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One-way Ping (OWAMP)

The OWAMP specification has now been released as a Standards Track RFC: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4656.txt.



owampd(8) Manual Page



owampd(8)                                                            owampd(8)


NAME

       owampd - One-way latency server.


SYNOPSIS

       owampd [options]


DESCRIPTION

       owampd  is  a  server  program specifically designed to run one side of
       one-way latency tests. The client program owping is  available  to  run
       the other side of the test.

       Aside  from  actually running the tests, the main function of owampd is
       to determine which tests are allowed, based upon  the  policy  restric-
       tions configured by the system administrator.

       owampd  was designed to be run as a stand-alone daemon process. It uses
       the classic accept/fork model of handling new requests.

       Most of the command line options for owampd have analogous  options  in
       the owampd.conf file. The command line takes precedence.


OPTIONS

       -a authmode
              Specify  the  authentication  modes the server is willing to use
              for communication. authmode should be set as a character  string
              with any or all of the characters "AEO". The modes are:

              A      [A]uthenticated.  This  mode encrypts the control connec-
                     tion and encrypts part of each test packet.

              E      [E]ncrypted. This mode encrypts  the  control  connection
                     and  encrypts each test packet in full. (This mode forces
                     an encryption step between the fetching  of  a  timestamp
                     and when the packet is sent. This adds more computational
                     delay to the time reported by OWAMP for each packet.)

              O      [O]pen. No encryption of any kind is done.

              The server can specify all the modes with which it is willing to
              communicate.   The most strict mode that both the server and the
              client are willing to use will be selected.

              Default:
                     "AEO".

       -c confdir
              Specify the directory that holds the owampd configuration files:
              owampd.conf, owampd.limits and owampd.pfs.

              Default:
                     Current working directory.

       -d datadir
              Specify  the  directory  that holds the buffered data files. The
              data files are the result of one-way  latency  tests  where  the
              server  is the receiving host. The data files are used to buffer
              the data, at least until a client  downloads  the  file.  Policy
              restrictions can be used to set how much disk space a given con-
              nection can use, as well as  to  determine  when  each  file  is
              deleted. (See the owampd.limits(5) manual page.)

              Default:
                     Current working directory.

       -e facility
              Syslog facility to which messages are logged.

              Default:
                     LOG_DAEMON

       -f     Disables  the  requirement that owampd be run with non-root per-
              missions. There are legitimate reasons to run  owampd  as  root,
              but  it  is  more  risky.  (For  example, some operating systems
              require root permissions to set the TOS bits used by the -D  and
              -H  options  of  owping.)  This  additional  option was added to
              ensure that root  permissions  are  only  used  when  explicitly
              intended.

       -G group
              Specify  the  gid for the owampd process. group can be specified
              using a valid group name or by using -gid. This option  is  only
              used if owampd is started as root.

              This  option  can be useful to limit logfile permissions to only
              users in this group.

       -h     Print a help message.

       -P 0 | lowport-highport
              Specify the specific port range to use on  the  local  host  for
              OWAMP-Test packets. This can be specified in two ways. First, as
              0 which would indicate owampd should allow the  system  to  pick
              the  port  (ephemeral).  Second,  as  a range: lowport must be a
              smaller value than highport and both numbers must be valid  port
              values. (16 bit unsigned integer values)

              Default:
                     0

       -R vardir
              Specify the directory to hold the owampd.pid file.

              Default:
                     Current working directory

       -S nodename:port
              Specify  the  address  and  port on which owampd will listen for
              requests.  nodename can be specified using a DNS name  or  using
              the textual representation of the address. It is possible to set
              the source address, without setting the port, simply by  leaving
              off the ':' and port specification. Likewise, a non-default port
              can be specified for all system addresses (wildcard) by starting
              the specification string with a ':'. If an IPv6 address is spec-
              ified, note that the accepted format contains nodename in square
              brackets, such as: [fe80::fe9f:62d8]. This ensures the port num-
              ber is distinct from the address specification.

              Default:
                     nodename  is  wildcarded  as  any   currently   available
                     address.  port is 861.

       -U user
              Specify  the  uid  the owampd process should run as. user can be
              specified using a valid user name or by using -uid.  This option
              is only used if owampd is started as root.

              In  the default case, owampd should be started as root so it can
              bind the protected  port  861.  (See  -S  option.)  owampd  will
              release root permissions shortly after binding to this protected
              port and requests will be serviced  by  processes  running  with
              permissions defined by the user.

       -v     Set verbose output. Messages will still only go to syslog unless
              the -Z option is specified.

       -Z     Run the master owampd process in the foreground. In  this  mode,
              error  messages  are  printed to STDERR as well as being sent to
              syslog. Also, normal terminal  controls  are  available.  (i.e.,
              <Cntr-C>  will cause the daemon to kill it's child processes and
              exit.) This is useful for debugging.


REQUIREMENTS

       The owampd daemon requires a very well synchronized and  stable  clock.
       owampd  requires  that  NTP be running to synchronize the system clock.
       NTP needs to be setup in a more methodical way than on most systems for
       the   results   to  be  meaningful.  Please  see  the  OWAMP  web  site
       (http://e2epi.internet2.edu/owamp/) for details concerning proper  con-
       figuration of NTP for OWAMP.


ERRORS

       owampd  uses  syslog to output error messages including access informa-
       tion. The facility configuration option is used to determine what  sys-
       log facility is used. The levels used are as follows:

       LOG_ERR
              Used  for messages indicating fatal errors. The requested action
              will not be performed.

       LOG_WARNING
              Used for messages indicating an unexpected or  dangerous  condi-
              tion.

       LOG_INFO
              Used for access messages.

       LOG_DEBUG
              Used  to indicate reasons for actions. For example, if an access
              is denied due to policy choices that will be noted with this log
              level.

       These  levels  were chosen to give the system-administrator the ability
       to separate access log information from  error  log  information  in  a
       straight forward manner.


SIGNALS

       The  owampd  process  makes  use  of a number of signals to perform IPC
       between the various processes involved:

       SIGALRM
              Used throughout to set timers where appropriate.

       SIGCHLD
              Used to keep track of the state of child processes.

       SIGINT
       SIGTERM
       SIGHUP Used to terminate any owampd process. These signals  are  caught
              by the parent daemon and it manages the complete shutdown of all
              the owampd processes.

       SIGPIPE
              Disabled throughout owampd.

       SIGUSR1
              Used to tell a spawned off receiver/sender process that all con-
              trol  setup interaction is complete and the test can continue at
              the determined time. (This is an indication that  the  StartSes-
              sions  message  was  received  for those familiar with the OWAMP
              protocol.)

       SIGUSR2
              Used to tell a spawned off receiver/sender process to  terminate
              a session early. (This is an indication that a StopSessions mes-
              sage was received for those familiar with the OWAMP protocol.)


FILES

       owampd.pid
       owampd.conf
       owampd.limits
       owampd.pfs


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       OWAMP uses environment variables for some debugging options.

       OWAMP Environment Variable   Description
       ----------------------------------------------------------------
       OWAMP_DEBUG_TIMEOFFSET       Offset time by this amount (float)


SEE ALSO

       There are  more  details  on  configuring  the  owampd  daemon  in  the
       owampd.conf(5)  manual  page.  Details on configuring the policy are in
       the owampd.limits(5) and owampd.pfs(5) manual  pages.   Information  on
       the client is in the owping(1) manual page.  For more of an overview of
       the    full     functionality     and     architecture,     see     the
       http://e2epi.internet2.edu/owamp/ web site.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       This  material  is based in part on work supported by the National Sci-
       ence Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. ANI-0314723. Any opinions,  find-
       ings  and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are
       those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of  the
       NSF.

                         $Date: 2006/11/21 06:09:48 $                owampd(8)

Man(1) output converted with man2html

One-Way Ping (OWAMP) 12 September, 2005
This material is based, in part, on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. ANI-0314723. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
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