🫶

Vendor URL: https://github.com/sammcj/fence_rcd_serial

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💅 PARAMETERS 💅

one bullet per option, no skips, we don't do that here:

• -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action. (Default Value: reboot)
• -m, --method=[method] — the method used to fence, onoff|cycle. (Default Value: cycle)
• --serial-port=[port] — the port of the serial device. (Default Value: /dev/ttyS0)
• -q, --quiet — disable logging to stderr. does not affect --verbose or --debug-file or logging to syslog. (so don't come for the verbose girlies, they're still talking)
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode. multiple -v flags can be stacked on the command line (e.g., -vvv) to increase verbosity. stack 'em like rings 💍
• --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: ,)
• --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: 5)
• --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: 2)
• --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)

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🔥 ACTIONS 🔥

• reboot — reboot machine.
• monitor — check the health of fence device.
• metadata — display the XML metadata describing this resource.
• manpage — the operational behavior of this is not known. (iconic honestly, we love a mystery 💀)
• validate-all — validate if all required parameters are entered.

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🌈 STDIN PARAMETERS 🌈

same energy, different delivery route — these are the ones that come in over stdin:

• action — fencing action. (Default Value: reboot)
• method — method to fence, onoff|cycle. (Default Value: cycle)
• serial_port — port of the serial device. (Default Value: /dev/ttyS0)
• 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: ,)
• 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: 5)
• 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: 2)
• 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)

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ok that's the whole page bestie, every flag accounted for, no crumbs left behind 🙈

sign-off time: this lil doc is fence_rcd_serial (Fence Agent) and it's dated 2009-10-20, filed under FENCE_AGENT(8). slay, go reset a server, ily 💜✨🎀