FENCE_AGENT(8)

💖 FENCE_AGENT(8) — bestie edition 💖

okay so we're doing FENCE_AGENT(8) today, the System Manager's Manual page, and honestly? she ate. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

fence_vmware_rest — a fence agent for the VMware REST API. that's it, that's the whole name, slay.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so fence_vmware_rest is a Power Fencing agent and you use it with the VMware API to fence virtual machines. that's the whole job. iconic honestly.

NOTE: if there's more than 1000 VMs there's a filter parameter to work around the API limit. the full list of filters lives at https://code.vmware.com/apis/62/vcenter-management#/VM%20/get_vcenter_vm — go look, it's giving documentation.

the fence agent takes options on the command line and from stdin. when fenced execs the agent it sends parameters through stdin. but also?? you can run the agent by itself with command line options. that's lowkey so useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts. main character energy fr fr.

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

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💅 PARAMETERS 💅

here's the whole lineup, no skips, no skimming, we respect every single flag in this house 🎀

• -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action. (Default Value: reboot)
• -a, --ip=[ip] — IP address or hostname of the fencing device. this parameter is always required. like, always.
• -u, --ipport=[port] — the TCP/UDP port to use for connecting to the device. (Default Value: 80)
• -t, --notls — disables TLS negotiation and forces SSL3.0. ⚠️ this should only be used for devices that don't support TLS1.0 and up. do not just vibe-check this one on.
• -p, --password=[password] — the login password or passphrase.
• -S, --password-script=[script] — script to run to retrieve the password.
• -n, --plug=[id] — physical plug number on the device, or the UUID, or the identification of the machine. this parameter is always required.
• -z, --ssl — use an SSL connection with verifying the certificate.
• --ssl-insecure — use an SSL connection without verifying the certificate. 🙈
• --ssl-secure — use an SSL connection with verifying the certificate.
• -l, --username=[name] — the login name. this parameter is always required.
• --api-path=[path] — the path part of the API URL. (Default Value: /rest)
• --filter=[filter] — filter to only return the relevant VMs. use this so the agent doesn't just fall over when more than 1000 VMs would get returned. 🦋
• -q, --quiet — disables logging to stderr. heads up: it does not affect --verbose, or --debug-file, or logging to syslog. they're doing their own thing.
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode. you can stack multiple -v flags on the command line (like -vvv) to crank the verbosity up. more v's, more lore.
• --verbose-level — level of debugging detail in the output. defaults to however many --verbose flags you put 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 the 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)
• --power-timeout=[seconds] — test X seconds for a status change after ON/OFF. (Default Value: 20)
• --power-wait=[seconds] — wait X seconds after issuing ON/OFF. (Default Value: 1)
• --shell-timeout=[seconds] — wait X seconds for the cmd prompt after issuing a command. (Default Value: 5)
• --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 the power on. (Default Value: 1)
• --gnutlscli-path=[path] — path to the gnutls-cli binary. (Default Value: /usr/bin/gnutls-cli)

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🔥 ACTIONS 🔥

• on — power on the machine.
• off — power off the machine.
• reboot — reboot the machine.
• status — returns the status of the plug / virtual machine.
• list — list the available plugs with aliases / virtual machines, if there's support for more than one device. returns N/A otherwise.
• list-status — list the 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. vibe check, but for hardware 💅
• metadata — display the XML metadata describing this resource.
• manpage — the operational behavior of this is not known. 😭 yeah. that's what it says. we don't know. nobody knows.
• validate-all — validate that all required parameters are entered.

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🧚 STDIN PARAMETERS 🧚

same energy, different delivery method — these are the ones that come in over stdin, with their underscores and their obsolete aliases:

• action — fencing action. (Default Value: reboot)
• 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: 80)
• notls — disable TLS negotiation and force SSL3.0. this should only be used for devices that do not support TLS1.0 and up.
• 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
• ssl — use SSL connection with verifying certificate.
• ssl_insecure — use SSL connection without verifying certificate.
• ssl_secure — use SSL connection with verifying certificate.
• username — login name. this parameter is always required. Obsoletes: login
• api_path — the path part of the API URL. (Default Value: /rest)
• filter — filter to only return relevant VMs. it can be used to avoid the agent failing when more than 1000 VMs should be returned.
• 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: 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: 1)
• shell_timeout — wait X seconds for cmd prompt after issuing command. (Default Value: 5)
• 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)
• gnutlscli_path — path to gnutls-cli binary. (Default Value: /usr/bin/gnutls-cli)

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this page came from fence_vmware_rest (Fence Agent) and it's dated 2009-10-20. the manual it lives in is FENCE_AGENT(8) and honestly, she's been serving since 2009 and she's still booked and busy. 💖✨ ily bestie, go fence something responsibly 🫶👑