5.16 Managing Workstation Connections

This section explains how to use utilities and commands for disabling logins, clearing connections, controlling resource allocation, sending messages, and working with watchdog packets. See the following:

5.16.1 Performing Connection Management Tasks

The tasks for which you can use Novell Remote Manager or Monitor include the following:

  • Viewing a list of active workstation connections on the server

  • Determining which users are logged in

  • Viewing information about a connection

  • Configuring a watchdog to monitor connections for activity

  • Viewing a list of files that the connection has open

  • Terminating one or more workstation connections

    You can also use CLEAR STATION n or CLEAR STATION ALL at the System Console prompt. For more information about these commands, see CLEAR STATION in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

  • Sending a message to one or more workstations

5.16.2 Monitoring Workstation Connections to the Server

The most effective tool for monitoring workstation connections to the server is Novell Remote Manager. For information about monitoring workstation connections to the server using Novell Remote Manager, see Managing Connections to the Server in the NW 6.5 SP8: Novell Remote Manager Administration Guide.

To monitor connections to the server from utilities at the server console, see the procedures in the following table.

Table 5-18 Task and Actions for Monitoring Connections to the Server

To

Do the following

View a list of active server connections.

Determine which users are logged in.

  1. In Monitor, from the Available Options menu, select Connections. The list of Active Connections appears.

  2. (Optional) Press F3 to re-sort the connection list.

List items without an asterisk (*) represent logged-in users.

List items with an asterisk (*) are unlicensed connections (this means they do not count against a server's total licenses). These connections are authenticated to eDirectory but are not logged in.

View information about a connection:

  • Connection number

  • Connection name

  • Elapsed connection time

  • Network node address

  • Read/write requests

  • Authentication and license status

  • Files in use

  • Locks and semaphores in use

  • Supervisory rights

  1. In Monitor, from the Available Options menu, select Connections to display the list of Active Connections.

  2. Select a connection from the list.

  3. Press Tab to activate the Connection Information screen in the upper window.

  4. For an explanation of the information fields and statistics, press F1.

View a list of files that the connection has open.

Use this procedure when you want to determine whether a crashed workstation has open files remaining on the server.

  1. In Monitor, from the Available Options menu, select Connections.

  2. Select the connection from the list.

  3. After determining whether files are open on the server, press Esc to return to the Active Connections list.

Terminate one or more connections.

Use this procedure to clear the connection when a workstation has crashed and left open files on the server.

NOTE:Transaction monitoring (TTS) provides automatic backout for database records or files stored on the server if a workstation has crashed and left those files open on the server. Also a file is protected if the Transaction (T) file attribute is set for it.

See Clearing a Workstation Connection.

Send a message to one or more workstations.

Use this procedure when you need to warn users to log out before you down the server.

See Sending Console Messages to Workstations.

5.16.3 Sending Console Messages to Workstations

To send a message from the server console to all workstations or to a single user using Novell Remote Manager, see Sending Messages to Users in the NW 6.5 SP8: Novell Remote Manager Administration Guide.

To send a message from the server console to all workstations or to a single user using Monitor, complete the following:

  1. From the Available Options menu, select Connections.

  2. Press F8 to display more options on the taskbar.

  3. In the list of Active Connections, select the connection for the user you want to send a message to. (Use F5 to mark additional recipients.)

    In the Active Connections list, items without an asterisk (*) represent logged-in users.

  4. To display the message composition box, press F4.

  5. Type your message in the message box and press Enter to send it.

    A confirmation box appears.

  6. You can either choose to send the message immediately or you can press Esc to discard it.

For more information, see MONITOR in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference. For information about receiving and clearing messages at the workstation, see the documentation for your NetWare client.

5.16.4 Clearing a Workstation Connection

To clear a client connection when the workstation has crashed and left open files on the server, use one of following procedures:

IMPORTANT:If you clear the connection while the workstation is in the middle of a transaction or a file update, the files might be saved with incorrect data.

Clearing a Connection Using Monitor

  1. In Monitor, from the Available Options menu, select Connections.

    A list of active connections appears.

  2. (Optional) To view a workstation’s open files, select the workstation’s connection.

    After viewing files, press Esc to return to the Active Connections list.

  3. Clear one or more connections.

    • To clear one connection, select the connection and press Delete. At the Clear Connection? prompt, select Yes.

    • To delete multiple connections, select each connection and press F5 to mark it. Then press Delete. At the Clear Connection? prompt, select Yes.

    • To clear all unused (not logged in) connections, press F6.

    Deleted connections are no longer listed on the Active Connections list.

For more information, see MONITOR in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

Clearing a Connection Using CLEAR STATION

If you know the connection number, you can terminate a specific connection by entering the following at the System Console prompt:

CLEAR STATION n

Replace n with the connection number of the workstation.

To clear all connections, enter the following at the System Console prompt:

CLEAR STATION ALL

IMPORTANT:The CLEAR STATION ALL command clears all not-logged-in connections including connections by NLM programs. You should be careful in clearing NLM-based connections because some backup NLM programs establish a connection during the server initialization process and maintain a not-logged-in connection to the server until it is time to log in and run the process. These type of NLM-based connections will not be able to re-establish a connection to the server unless the NLM is unloaded and reloaded at the server.

For more information, see CLEAR STATION in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

5.16.5 Disabling and Enabling Logins

If you need to make repairs to the server, you can prevent users from logging in by entering the following command at the System Console prompt:

DISABLE LOGIN

This does not affect users who are already logged in to the network. However, a user who logs out cannot log in again until you execute ENABLE LOGIN.

To allow users to log in again, enter the following at the System Console prompt:

ENABLE LOGIN

You can also use ENABLE LOGIN to enable a Supervisor account when it has been locked by the intruder detection function.

For more information, see DISABLE LOGIN and ENABLE LOGIN in the NW 6.5 SP8: Utilities Reference.

5.16.6 Clearing a Connection That Uses Auto Reconnect

Novell Client™ has automatic reconnection capabilities that make a complete restoration of the user environment after a network failure possible. Because auto-reconnect is enabled by default, you need to prevent workstations from reconnecting while you are trying to perform some function on the server.

Novell Client also supports file caching on the client side, which allows files to be cached as they are read from and written to the server. With the default settings for the Auto Reconnect Level and the File Cache Level parameters, Novell Client will restore all files to their actual state before the workstation connection was cleared (or the server went down).

The workstation monitor displays a message:

Client32: Please wait while Application retries request to servername. To stop waiting, press Enter. NetWare will then return an error and try to reconnect in the background.

You can use a combination of the console commands to prevent clients from reconnecting long enough to complete your work on the server.

  1. To warn users, see Sending Console Messages to Workstations.

  2. To prevent auto-reconnect users from reattaching to the server while you are working on it, enter DISABLE LOGIN at the System Console prompt before you clear the connections. See Disabling and Enabling Logins.

  3. Then use CLEAR STATION to terminate the connection as discussed in Clearing a Connection Using CLEAR STATION. With login disabled, a workstation with auto-reconnect enabled will still try to reestablish its connection automatically, but the necessary services on the login server won’t be available. (After the connections are cleared, workstation attachments appear as *NOT-LOGGED-IN entries in Monitor’s Active Connections window.)

  4. When you have completed your server tasks, enter ENABLE LOGIN to allow users to log in again.

    HINT:Note that if you don’t clear a workstation’s connection and a communication failure occurs (such as a broken or unplugged network cable), the workstation will be able to auto-reconnect when the problem is fixed.

5.16.7 Controlling Resource Allocation with Locks

A lock prevents a file or record from being updated by more than one user at a time. By controlling the number of file and record locks available to a workstation or a server, you control access to files and records.

You can increase the number of locks if clients cannot open files. Or you can limit the number of locks to prevent overuse of file resources.

Preventing Workstations from Overusing File Resources

If you are running out of file resources, use the following Set parameters (Traditional File System category) to limit the number of locks for the server and for each connection.

  • Maximum Record Locks Per Connection = value

  • Maximum File Locks Per Connection = value

  • Maximum Record Locks = value

  • Maximum File Locks = value

Before limiting file and record locks, make sure the workstations have an adequate number of locks to access the files and records they need. Limiting needed locks can cause applications to generate errors.

For the server, limit the total number of file and record locks allowed by decreasing the values of the following parameters:

  • Maximum File Locks

  • Maximum Record Locks

For each client, limit the total number of file and record locks allowed by decreasing the value of the following parameters:

  • Maximum Record Locks Per Connection

  • Maximum File Locks Per Connection

The changes to the parameter values take effect immediately and are persistent.

Increasing File Record Locks

To provide more file record locks if applications fail either because clients cannot open enough files or because not enough record locks are available:

  1. Increase the values of the following (Traditional File System category) parameters to increase the number of file and record locks allowed for the server:

    Maximum Record Locks

    Maximum File Locks

    The changes to the parameter values take effect immediately and are persistent.

  2. Increase the values of the following (Traditional File System category) parameters to increase the number of file and record locks allowed for each workstation:

    Maximum Record Locks Per Connection

    Maximum File Locks Per Connection

    The changes to the parameter values take effect immediately and are persistent.