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Introduction

This document will describe what FCPUTIL is, and how to install and configure it.

You can download the full documentation and resources used in this document from here > FCPUTIL Resources

What is FCPUTIL

FCPUTIL is a FirstClass Protocol utility designed to check the status of the server and perform some commands related to maintaining the server. It requires an account with "Monitor server" and "Maintain server" privileges, and it can be used across a network.

Why use FCPUTIL?

It can be used for many purposes, but in particular, as is the focus of this document, can be used to Pause your FirstClass mirror prior to a backup, (or send a Snapshot HOLD command) and to Continue the FirstClass mirror once the backup is complete.

There are some major advantages of using FCPUTIL over other options such as NET Pause or fcsctl pause:

  • FCPUTIL can return the status of an action. Therefore a script can be constructed to deal with the returned status.

  • It supports considerably more functions than the NET command's STOP, PAUSE, and CONTINUE.

  • It is both network-based and platform-independent, so it can be run from a different machine than the one hosting the server, and even a different platform.