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heartbeatd(8)             BSD System Manager's Manual            heartbeatd(8)

NAME
     heartbeatd -- Mac OS X Server IP failover broadcast daemon

SYNOPSIS
     heartbeatd [-d | -n | -x] [-p port] [-m message] ip_addr [ip_addr ...]
     heartbeatd [-h | -v]


DESCRIPTION
     heartbeatd repeatedly broadcasts messages, announcing the host's availability to other nodes listening
     with failoverd(8).

     In typical usage, heartbeatd is launched on the master server during the boot process by the IPFailover
     startup item if the appropriate field, FAILOVER_BCAST_IPS, is defined in /etc/hostconfig.

     Upon launch, heartbeatd checks its argument list, moves to the background, and periodically sends out
     "heartbeat" messages to the IP addresses defined on the command-line. Each target IP address may be an
     IP unicast address (targeting the backup server), or an IP broadcast address (announcing to the subnet,
     if there are multiple listeners).

     heartbeatd tickles all network interfaces shortly after startup and whenever it receives a hangup sig-nal. signal.
     nal. This allows the machine to re-acquire (failback) its public IP addresses.

OPTIONS
     The following options are available:
     -d
     --debug            Do not move to background and print log strings to the terminal.

     -h
     --help             Print usage summary and exit.

     -L facility        Enable logging to syslog(8) using the specified facility.  The following values for
                        facility are supported: daemon (the default), auth, user, local[0-7].  (See
                        syslog.conf(5) for their meanings.) This is equivalent to --syslog.

     -m message
     --message=message  Send the specified message as the body of the packet instead of the default, "heart-beat". "heartbeat".
                        beat".

     --no-fork          Do not move to background. This is equivalent to -x.

     -n
     --no-run           Do not move to background, print log information to the terminal, and quit after
                        reading the configuration file. This validates the configuration of hardware and
                        software.

     -p port
     --port=port        Send to the specified port instead of the default, 1694. This must match the port
                        used by the backup node's version of failoverd(8).

     --syslog=facility  Enable logging to syslog(8) using the specified facility.  The following values for
                        facility are supported: daemon (the default), auth, user, local[0-7].  (See
                        syslog.conf(5) for their meanings.) This is equivalent to -L.

     -v
     --version          Print build version and exit.

     -x                 Do not move to background. This is equivalent to --no-fork.

EXAMPLES
     The simplest invocation would be

           heartbeatd 255.255.255.255

     A more useful invocation for multi-port machines might be

           heartbeatd 10.100.255.255 1.2.3.255
     which will broadcast to the server's subnet.

     To communicate to a single backup, the following is more appropriate:

           heartbeatd 10.100.0.12 1.2.3.5

     The latter invocation would typically be defined in /etc/hostconfig as

           FAILOVER_BCAST_IPS="10.100.0.12 1.2.3.5"

DIAGNOSTICS
     The heartbeatd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

     heartbeatd must be executed as root.  Because heartbeatd controls system-wide resources, it must be
     executed by the root user.

     Invalid port.  Valid ports range from 1 to 65535 (IPV6PORT_ANONMAX).

     Invalid syslog facility.  An invalid syslog facility name was used. Please see the description for the
     -L option, above.

     Invalid IP address  One of the addresses passed on the command-line did not resolve to an IP address.

     No addresses specified.  At least one valid destination address must be specified.

FILES & FOLDERS
     /usr/sbin/heartbeatd
     /etc/hostconfig
     /System/Library/StartupItems/IPFailover

SEE ALSO
     failoverd(8)

HISTORY
     A version of heartbeatd has been present in Mac OS X Server since version 10.2 (Jaguar).

Mac OS X Server                 25 January 2005                Mac OS X Server