FENCE_AGENT(8)

💖 NAME 💖

fence_vmware_soap — the fence agent for VMWare over the SOAP API, bestie. This is FENCE_AGENT(8), from the System Manager's Manual, and yes she's iconic, she's been here since 2009 and she's still serving 💅

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so fence_vmware_soap is a Power Fencing agent, and you use her with virtual machines managed by VMWare products that have SOAP API v4.1+. That's the whole vibe. Periodt.

The name of your virtual machine (-n / port) has to be written in inventory path format, like:

/datacenter/vm/Discovered virtual machine/myMachine

But lowkey, in the cases when the name of your VM is unique, you can just use that name instead 🫶 And alternatively — literally always an option — you can use the UUID to access your virtual machine. So many paths to success, we love choices.

The fence agent takes options on the command line as well as from stdin. Fenced sends parameters through stdin when it execs the agent. And you can also run the agent all by itself with command line options — which is super useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts ✨

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

---

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

Every single flag, no skips, no crumbs left behind:

• -o, --action=[action] — the fencing action, obvi. (Default Value: reboot)
• -a, --ip=[ip] — IP address or hostname of the fencing device. This parameter is always required. Like, always always.
• -u, --ipport=[port] — TCP/UDP port to use for the connection with the device (Default Value: 80)
• -t, --notls — disable TLS negotiation and force SSL3.0. > Heads up bestie: only use this for devices that do not support TLS1.0 and up. She's giving legacy, proceed with caution 💀
• -p, --password=[password] — login password or passphrase 🔐
• -S, --password-script=[script] — a script to run to retrieve the password. Sneaky, efficient, we stan.
• -n, --plug=[id] — physical plug number on the device, UUID, or identification of the machine. This parameter is always required.
• -z, --ssl — use SSL connection with verifying certificate 🫶
• --ssl-insecure — use SSL connection without verifying certificate 🙈
• --ssl-secure — use SSL connection with verifying certificate (yes she's -z's twin, slay)
• -l, --username=[name] — login name. This parameter is always required.
• -q, --quiet — disable logging to stderr. Note that this does not affect --verbose or --debug-file or logging to syslog. She's quiet but not that quiet.
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode ✨ and you can stack multiple -v flags on the command line (e.g., -vvv) to increase verbosity. Go off, honestly.
• --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 the given file 🍓
• -V, --version — display version information and exit. Quick lil flex.
• -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 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: 0)
• --shell-timeout=[seconds] — wait X seconds for cmd prompt after issuing the 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)
• --gnutlscli-path=[path] — path to the gnutls-cli binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/gnutls-cli)

---

🌈 ACTIONS 🌈

The things she can do. Main character energy only.

• 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 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. Efficient queen.
• 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 🙈 (not me writing this, that's literally what it says, iykyk)
• validate-all — validate if all required parameters are entered ✅

---

💜 STDIN PARAMETERS 💜

Same energy, snake_case edition. Fenced pipes these in through stdin:

• 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. > Only for devices that do not support TLS1.0 and up, bestie.
• 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
• 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: 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)
• gnutlscli_path — path to gnutls-cli binary (Default Value: /usr/bin/gnutls-cli)

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 🎀✨ This lil masterpiece is fence_vmware_soap (Fence Agent), dated 2009-10-20, and she lives in section FENCE_AGENT(8) of the manual. Go forth and fence responsibly, ily 💖🦋