TRAFFIC_MANAGER(8)

💅 TRAFFIC_MANAGER(8) — the Apache Traffic Server process manager

okay bestie, welcome to the Traffic Server process manager page ✨ this is traffic_manager(8) from Apache Traffic Server, and she is literally the mom friend of the whole server stack 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

traffic_manager — the Traffic Server process manager. she runs the show, she keeps an eye on things, she is the main character 👑

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so like, here's the whole menu of flags she takes. no notes, just vibes and options 💖

• --aconfPort PORT — sets the config port, bestie
• --action TAGS — gives you the action tags
• --debug TAGS — debug tags, for when you need to see everything 👀
• --groupAddr ADDRESS — the group address
• --help — she tells you how to use her, iconic
• --nosyslog — no syslog, thank you very much
• --path FILE — points at a file
• --proxyOff — turns the proxy off
• --listenOff — turns listening off
• --proxyPort PORT — the proxy port, obviously
• --recordsConf FILE — the records config file
• --tsArgs ARGUMENTS — args that get passed along as ARGUMENTS
• --maxRecords RECORDS — caps the records at RECORDS
• --bind_stdout FILE — the file to which the stdout stream for traffic_manager will be bound. like, that's where her standard output goes 🎀
• --bind_stderr FILE — the file to which the stderr stream for traffic_manager will be bound. and that's where the standard error goes 🙈
• --version — she tells you which version she is 💁‍♀️

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🦋 SIGNALS 🦋

okay so signals. this is the part where you talk to her telepathically, and she does listen 🌈

• SIGHUP — this signal causes a reconfiguration event, equivalent to running traffic_ctl config reload. so basically, a glow-up on demand ✨
• SIGINT, SIGTERM — these signals cause traffic_manager to exit after also shutting down traffic_server. she does not leave her friend behind, periodt 💅
• SIGUSR2 — this signal causes the traffic_manager and traffic_server processes to close and reopen their file descriptors for all of their log files. this allows the use of external tools to handle log rotation and retention. for instance, logrotate(8) can be configured to rotate the various Apache Traffic Server™ logs and, via the logrotate postrotate script, send a -SIGUSR2 to the traffic_manager process. after the signal is received, Apache Traffic Server™ will stop logging to the now-rolled files and will reopen log files with the originally configured log names. it's giving ✨fresh start✨ 🧚

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🔥 EXPONENTIAL BACK-OFF DELAY 🔥

if traffic_server has issues communicating with traffic_manager after a crash, traffic_manager will retry to start traffic_server using an exponential back-off delay, which will make traffic_manager to retry starting traffic_server from 1s until it reaches the max ceiling time. the ceiling time is configurable as well as the number of times that traffic_manager will keep trying to start traffic_server. a random variance will be added to the sleep time on every retry.

👑 NOTE:

for more information about this configuration please check records.config

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

traffic_ctl(8), traffic_server(8) — her two besties, go say hi 🫶

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

2026, dev@trafficserver.apache.org

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that's the whole page, babe. she's 9.2, dated Feb 12, 2026, and she ate. no crumbs. 💅🍓