NAME

       fs_checkservers - Displays the status of server machines

SYNOPSIS

       fs checkservers [-cell <cell to check>] [-all] [-fast]
           [-interval <seconds between probes>] [-help]

       fs checks [-c <cell to check>] [-a] [-f]
           [-i <seconds between probes>] [-h]

DESCRIPTION

       The fs checkservers command reports whether certain AFS server machines are accessible from the local
       client machine. The machines belong to one of two classes, and the Cache Manager maintains a list of them
       in kernel memory:

       •   The database server machines for every cell listed in the local /etc/openafs/CellServDB file, plus
           any machines added to the memory list by the fs newcell command since the last reboot.

       •   All file server machines the Cache Manager has recently contacted, and which it probably needs to
           contact again soon. In most cases, the Cache Manager holds a callback on a file or volume fetched
           from the machine.

       If the Cache Manager is unable to contact the vlserver process on a database server machine or the
       fileserver process on a file server machine, it marks the machine as inaccessible. (Actually, if a file
       server machine is multihomed, the Cache Manager attempts to contact all of the machine's interfaces, and
       only marks the machine as down if the fileserver fails to reply via any of them.) The Cache Manager then
       periodically (by default, every three minutes) sends a probe to each marked machine, to see if it is
       still inaccessible. If a previously inaccessible machine responds, the Cache Manager marks it as
       accessible and no longer sends the periodic probes to it.

       The fs checkservers command updates the list of inaccessible machines by having the Cache Manager probe a
       specified set of them:

       •   By default, only machines that are marked inaccessible and belong to the local cell (the cell listed
           in the local /etc/openafs/ThisCell file).

       •   If the -cell argument is included, only machines that are marked inaccessible and belong to the
           specified cell.

       •   If the -all flag is included, all machines marked inaccessible.

       If the -fast flag is included, the Cache Manager does not probe any machines, but instead reports the
       results of the most recent previous probe.

       To set the interval between probes rather than produce a list of inaccessible machines, use the -interval
       argument. The non-default setting persists until the machine reboots; to preserve it across reboots, put
       the appropriate fs checkservers command in the machine's AFS initialization files.

CAUTIONS

       The command can take quite a while to complete, if a number of machines do not respond to the Cache
       Manager's probe. The Cache Manager probes machines sequentially and waits a standard timeout period
       before marking the machine as unresponsive, to allow for slow network communication. To make the command
       shell prompt return quickly, put the command in the background. It is harmless to interrupt the command
       by typing Ctrl-C or another interrupt signal.

       Note that the Cache Manager probes only server machines marked inaccessible in its memory list. A server
       machine's absence from the output does not necessarily mean that it is functioning, because it possibly
       is not included in the memory list at all (if, for example, the Cache Manager has not contacted it
       recently). For the same reason, the output is likely to vary on different client machines.

       Unlike most fs commands, the fs checkservers command does not refer to the AFSCELL environment variable.

OPTIONS

       -cell <cell to check>
           Names each cell in which to probe server machines marked as inaccessible. Provide the fully qualified
           domain name, or a shortened form that disambiguates it from the other cells listed in the local
           /etc/openafs/CellServDB file. Combine this argument with the -fast flag if desired, but not with the
           -all flag. Omit both this argument and the -all flag to probe machines in the local cell only.

       -all
           Probes all machines in the Cache Manager's memory list that are marked inaccessible. Combine this
           argument with the -fast flag if desired, but not with the -cell argument. Omit both this flag and the
           -cell argument to probe machines in the local cell only.

       -fast
           Displays the Cache Manager's current list of machines that are inaccessible, rather than sending new
           probes. The output can as old as the current setting of the probe interval (by default three minutes,
           and maximum ten minutes).

       -interval <seconds between probes>
           Sets or reports the number of seconds between the Cache Manager's probes to machines in the memory
           list that are marked inaccessible:

           •   To set the interval, specify a value from the range between 1 and 600 (10 minutes); the default
               is 180 (three minutes). The issuer must be logged in as the local superuser "root". The altered
               setting persists until again changed with this command, or until the machine reboots, at which
               time the setting returns to the default.

           •   Provide a value of 0 (zero) to display the current interval setting. No privilege is required. Do
               not combine this argument with any other.

       -help
           Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored.

OUTPUT

       If there are no machines marked as inaccessible, or if all of them now respond to the Cache Manager's
       probe, the output is:

          All servers are running.

       Note that this message does not mean that all server machines in each relevant cell are running. The
       output indicates the status of only those machines that the Cache Manager probes.

       If a machine fails to respond to the probe within the timeout period, the output begins with the string

          These servers unavailable due to network or server problems:

       and lists the hostname of each machine on its own line. The Cache Manager stores machine records by
       Internet address, so the format of each hostname (uppercase or lowercase letters, or an Internet address
       in dotted decimal format) depends on how the local cell's name service translates it at the time the
       command is issued. If a server machine is multihomed, the output lists only one of its interfaces
       (usually, the currently most preferred one).

       If the -interval argument is provided with a value between 1 and 600, there is no output. If the value is
       0, the output reports the probe interval as follows:

          The current down server probe interval is <interval> secs

EXAMPLES

       The following command displays the Cache Manager's current list of unresponsive machines in the local
       cell, rather than probing them again. The output indicates that if there were any machines marked
       inaccessible, they all responded to the previous probe.

          % fs checkservers -fast
          All servers are running.

       The following example probes machines in the Cache Manager's memory list that belong to the "example.org"
       cell:

          % fs checkservers -cell example.org
          All servers are running.

       The following example probes all server machines in the Cache Manager's memory list. It reports that two
       machines did not respond to the probe.

          % fs checkservers -all
          These servers unavailable due to network or server problems:
          fs1.example.com SV3.EXAMPLE.ORG.

PRIVILEGE REQUIRED

       To set the probe interval, the issuer must be logged in as the local superuser "root". Otherwise, no
       privilege is required.

SEE ALSO

       CellServDB(5), ThisCell(5), fs_newcell(1)

COPYRIGHT

       IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

       This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0.  It was converted from HTML to POD
       by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth
       Cassell.