Viewing Running and Recent Commands

Viewing Running and Recent Commands For a Cluster

The indicator positioned just to the left of the Search field on the right hand side of the Admin Console main navigation bar displays the number of commands currently running for all services or roles. To display the running commands, click the indicator.

To display all commands that have run and finished recently do one of the following:
  • Click the All Recent Commands button in the window that pops up when you click the indicator. This command displays information on all running and recent commands in the same form as described below.
  • Click the Home link in the Admin Console main navigation bar and click the All Recent Commands tab.

If you are managing multiple clusters, the command indicator shows the number of commands running on all clusters you are managing. Likewise, All Recent Commands shows all commands that were run and finished within the search time range you've specified, across all your managed clusters.

Viewing Running and Recent Commands for a Service or Role

For a selected service or role instance, the Commands tab lets you view what commands are running or have been run for that instance, and what the status, progress, and results are. For example, if you go to the HDFS service shortly after you have installed your cluster and look at the Commands tab, you will see recent commands that created the needed directories, started the HDFS role instances (the NameNode, Secondary NameNode and DataNode instances) and even the command that initially formatted HDFS on the NameNode. This may be particularly useful if a service or role seems to be taking a long time to start up or shut down, or if certain services or roles are not running or do not appear to have been started correctly. You can view both the status and progress of currently running commands, as well as the status and results of commands run in the past.

  1. Click the Clusters tab on the top navigation bar.
  2. Click the service name to go to the Status tab for that service.
  3. For a role instance, click the Instances tab and select the role instance name to go its Status tab.
  4. Click the Commands tab.

Command Details

The details available for a command depend on whether the command is running or recently completed.

Running Commands

The Running Commands area shows commands that are currently in progress.

While the status of the command is In Progress, an Abort Command button will be present so that you can abort the command if necessary.

If the command generates subcommands, this is indicated; click the command link to display the subcommands in a Child Commands section as they are started. Each child command also has an Abort button that is present as long as the subcommand is in progress.

The Commands status information is updated automatically while the command is running.

Once the command has finished running (all its subcommands have finished), the status is updated, the Abort buttons disappear, and the information appears as described below for Recent Commands.

Recent Commands

The Recent Commands area shows commands that were run and finished within the search time range you've specified.

Select a value from the Showing last n drop-down list to control how many commands are listed.

If no commands were run during the selected time range, you can click the Try expanding the time range selection link. Each time you click the link it doubles the time range selection. If you are in the "current time" mode, the beginning time will move; if you are looking at a time range in the past, both the beginning and ending times of the range are changed. You can also change the time range using the options described in Time Line).

Commands are shown with the most recent ones at the top.

The icon associated with the status (which typically includes the time that the command finished) plus the result message tells you whether the command succeeded or failed . If the command failed, it indicates if it was one of the subcommands that actually failed. In many cases, there may be multiple subcommands that result from the top level command.

Command Details

Click a command in the Command list to display its command details, and its child commands (subcommands), if there are any. The Command Details section at the top shows information about the command:
  • The command (and how many subcommands, if any, it has)
  • The context, which may be a cluster, service, host, or role
  • The current status
  • The time the command started
  • The time the command ended
  • A message about the command completion
  • If the context was a role, links to role instance logs

If the command included multiple steps, a Command Progress section may appear showing the steps within the command and whether they succeeded.

The Child Commands section lists any subcommands of the selected command. You can perform the following actions:
  • Filter the child commands to display all, only failed, or only active commands.
  • If you are displaying a child command, use the Parent Command link near the top of the page to return to the parent command's details.
  • Click the Command link to display further command details (and any subcommands) of this command. You can continue to drill down through a tree of subcommands this way.
  • Click the link in the Context column to go to the Status page for the component (host, service or role instance) to which this command was related.