ftalarm

Note on usage

Function: Report failed requests

User group: FT administrator

This command is only available on Unix systems and can be used in multi-user as well as in single-user mode.

Functional description

The ftalarm command is used to trigger an alarm if, within two minutes, more FT requests than the number specified by the user fail. The failed FT requests are identified using a return code not equal to 0 for the FTAC log records. ftalarm uses the cron function.

A separate ftalarm call is required for each instance.
Proceed as follows: activate the instance with ftseti, and call ftalarm.

If ftalarm is started on Solaris systems via SMF then it is inadvisable to start theftalarm command manually since SMF is not informed of any changes. For SMF, ftalarm is a so-called transient service, i.e. there is no process that can be monitored.

Format

ftalarm [ -h |

-s <number of errors 1..99999999> |
-t | -i ]

Description

-h

Displays the command syntax on the screen. Entries after the -h are ignored.

-s number of errors

starts the ftalarm function. When the specified number of errors in FTAC log records is exceeded within two minutes, the following message is output on the console and to the conslog file:

openFTalarm: number or more access control error loggings within 2 minutes

The partial string openFTalarm: within this message is also guaranteed for future versions of openFT and can be interpreted for automatic processing by system management tools.

The messages are output by the cron function at regular intervals and can therefore be delayed by up to one minute when the ftalarm function is activated.

conslog is located in the log directory of the relevant openFT instance. In the case of the standard instance, the pathname is /var/openFT/std/log/conslog.

The monitoring function ftalarm must be started by the openFT administrator in multiuser mode and by the owner of the invoking instance in single-user mode.

In single-user mode ftalarm writes entries in the conslog file, but nevertheless it issues no messages to the console.

-t

terminates the ftalarm function.

If a switch is made from single-user mode to multi-user mode or vice versa, or if an openFT instance is allocated to another user ID in single-user mode, the ftalarm function should in each case be deactivated with ftalarm -t, because although it is still suspended in the cron function after the switch, it would however no longer be effective.

ftalarm -t can be invoked from any user ID. As a result, it is also possible to remove invalid ftalarm entries or those that have become invalid from the cron function.

-i

can be used to test whether the ftalarm function is always activated for the invoking user and for the openFT instance concerned. If this is the case, the appropriate crontab entry is output, e.g.

* * * * * OPENFTINSTANCE=std /opt/bin/ftalarm -r 47

Otherwise nothing is output.