FENCE_AGENT(8)

💖 FENCE_AGENT(8) — like, the whole vibe 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about fence_vmware, from the System Manager's Manual. this one's the fence agent page, and we're gonna get through it together, no cap. 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

fence_vmware — Fence agent for VMWare. that's it, that's the name, short and iconic. 👑

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so fence_vmware is a Power Fencing agent, and it's the one you use with VMware ESX, VMware ESXi, or VMware Server to fence virtual machines. it's giving "i control the vibes (and the power state) here." 💅

Before you can even use this agent, you have to install VI Perl Toolkit or the vmrun command on every node you want to make fencing. every. single. one. no skipping, bestie. 🫶

VI Perl Toolkit is preferred for VMware ESX/ESXi and Virtual Center. vmrun command is the only solution for VMware Server 1/2 — and listen, this command will work against ESX/ESXi 3.5 up2 and VC up2 too, but heads up: it is not cluster aware! 😭 vmrun comes as part of the VMware VIX API SDK package. VI Perl and VIX API SDK are both available from VMware web pages — and ngl, not in RHEL repository! 🙈

You can specify the type of VMware you're connecting to with the -d switch (or vmware_type for stdin). Possible values are esx, server2 and server1. Default value is esx, which will use VI Perl. With server1 and server2, the vmrun command is used. ✨

After you've successfully installed VI Perl Toolkit or VIX API, you should be able to run fence_vmware_helper (part of this agent) or the vmrun command. This agent supports only vmrun from version 2.0.0 (VIX API 1.6.0). periodt. 💯

The fence agent accepts options on the command line as well as from stdin. Fenced sends parameters through stdin when it execs the agent. The agent can be run by itself with command line options. This is useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts. lowkey the most useful thing ever. 🌈

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

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🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

• -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action (Default Value: reboot) ⚡
• -e, --exec=[command] — command to execute
• -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
• -u, --ipport=[port] — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with device (Default Value: 22)
• -p, --password=[password] — login password or passphrase 🤫
• -S, --password-script=[script] — script to run to retrieve password
• -n, --plug=[ip] — IP address or hostname of fencing device (together with --port-as-ip)
• -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. like, always. mandatory. 💀
• -d, --vmware_type=[type] — type of VMware to connect (Default Value: esx)
• -s, --vmware-datacenter=[dc] — VMWare datacenter filter
• -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. stack 'em like bracelets bestie 🫶
• --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)
• --port-as-ip — make "port/plug" to be an alias to IP address
• --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 🔥

• on — power on machine. ⚡
• off — power off machine.
• reboot — reboot machine.
• status — this returns the status of the plug/virtual 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. 💀 (fr fr, that's what it says, i'm not making this up)
• validate-all — validate if all required parameters are entered. ✅

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🌈 STDIN PARAMETERS 🌈

• action — fencing action (Default Value: reboot)
• exec — command to execute
• 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. Obsoletes: ipaddr
• ipport — TCP/UDP port to use for connection with device (Default Value: 22)
• password — login password or passphrase. Obsoletes: passwd
• password_script — script to run to retrieve password. Obsoletes: passwd_script
• plug — IP address or hostname of fencing device (together with --port-as-ip). 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
• vmware_type — type of VMware to connect (Default Value: esx)
• vmware_datacenter — VMWare datacenter filter
• 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)
• port_as_ip — make "port/plug" to be an alias to IP address
• 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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okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate that. 💅✨ this was fence_vmware (Fence Agent), dated 2009-10-20 — yep, she's an elder but she still serves. 🎀🦋 go fence something, ily, bye! 💖