RPC.STATD(8)              BSD System Manager's Manual             RPC.STATD(8)

NAME
     rpc.statd -- host status monitoring daemon

SYNOPSIS
     rpc.statd [-d]
     rpc.statd [-d] -n
     rpc.statd [-d] [-l | -L | -N hostname]

DESCRIPTION
     The rpc.statd utility is a daemon which cooperates with rpc.statd daemons
     on other hosts to provide a status monitoring service.  The daemon
     accepts requests from programs running on the local host (typically,
     rpc.lockd(8), the NFS file locking daemon) to monitor the status of spec-
     ified hosts.  If a monitored host crashes and restarts, the remote daemon
     will notify the local daemon, which in turn will notify the local pro-
     gram(s) which requested the monitoring service.  Conversely, if this host
     crashes and restarts, the statd.notify service will be started to notify
     all of the hosts which were being monitored at the time of the crash.

     The rpc.statd utility consists of two launchd(8)-controlled services.
     The statd.notify service is run whenever the system needs to notify
     remote hosts of a restart.  The statd service is controlled by
     rpc.lockd(8) so that the rpc.statd daemon is running whenever
     rpc.lockd(8) is running.

     The following is a list of command line options that are available.  Note
     that since rpc.statd is normally started by launchd(8), configuration of
     these options should be controlled using the equivalent settings in the
     NFS configuration file.  See nfs.conf(5) for a list of tunable parame-
     ters.

     -d      Sets the logging level to the maximum.  Note that finer grain
             control is available via the nfs.statd.verbose option in
             nfs.conf(5).

             Logging is performed via syslog(3) using the LOG_DAEMON facility.
             By default, only messages up to priority LOG_WARNING are logged.
             Setting the verbose level to one will add LOG_NOTICE messages
             which includes logging failed mount attempts.  A verbose level of
             two will increase the log level to LOG_INFO which includes log-
             ging successful mount attempts.  A log level of three or more
             will add LOG_DEBUG messages and cause increasing amounts of debug
             information to be logged.  The debug information exposes lots of
             information about rpc.statd's inner workings which is typically
             only useful to developers.  Note: the syslog(8) configuration may
             need to be adjusted in order to see the increased verbosity.

     The following command line option causes the daemon to run in the
     statd.notify notification service mode:

     -n      Send SM_NOTIFY messages to notify any hosts of a restart.

     The remaining command line options may be useful for viewing or modifying
     the contents of the status file.  They do not start up any daemon or ser-
     vice.

     -l      List each host (and its status) in the status file.

     -L      List each host (and its status) in the status file and then con-
             tinue to watch the file and report changes.

     -N      Clear the "needs notification" status for hostname so the
             statd.notify service will no longer try to notify it.

FILES
     /var/db/statd.status       non-volatile record of monitored hosts.
     /var/run/statd.pid         The pid of the current statd daemon.
     /var/run/statd.notify.pid  The pid of the current statd.notify daemon.
     /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.statd.notify.plist
                                The statd.notify service's property list file
                                for launchd(8).
     /usr/include/rpcsvc/sm_inter.x
                                RPC protocol specification used by local
                                applications to register monitoring requests.

SEE ALSO
     nfs.conf(5), rpc.lockd(8), syslog(3), launchd(8)

BUGS
     There is no means for the daemon to tell when a monitored host has disap-
     peared permanently (eg. catastrophic hardware failure), as opposed to
     transient failure of the host or an intermediate router.  At present, it
     will pause and re-try notification at frequent intervals for 10 minutes,
     then hourly, and finally gives up after 24 hours.  The -N option may be
     used to remove the "needs notification" status from such hosts.

     The protocol requires that symmetric monitor requests are made to both
     the local and remote daemon in order to establish a monitored relation-
     ship.  This is convenient for the NFS locking protocol, but probably
     reduces the usefulness of the monitoring system for other applications.

STANDARDS
     The implementation is based on the specification in X/Open CAE Specifica-
     tion C218, "Protocols for X/Open PC Interworking: XNFS, Issue 4", ISBN 1
     872630 66 9

BSD                              July 5, 2008                              BSD