AFD Control

To control and monitor the AFD there is an X11 interface, which can be called via afd_ctrl. It can take the following parameters:

    -w <work_dir>
    -p <user profile>
    -u[ <fake user>]
    -no_input
    -f <numeric font name>
    -t <title>
    -bs

It needs to know in which directory AFD is running. Usually it gets this information via AFD_WORK_DIR environment. If not set you can set this via -w <work dir>. When there more then one user monitoring this AFD it can be helpful if each user can have its own profile. This can be done with -p <user profile>. The profile name can be any string, but it is a good if it tells which user it is because any changes will be logged under this name. Good example could be donald@work or donald@home. This way Donald can keep different font settings for his home and work computer and one can see from where he committed any changes. For the option -u[ <fake user>] please see documentation in AFD_CONFIG. If you want a dialog without any controls you can start it with the -no_input parameter. The font size can be changed via -f <numeric font name>. The title can be set with -t <title>. Some X servers have a broken backing store implementation. By default afd_ctrl uses backing store. This can be turned off with the -bs option.

The afd_ctrl dialog has the following appearance:

As shown this dialog is divided into four main areas: menu, heading, connection and status.

This allows one to acknowledge an error situation, put an error situation offline or unset the acknowledge and/or offline setting. You must select one or more host to get the handle_event popup. In the reason text field one can enter a reason which will then show up in the event log via the show_elog dialog. Acknowledging an event means that the destination alias field now becomes pink (

). If the host is put offline it will turn Steelblue (

) and errors and warnings will be marked as offline in the logs. If one knows in advance the time when a host is offline, you can do so by enabling 'Time frame' and entering time values at 'Start time' and 'End time'. The format can be one of the following: MMDDhhmm, DDhhmm or hhmm.

Start/Stop input queue

Allows you to start or stop the queue of one or more selected hosts. When the queue is stopped the queue led turns brown. Stopping the queue means that AFD internally will not generate any messages, but no data is lost either. All current jobs that have a message will still be transmitted.

Start/Stop transfer

Allows you to start or stop the transfer of one or more selected hosts. When the transfer is stopped the transfer led will be orange. Stopping the transfer means that messages are still being generated, but the FD will not distribute the files. Care should be taken when choosing this option. Watch the job queue number so it does not reach a critical stage. Use Start/Stop queue if lots of files are being distributed for this host.

Start/Stop host

Allows you to start or stop a host. Stopping a host means stopping transfer and queue, but no data will be lost. If the data is not required, press Enable/Disable host below. In case the queue or transfer is already stopped and you then press this button it will respectively close the transfer or queue. When the queue is stopped the queue led turns brown and the transfer led will be orange.

Enable/Disable host

When you want to stop a host and do not want to collect the data for it, disable it by pressing this button. NOTE: All current jobs for this host will be deleted when disabling a host.

[Dialog to ask user again if he is sure]

Switch host

Switch host allows to change the destination address of selected host. To see whether a certain host has a secondary address look in afd_info dialog.

Retry

Retry can only be used when there are jobs queued by FD for this host and you would like AFD to immediately try and send the files. This is useful in error situation when the error condition has been fixed and you do not want to wait for the next scheduled retry by AFD.

Debug

Debug	This enables or disables normal debugging for the given host. With this enables you can see step by step what is being done. To watch the output the Transfer Debug Log button. The contents of the debug log is described in Log Files.
Trace	With this you enable a lot more debug output, each command send and its reply from the remote partner is shown. This can be quit CPU intensive and the log files grow very quickly, so don't leave this on for to long. This is the reason why this only works with the extra process sf_xxx_trace.
Full Trace	This is the same as Trace only with this set you will be able to see the contents of the file that is being transmitted. This will be more CPU intensive if the files being transmitted are large.

Simulate mode

The transfer for the selected host will be simulated. No data is send or retrieved. All data and commands are sent to /dev/null, so data is lost if this is enabled.

Search + (De)Select

This allows to search for a given host (alias and real) name, with wild cards, when selecting search type Hostname. If instead Information is selected as search type, it will search the host information file(s) for the given information. The found hosts will then be selected.

Test

Test the connection to the selected host. Two tests are possible, ping and traceroute. To make these visible you must configure PING_CMD and/or TRACEROUTE_CMD in AFD_CONFIG file.

Load

Load shows the current load of either: Files send per second, KBytes send per second, Connections done per second and the number of Active-Transfers.

Exit

Exit will close the afd_ctrl window and all other windows that have been started from this dialog. It does not effect any of the main process of the AFD running in the background.

System Log	System Log opens the system dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Maintainer Log	Maintainer Log opens the maintainer dialog. See Log Files.
Event Log	Event Log opens the event dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Receive Log	Receive Log opens the receive dialog See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Transfer Log	Transfer Log opens the transfer dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. When one or more hosts where selected the output shown will only show data of these hosts.
Transfer Debug Log	Transfer Debug Log opens the transfer debug dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. When one or more hosts where selected the output shown will only show data of these hosts.
Input Log	Input Log opens the input dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Production Log	Production Log opens the production dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Output Log	Output Log opens the output dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. If one or more hosts are selected, these will be entered in Recipient field of the dialog.
Delete Log	This opens the delete dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. If one or more hosts are selected, these will be entered in Recipient field of the dialog.
Queue	Queue opens the queue dialog. Here you can see all files being queued by AFD.
Info	The Info button opens the afd_info dialog for this host.
Configuration	Shows the DIR_CONFIG configuration of the selected host.
Rename rules	Shows all rename rules.
Job details	This closes and opens the Job details dialog when jobs are selected.

Start/Stop AMG	This starts or stops the AMG. Stopping the AMG means that no more messages will be generated for the FD. FD will continue distributing as long as there are files queued.
Start/Stop FD	This starts or stops the FD. Stopping the FD should only be done for a short time on systems with lots of traffic. Otherwise the AMG keeps generating messages until the file system is full or it cannot create any new directories to store the files.
Reread DIR_CONFIG	When there have been any changes made in the DIR_CONFIG file and these changes should be activated, press this button. If there where any changes in the HOST_CONFIG file it will incorporate these changes as well. So it is not necessary to press the Reread HOST_CONFIG button.
Reread HOST_CONFIG	To activate changes made by editing the HOST_CONFIG file manually (not using the edit_hc dialog), press this button. When you use edit_hc dialog to make changes to the HOST_CONFIG it will not be necessary to press this button, the Update button of that dialog will perform this task.
Edit Host	Opens the edit_hc dialog, where you can make changes to each host shown by the afd_ctrl dialog. If a host has been selected this will then be the selected host when edit_hc dialog starts.
Directory Control	This button shows the dir_ctrl dialog, which shows all directories monitored by AFD.
Startup AFD	Starts the AFD by starting init_afd which in turn will start all process necessary for AFD to run.
Shutdown AFD	Will do a shutdown of AFD.

Font size	Pressing Font size will give you a list of fonts which, when selected, will be used for the afd_ctrl window and all other windows called from it. It might be that your X server does not support all fonts shown on the right hand, then you will be shown less fonts.
Number of rows	Number of rows allows to change the maximum number of rows to be displayed for one column.
Alias length	Alias length allows to change the length of the alias name displayed.
Line Style	Line Style allows to change the appearance of a single line. You can currently choose four different items: Leds, Process, Characters and Bars. Default will be that all four items will be visible. If you do have a very large number of hosts you can deselect some items to reduce the window size of the afd_ctrl dialog.
	Process can be viewed in Normal mode, that looks as follows: or in Compact mode . Or one can leave the process completely away (None).
Other options	Other options has the option 'Force shift select'. Normally one can select a line by just pressing that line with the left mouse button. This can however lead to accidentally pressing a line and one can force the user to use the shift button together with the left mouse button to select a line. 'Auto save' will save the settings as soon as you exit the dialog. 'Framed groups' will make a black frame around a group line to make groups more visible.
Open Groups	Open Groups will open all groups.
Close Groups	Close Groups will close all groups.
Save Setup	Save Setup will save the above settings in the file .afd_ctrl.setup.@. in the users home directory. So when you start afd_ctrl again it will start with these settings.

Heading

The heading is just a quick reminder of what the fields in the connection area mean:

dest	The destination alias where the files are being distributed to.
fc	This is the file counter field. It shows the total number files that are still to be distributed for this destination.
fs	The total file size that is still to be distributed.
tr	Shows the overall current transfer rate.
ec	This is the error counter for this destination.

Connection

The connection area is the actual area which monitors and controls the AFD. The meaning of each field is shown below:

[closeup of one line of afd_ctrl dialog]

Destination alias

This field holds the name of the destination alias. The background color indicates the current status of the connection:

	No transfer. Waiting for files to come.
	Transfer active. Files are currently being transferred.
	Errors acknowledged. Files cannot be transmitted.
	Errors/Warnings offline. Files cannot be transmitted. Error and warnings have been put offline.
	Error. Files cannot be transmitted. It turns red when the error counter has reached the value set in the HOST_CONFIG file.
	There is no entry of this host in the DIR_CONFIG.
	This host is disabled. All files in the input directories for this host will be deleted.

Debug Led

This indicates if debug is enabled for this destination or not. The colors can be one of the following:

	Normal status, no debugging set.
	Normal debugging. Just shows what commands are send.
	Trace debugging. This shows a lot more information. Full details of all commands and replies are shown on protocol level.
	Full Trace debugging. Same as Trace, just that now the content of the file is shown as well. Do not set this when sending big files. However, with SMTP you must set this if you like to see the full mail header.

Do not let debug on for very long on high traffic connections. Since this means lots of data gets written to the log file. See Log Files for more information of the debug output.

Queue Led

The color of this LED tells what the AMG will do when files arrive for this destination.

	Normal status. Messages will be generated for the FD.
	There are jobs in the error queue. Further jobs, which are in the error queue, will be held back once a certain number have been queued.
	Queue stopped by user. Files for this host are saved in a a separate directory and no messages are generated.
	Queue stopped automatically. Files for this host are saved in a a separate directory and no messages are generated.

Transfer Led

This LED is split in two half's. The top half is for output and the bottom part is input. The color tells the status of this which can be one of the following:

	Normal status, retrieve not configured. Files will be distributed by the FD.
	Normal status, retrieve disabled. Files will be distributed by the FD.
	Normal status, distribution not configured. Files will be retrieved by the FD.
	Normal status. Files will be retrieved and distributed by the FD.
	Distribution stopped, retrieve not configured. No files will be distributed.
	Distribution stopped, retrieve disabled. No files will be distributed.
	Retrieve stopped, distribution not configured. No files will be retrieved.
	Transfer stopped by user. No files will be distributed.
	No distribution configured, retrieve disabled.
	No retrieve or distribution configured.
	No retrieve or distribution will be done. Distribution of files will just be simulated. Data will be written to /dev/null.
	No retrieve or distribution will be done. Fetching of files will just be simulated. Data will be written to /dev/null.
	No retrieve or distribution will be done. Distribution and fetching of files will just be simulated. Data will be written to /dev/null.

Detailed Selection

Shows all details for this job, see Job Details.

Connection

This field shows the number of files currently being transferred for this host. The background color indicates the current status of the process.

	Normal status. No transfer is active for this process.
	FTP Connecting Phase. This includes making the connection to the remote FTP-server, setting transfer mode and sending user name and password.
	FTP Transfer active. There are still two files to be transferred.
	FTP Bursting. During an active transmission two more files have arrived, these have been appended to the current transfer job.
	SCP Transfer active. There are still two files to be transferred.
	SFTP Transfer active. There are still two files to be transferred.
	SFTP Bursting. During an active transmission two more files have arrived, these have been appended to the current transfer job.
	SFTP fetch active. There are still two files to be fetched.
	Closing Phase. This includes removing any lock files and closing the connection to the remote server. This is valid only for FTP, SFTP and HTTP.
	Local transfer active. There are still two files to be copied.
	Local Bursting. During an active transmission two more files have arrived, these have been appended to the current transfer job.
	Mail transfer active. There are still two files to be mailed.
	Mail Bursting. During an active transmission two more files have arrived, these have been appended to the current transfer job.
	WMO transfer active. There are still two files to be send via TCP/IP socket.
	WMO burst transfer active. During an active transmission two more files have arrived, these have been appended to the current transfer job.
	Execution phase after the file was distributed. This phase is only reached when the pexec options is used.
	Error. An error has occurred while trying to distribute files.

File Counter

Total number of files that still have to be send for this destination. The numbers will be shown up to 9999 files, after this a character will be added: m for Mega Files (1000 * 1000 files), g for Giga Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 files), t for Tera Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files), p for Peta Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files) and e for Exa Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files).

File Size

Total number of bytes that still have to be send for this destination. The last character always shows the current unit: B for Bytes, K for Kilo Bytes (1024 Bytes), M for Mega Bytes (1024 * 1024 Bytes), G for Giga Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes), T for Tera Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes), P for Peta Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes) and E for Exa Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes).

Transfer Rate

Displays the total current transfer rate of all connections to this destination.

Error Counter

Number of errors that occurred for this destination. This will always be reset to zero when a file has been distributed successfully. If the number of errors is larger then two digits a greater sign (>) will be displayed.

Error Counter Bar

Displays a bar for the number of errors for this destination. The color of the bar will be green when the error counter is low and will increasingly turn red the larger the error counter becomes.

Transfer Rate Bar

Displays a yellow bar to display the transfer rate to this destination graphically.

Selecting can be done by either holding down the shift key and pressing the left mouse button (temporary selection) or by holding the ctrl key and the left mouse button (permanent selection). The background of the line will change to black or grey respectively.

Pressing the right mouse button in the connection field will open the following popup and the following actions can be chosen from for selected lines:

Handle event

). If the host is put offline it will turn Steelblue (

) and errors and warnings will be marked as offline in the logs.

Start/Stop input queue

Start/Stop transfer

Start/Stop host

Enable/Disable host

When you want to stop a host and do not want to collect the data for it, disable it by pressing this button. NOTE: All current jobs for this host will be deleted when disabling a host.

Switch host

Switch host allows to change the destination address of selected host. To see whether a certain host has a secondary address look in afd_info dialog.

Retry

Debug

Debug	This enables or disables normal debugging for the given host. With this enables you can see step by step what is being done. To watch the output the Transfer Debug Log button. The contents of the debug log is described in Log Files.
Trace	With this you enable a lot more debug output, each command send and its reply from the remote partner is shown. This can be quit CPU intensive and the log files grow very quickly, so don't leave this on for to long. This is the reason why this only works with the extra process sf_xxx_trace.
Full Trace	This is the same as Trace only with this set you will be able to see the contents of the file that is being transmitted. This will be more CPU intensive if the files being transmitted are large.

Info

The Info button opens the afd_info dialog for this host.

Configuration

Shows the DIR_CONFIG configuration of the selected host.

Status

AMG

LED to show current status of process AMG (Automatic Message Generator).

	Normal status. Process is up and running.
	Process has terminated normally.
	Abnormal termination. Process has been killed and is not running any more.

NOTE: This LED must be so that the AFD can function properly.

LED to show current status of process FD (File Distributor).

	Normal status. Process is up and running.
	Process has terminated normally.
	Abnormal termination. Process has been killed and is not running any more.

NOTE: This LED must be so that the AFD can function properly.

Archive Watch

LED to show current status of process Archive Watch.

	Normal status. Process is up and running.
	Process has terminated normally.
	Abnormal termination. Process has been killed and is not running any more.

AFDD

LED to show current status of process AFDD. This might be missing if you did not set the AFD_TCP_PORT option in the AFD_CONFIG file.

	Normal status. Process is up and running.
	Process has terminated normally.
	Abnormal termination. Process has been killed and is not running any more.

Receive Log

Radar that shows the five last type of messages in the receive log.

Color	Log Symbol	Description
	<I>	Information, nothing serious.
	<W>	Warning. Processing of data on input or warnings about old files in directory where there is no rule to distribute these.
	<E>	Error is encountered during processing of data.
	<F>	A fatal error has occurred, the process involved has most properly terminated abnormally.

System Log

Radar that shows the five last type of messages in the system log. It can have the following colors:

Color	Log Symbol	Description
	<I>	Information, nothing serious.
	<C>	Configuration, something has been configured.
	<W>	Warning. Most properly a configuration error, nothing to be nervous about.
	<E>	Error, AFD should still be able to continue, but something is wrong!
	<F>	A fatal error has occurred, the process involved has most properly terminated abnormally. Now you should really be nervous!
	<#>	Dummy sign. Is used for showing a new month in the system log or when there is garbage or no information in the log file.

Transfer Log

Radar that shows the five last type of messages in the transfer log.

Color	Log Symbol	Description
	<I>	Information, nothing serious.
	<W>	Warning. A file could for example not be renamed because it already existed.
	<E>	Error. File could not be transmitted, see the log for more details.
	<F>	A fatal error has occurred, the process involved has most properly terminated abnormally.

Transfer Log History

Depending on the width of the afd_ctrl window, this will show the last 48 hours of what has happened in the transfer log. It shows the current hour on the right hand side and will move one position to the left every hour. Each square represents one hour and the color will be always the one with the highest severity that has occurred during that hour. The order is as follows, starting with the highest severity: Fatal [Black]

, Error [Red]

, Warn

and Info

System Log History

Same as above only for the system log and that it will have more colors. The order of the colors here is as follows, again starting with the highest severity: Fatal [Black]

, Error

, Warn [Orange]

, Config

, Info

and Dummy (date, etc) [White]

Receive Log History

See Transfer Log History above.

Job Queue Counter

This counter shows how many jobs are currently being queued.

Job Details

The job details can be viewed by clicking with the right mouse button and holding the Ctrl button simultaneously when the mouse cursor is on a connection field. It shows a more detailed view of what the current job is doing. If all data has been transmitted the rotating dash in the center will go away. To make a very long file name visible you can make this window longer by putting the cursor into the job details window and simultaneously press the Ctrl button and press the right mouse button. The left mouse button will make it shorter.

Index

Home

AFD Control

Menu

Heading

Connection

Status

Job Details