PENCTL(1)

NAME
penctl - control a running pen load balancer

SYNOPSIS
penctl host:port|/path/to/socket command

EXAMPLE
penctl lbhost:8888 roundrobin

Turns off client tracking on the load balancer running on lbhost.

penctl /var/run/pen/tmp/ctrl status

Prints status information in html format.

DESCRIPTION
Penctl connects to the optional control socket on a pen load balancer. It reads commands from the command line, performs minimal syntax checking and sends them to pen. Replies, if any, are printed on stdout.

The program can also be used through the cgi script penctl.cgi, which allows pen to be controlled from any web browser.

OPTIONS

host:port
    Specifies a control port where the load balancer listens for commands.

COMMANDS

abort_on_error
    Call abort() when a fatal error is encountered. This will create a core file which allows further troubleshooting. Disabled by default.

no abort_on_error
    Exit normally on fatal error with an error code which indicates failure.

acl N permit|deny sourceip4 [mask]
    Adds an entry to access list N, where N is a number from 0 to 9. The source and mask addresses are in the usual dotted quad notation. If mask is omitted, it defaults to 255.255.255.255.

acl N permit|deny sourceip6[/length]
    If the source address contains the character ':', the address is interpreted as IPv6. Unlike IPv4 access entries, a length is used to indicate the mask. If length is omitted, it defaults to 128.

acl N permit|deny country NN
    If the source address is the special word "country", a two-letter country code can be used to restrict access to the load balancer. For this to work, pen must be built with geoip support.

no acl N
    Deletes all entries from access list N. The resulting access list permits all traffic.

ascii
    Communication dumps in ascii format (cf option -a).

no ascii
    Communication dumps in hex format.

blacklist
    Return current blacklist time in seconds.

blacklist T
    Set the blacklist time in seconds.

block
    Do not make sockets nonblocking. This is obsolete as of 0.26.0 and does nothing.

no block
    Make sockets nonblocking.

client_acl N
    Check connecting clients against access list N (default 0).

clients_max [N]
    With argument, increase the maximum number of known clients. Returns max number of clients.

close N
    Close connection N

connection N
    Display some basic information about connection N.

conn_max [N]
    With argument, increase the max number of simultaneous connections. Returns max number.

control
    Return address and port where pen listens for control connections.

control_acl N
    Check accesses to the control port against access list N (default 0).

debug
    Return current debug level.

debug N
    Set debug level to N.

delayed_forward
    Always wait for the next round of the main loop before forwarding data. Normally pen tries to do that immediately. This is obsolete as of 0.26.0 and does nothing.

no delayed_forward
    Try to forward data immediately, to avoid the overhead of copying it to a temporary buffer and waiting for the next main loop round.

dsr_if IF
    Use IF as the interface for Direct Server Return.

dummy
    Act as a dummy web server with very limited functionality but high performance. Only useful for testing. Disabled by default.

no dummy
    Do not act as a dummy web server.

epoll
    Use epoll for event management (Linux). This is the default on Linux.

exit
    Exit. Only available if pen was started with the -X option.

hash
    Use a hash on the client IP address for initial server selection.

no hash
    Do not use a hash.

http
    Add X-Forwarded-For headers to http requests.

no http
    Do not add X-Forwarded-For headers.

idle_timeout N
    Close connections that have been inactive for N seconds. Default 0 = never close.

idlers [N]
    Create N reliable idle connections to the backend servers. Without argument, display the current/requested number of reliable idlers.

include FILE
    Read commands from file.

kqueue
    Use kqueue for event management (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD). This is the default on the systems that have it.

listen
    Return local address and port pen listens to for incoming client connections.

listen [address:]:port
    Close the listening socket and reopen using specified address (optional) and port.

log Show where pen is logging, if anywhere.

log FILE
    Log to FILE.

mode
    Write a summary of the current mode of operation. The listed modes are block, delayed_forward, hash, roundrobin, stubborn.

no log
    Turn off logging.

pending_max N
    Max allowed number of pending nonblocking connections. Default 100, minimum 1.

pid Return the process id of the running daemon.

poll
    Use poll for event management.

prio
    Use the priority based algorithm.

no prio
    Do not use the priority based algorithm.

recent [N]
    Shows which clients have connected in the last N seconds (default 300).

roundrobin
    Use round-robin server selection without client tracking

no roundrobin

select
    Use select for event management.

server N [ acl A | address A | port P | max M | hard H | blacklist T | weight W | prio P ]
    Change acl, address, port, weight, priority and/or max connections for server N, or blacklist it for T seconds.

servers
    List address, port, weight, priority and max number of simultaneous connections for each remote server.

socket N
    Show to which connection socket N belongs.

source IP
    Set the local address to IP for upstream connections, i.e. where Pen connects to backend servers.

ssl_ciphers CIPHERS
    Choose list of available SSL ciphers, specified in the format described in https://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html.

ssl_client_renegotiation_interval S
    Allowing the client to request renegotiation is a potential denial of service vector. This command specifies the minimum number of seconds the client has to wait between requests for renegotiation requests. Default 3600 = effectively disabled.

ssl_ocsp_response FILENAME
    Specifies the location of a file containing a pre-fetched OCSP response. The file must be refreshed regularly by a cron job or similar and the ssl_ocsp_response command repeated to make Pen re-read the file..

ssl_option OPTION
    Manipulate SSL options. The available options are no_sslv2, no_sslv3, no_tlsv1, no_tlsv1.1, no_tlsv1.2, cipher_server_preference. Use the command multiple times to specify multiple options.

ssl_sni_path PATH
    This command enables the Server Name Indication TLS extension by specifying a directory where domain.key, domain.crt and domain.ca files can be found.

status
    Print status information in html format.

stubborn
    If the initial server selection is unavailable, close the client connection without trying another

no stubborn

tarpit_acl [N]
    Used in DSR mode. If N is an existing access list, Pen will reply to ARP requests for IP addresses that match the access list, and reply with SYN+ACK to TCP SYN requests to these addresses. The result is that someone trying to scan a network will be slowed down by a large number of false positives.

tcp_fastclose up|down|both|off
    Close both sockets to upstream and downstream if one of them closes theirs. Default = off.

tcp_nodelay
    Set TCP_NODELAY on sockets, effectively turning off the Nagle algorithm.

no tcp_nodelay
    Do not set TCP_NODELAY on sockets. This is the default.

timeout
    Return current connect timeout in seconds.

timeout N
    Set connect timeout to N seconds.

tracking N
    Set tracking time, i.e. how long clients will be remembered. The default 0 will never expire clients based on time.

transparent
    On compatible platforms, use the client's address as source address in the connection to the backend server.

no transparent
    Use Pen's address as source address in the connection to the backend server.

web_stats
    Return file name of html status reports, if any.

web_stats FILE
    Set the name of html status reports.

no web_stats
    Do not generate html status reports.

weight
    Use weight for server selection.

no weight
    Do not use weight for server selection.

write [FILE]
    Write the current configuration into a file which can be used to start pen. If FILE is omitted, the configuration is written into pen's original configuration file.

SEE ALSO
pen(1)

AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 2002-2015 Ulric Eriksson, <ulric@siag.nu>.