Overview
Consider a basic configuration where you have installed both a management server and a replication server on computer A and replication servers on computers B and C as depicted in the figure below.
The FRP Net utility is designed to assist you in the following situations:
· Immediately after installation and firewall/router configuration, to verify proper connectivity
· Troubleshooting failures
· Ongoing external monitoring of the FRP network of servers
FRP Net is a command line utility that can test if a replication or management server is running on a computer. It can test if this computer can properly communicate to a remote replication or management server (or both). Additionally, when a server has successfully communicated with the management server and obtained a current copy of the overall configuration, the utility can read that configuration and determine if this computer can properly communicate with all relevant “partners”.
The following sections describe the utility’s parameters and functions and then outline proposed diagnostic procedures.
Command Line Options
The FRPNet utility supports three sub commands (case insensitive):
FRPNet -Show – Reports if FRP is running on the computer the command is run on, as either a replication server, a management server, both servers or none.
FRPNet -Net -[M|R|MR] ip_address[:port] – The Net sub command requires two additional parameters: a server type and ip address.
You run this command on an FRP server testing connectivity to another server specified by the ip address (and port, if you are using a custom port on that server). If the remote computer runs a management server, the server type is specified as M. A remote computer running a replication server is specified as R. If the remote computer runs both, the server type is specified as MR. The response indicates if the expected connectivity is successful or the reasons for its failure.
FRPNet -Config – The utility will read the config file (if one was successfully installed) and check the connectivity of this computer with the management server and all replication servers with whom this computer has replication jobs. See the sectio non automatic configuration check below for more details.
Usage Examples
The examples refer to the above figure. The parameters ip-A, ip-B and ip-C refer to the external ip addresses of computers A, B and C respectively.
** Invoking FRPNet on Different Operating Systems
FRPNet is a command line utility run from a terminal/dos window in the FRP installation folder of /FileReplicationPro. Please note that on different OS’s there are slight variations in invoking the FRPNet command itself. In Windows, the command is types in as presented in the examples. On OS X it is called FRPNet.command, and you invoke it using the syntax ./FRPNet.command with the arguments following. For all Unix versions, invoke the command based on the requirements of the shell you are using. For Netware the command is "sys:/filereplicationpro/frpnet.ncf." The syntax for the parameters is the same across the board.
- Run the utility on computer B:
FRPNet -net -MR 123.45.678.90 (IP of A)
Check that computer B can communicate with the management and replication servers residing on computer A. Checks that computer B:
a. Can send HTTP on port 9100 to the management server and get a response
b. Can send commands, Data to port 9200 of the replication server and get a response. - Run the utility on computer B:
FRPNet -net -M 123.45.678.90 (IP of A)
Check that computer B can communicate with the management server residing on computer A. This is used when a management server is installed alone. - Run the utility on computer C:
FRPNet -net -R 123.45.678.91 (IP of B)
Check that computer C can communicate with the replication server residing on computer B. Checks that computer C
can send commands and data to port 9200 of the replication server on B and get a response. - Run the utility on computer A:
FRPNet -Show
Determine which servers are running on computer A.
Diagnostic Procedure
After installing FRP and configuring the firewalls, please test your configuration as follows:
The procedure refers to the above figure. The parameters ip-A, ip-B and ip-C refer to the external ip adresses of computers A, B and C respectively. Please note that every network configuration will break down into these basic building blocks of testing A-B and B-C.
- Run FRPNet -Show on each server to verify that FRP has been properly started
- On A, Run FRPNet -Net -R ip-B
- On A, Run FRPNet -Net -R ip-C. You have now diagnosed outgoing connectivity from A, the management server.
- On B, Run FRPNet -Net -MR ip-A
- On C, Run FRPNet -Net -MR ip-A. This diagnoses connectivity between the replication servers and the management server.
- On B, Run Run FRPNet -Net -R ip-C
- On C, Run FRPNet -Net -R ip-B. This diagnoses connectivity between the two replication servers B and C.
If the above return "success" (i.e. 0) your configuration is successful.
Automatic Configuration Check
Use the utility in conjunction with the configuration file to automatically perform a full network configuration check:
Example result in terminal (or DOS command) window run from the /FileReplicatonPro install folder Shows server XPCLONE is offline or unreachable.
frpnet -config
Scanning NEWYORK for Replication engine
Replication engine has been detected on machine NEWYORK
Scanning XPCLONE for Replication engine
***Error while connecting to Replication engine on XPCLONE
Scanning PARIS-MAC-PRO for Replication engine
Replication engine has been detected on machine PARIS-MAC-PRO
Scanning LONDON-VMXP64BIT for Replication engine
Replication engine has been detected on machine LONDON-VMXP64BIT
Scanning DALLAS-OLDBOXXP for Replication engine
Replication engine has been detected on machine DALLAS-OLDBOXXP
Scanning NewYork for Management Console
Management console has been detected on machine NewYork
1. Run the utility on computer A:
FRPNet –Config [path/configuration.xml] (Path not needed if run from /FileReplicationPro install folder)
Checks the connectivity of the management server to all replication servers listed in the configuration file.
2. Run the utility on computer B:
FRPNet –Config [path/configuration.xml]
Checks the connectivity of the replication server on B to all replication servers listed in the configuration file and to the management server on A.
The utility will return 0 for success only if all connectivity tests were successful. If a single test for a single server fails the return will be 1 – failure. This allows you to incorporate the utility into alert scripts that monitor your configuration.