Scroll to navigation

KEEPALIVED(8) System Manager's Manual KEEPALIVED(8)

NAME

keepalived - load-balancing and high-availability service

SYNOPSIS

keepalived [-f|--use-file=FILE] [-P|--vrrp] [-C|--check] [-B|--no_bfd] [--all] [-l|--log-console] [-D|--log-detail] [-S|--log-facility={0-7}] [-g|--log-file=FILE] [--flush-log-file] [-G|--no-syslog] [-X|--release-vips] [-V|--dont-release-vrrp] [-I|--dont-release-ipvs] [-R|--dont-respawn] [-n|--dont-fork] [-d|--dump-conf] [-p|--pid=FILE] [-r|--vrrp_pid=FILE] [-c|--checkers_pid=FILE] [-a|--address-monitoring] [-b|--bfd_pid=FILE] [-s|--namespace=NAME] [-i|--config-id id] [-x|--snmp] [-A|--snmp-agent-socket=FILE] [-u|--umask=NUMBER] [-m|--core-dump] [-M|--core-dump-pattern[=PATTERN]] [--signum=SIGFUNC] [-t|--config-test[=FILE]] [--perf[={all|run|end}]] [--debug[=debug-options]] [-v|--version] [-h|--help]

DESCRIPTION

Keepalived provides simple and robust facilities for load-balancing and high-availability. The load-balancing framework relies on the well-known and widely used Linux Virtual Server (IPVS) kernel module providing Layer4 load-balancing. Keepalived implements a set of checkers to dynamically and adaptively maintain and manage a load-balanced server pool according to their health. Keepalived also implements the VRRPv2 and VRRPv3 protocols to achieve high-availability with director failover.

OPTIONS

-f, --use-file=FILE
Use the specified configuration file. The default configuration file is "/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf".
-P, --vrrp
Only run the VRRP subsystem. This is useful for configurations that do not use the IPVS load balancer.
-C, --check
Only run the healthcheck subsystem. This is useful for configurations that use the IPVS load balancer with a single director with no failover.
-B, --no_bfd
Don't run the BFD subsystem.
--all
Run all subsystems, even if they have no configuration.
-l, --log-console
Log messages to the local console. The default behavior is to log messages to syslog.
-D, --log-detail
Detailed log messages.
-S, --log-facility=[0-7]
Set syslog facility to LOG_LOCAL[0-7]. The default syslog facility is LOG_DAEMON.
-g, --log-file=FILE
Write log entries to FILE. FILE will have _vrrp, _healthcheckers, and _bfd inserted before the last '.' in FILE for the log output for those processes.
--flush-log-file
If using the -g option, the log file stream will be flushed after each write.
-G, --no-syslog
Do not write log entries to syslog. This can be useful if the rate of writing log entries is sufficiently high that syslog will rate limit them, and the -g option is used instead.
-X, --release-vips
Drop VIP on transition from signal.
-V, --dont-release-vrrp
Don't remove VRRP VIPs and VROUTEs on daemon stop. The default behavior is to remove all VIPs and VROUTEs when keepalived exits.
-I, --dont-release-ipvs
Don't remove IPVS topology on daemon stop. The default behavior it to remove all entries from the IPVS virtual server table when keepalived exits.
-R, --dont-respawn
Don't respawn child processes. The default behavior is to restart the VRRP and checker processes if either process exits.
-n, --dont-fork
Don't fork the daemon process. This option will cause keepalived to run in the foreground.
-d, --dump-conf
Dump the configuration data.
-p, --pid=FILE
Use the specified pidfile for the parent keepalived process. The default pidfile for keepalived is "/var/run/keepalived.pid", unless a network namespace is being used. See NAMESPACES below for more details.
-r, --vrrp_pid=FILE
Use the specified pidfile for the VRRP child process. The default pidfile for the VRRP child process is "/var/run/keepalived_vrrp.pid", unless a network namespace is being used.
-c, --checkers_pid=FILE
Use the specified pidfile for checkers child process. The default pidfile for the checker child process is "/var/run/keepalived_checkers.pid" unless a network namespace is being used.
-a, --address-monitoring
Log all address additions/deletions reported by netlink.
-b, --bfd_pid=FILE
Use the specified pidfile for the BFD child process. The default pidfile for the BFD child process is "/var/run/keepalived_bfd.pid" unless a network namespace is being used.
-s, --namespace=NAME
Run keepalived in network namespace NAME. See NAMESPACES below for more details.
-i, --config-id ID
Use configuration id ID, for conditional configuration (defaults to hostname without the domain name).
-x, --snmp
Enable the SNMP subsystem.
-A, --snmp-agent-socket=FILE
Use the specified socket for connection to SNMP master agent.
-u, --umask=NUMBER
The umask specified in the usual numeric way - see man umask(2)
-m, --core-dump
Override the RLIMIT_CORE hard and soft limits to enable keepalived to produce a coredump in the event of a segfault or other failure. This is most useful if keepalived has been built with 'make debug'. Core dumps will be created in /, unless keepalived is run with the --dont-fork option, in which case they will be created in the directory from which keepalived was run, or they will be created in the directory of a configuraton file if the fault occurs while reading the file.
-M, --core-dump-pattern[=PATTERN]
Sets option --core-dump, and also updates /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern to the pattern specified, or 'core' if none specified. Provided the parent process doesn't terminate abnormally, it will restore /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern to its original value on exit.

Note: This will also affect any other process producing a core dump while keepalived is running.

--signum=PATTERN
Returns the signal number to use for STOP, RELOAD, DATA, STATS and JSON. For example, to stop keepalived running, execute:
kill -s $(keepalived --signum=STOP) $(cat /var/run/keepalived.pid)
-t, --config-test[=FILE]
Keepalived will check the configuration file and exit with non-zero exit status if there are errors in the configuration, otherwise it exits with exit status 0 (see Exit status below for details).

Rather that writing to syslog, it will write diagnostic messages to stderr unless file is specified, in which case it will write to the file.

--perf[={all|run|end}]
Record perf data for vrrp process. Data will be written to /perf_vrrp.data. The data recorded is for use with the perf tool.
--debug[=debug-options]]
Enables debug options if they have been compiled into keepalived. debug-options is made up of a sequence of strings of the form Ulll.
The upper case letter specifies the debug option, and the lower case letters specify for which processes the option is to be enabled.
If a debug option is not followed by any lower case letters, the debug option is enabled for all processes.

The characters to identify the processes are:
Chr Process
p Parent process
b BFD process
c Checker process
v VRRP process

The characters used to identify the debug options are:

Chr Debug option
D Epoll thread dump
E Epoll debug
F VRRP fd debug
N Netlink timers
X Regex timers
M Email alert debug
T Timer debug
S TSM debug
R Regex debug

Example: --debug=DvEcvNR

-v, --version
Display the version and exit.
-h, --help
Display this help message and exit.

Exit status:

0
if OK
1
if unable to malloc memory
2
if cannot initialise subsystems
3
if running with --config-test and configuration cannot be run
4
if running with --config-test and there are configuration errors but keepalived will run after modifying the configuration
5
if running with --config-test and script security hasn't been enabled but scripts are configured.

NAMESPACES

keepalived can be run in a network namespace (see keepalived.conf(5) for configuration details). When run in a network namespace, a local mount namespace is also created, and /var/run/keepalived/keepalived_NamespaceName is mounted on /var/run/keepalived. By default, pid files with the usual default names are then created in /var/run/keepalived from the perspective of a process in the mount namespace, and they will be visible in /var/run/keepalived/keepalived_NamespaceName for a process running in the default mount namespace.

SIGNALS

keepalived reacts to a set of signals. You can send a signal to the parent keepalived process using the following: 
kill -SIGNAL $(cat /var/run/keepalived.pid)

or better:

kill -s $(keepalived --signum=SIGFUNC) $(cat /var/run/keepalived.pid)

Note that if the first option is used, -SIGNAL must be replaced with the actual signal you are trying to send, e.g. with HUP. So it then becomes:

kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/keepalived.pid)

Signals other than for STOP, RELOAD, DATA and STATS may change depending on the kernel, and also what functionality is included in the version of the keepalived depending on the build options used.

HUP or SIGFUNC=RELOAD
This causes keepalived to close down all interfaces, reload its configuration, and start up with the new configuration.
TERM, INT or SIGFUNC=STOP
keepalived will shut down.
USR1 or SIGFUNC=DATA
Write configuration data to /tmp/keepalived.data
USR2 or SIGFUNC=STATS
Write statistics info to /tmp/keepalived.stats
SIGFUNC=JSON
Write configuration data in JSON format to /tmp/keepalived.json

SEE ALSO

keepalived.conf(5), ipvsadm(8)

AUTHOR

This man page was written by Ryan O'Hara <rohara@redhat.com>
July 2018