nctrl.exe reference

Article
07/22/2014

Applies to: FAST Search Server 2010

Use nctrl to manage the node controller that holds the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint processes and to perform general operations on the components (e.g., start, add, remove, resume, etc.).

There is one node controller on each FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint node. The node controller runs as a Windows service and can also be managed via the Windows Services controller.

Note

To use a command-line tool, verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.

Syntax

<FASTSearchFolder>\bin\nctrl [options] <command>

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<FASTSearchFolder>	The path of the folder where you have installed FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, for example C:\FASTSearch.

All options and commands are optional.

nctrl options

Option	Value	Description
-h		Displays help.
-v		Displays version information.
-l	<log_level>	Specifies what information to record in the log entries: debug verbose info warning error
-c	<directory>	Specifies the directory location of the configuration file, NodeConf.xml. Default: <FASTSearchFolder>\etc

nctrl commands

Command	Value	Description
start	[process 1]...[process n]	Starts all or specified processes. When the node controller service is running, the start command also resumes suspended processes. When the node controller service is not running, the start command without arguments starts the service and all non-suspended processes.
stop	[process 1]...[process n]	Stops all (including the node controller service) or specified processes. When the node controller service is running, the stop command behaves identically to the suspend command. The processes will remain stopped (suspended) even if the node controller service is restarted.
kill	[process 1]...[process n]	Terminates selected processes.
restart	[process 1]...[process n]	Restarts selected processes (i.e., the same as issuing stop followed by start).
status		Displays services that are running on the node and their status.
add	[process]	Adds another instance of type process. The process must be configured for dynamic multiplication, that is, marked with `multi=yes` in the node controller configuration file.
remove	[process]	Removes a process from configuration. The process must support dynamic multiplication, that is, marked with `multi=yes` in the node controller configuration file.
suspend	[process 1]...[process n]	Stops the specified processes. The processes must be resumed to be restarted.
resume	[process 1]...[process n]	Starts the previously suspended processes to continue to process.
reloadcfg		Reloads the configuration for the running node controller service from <FASTSearchFolder>\etc\NodeConf.xml.

Examples

This example stops search on all indexer and search nodes:

<FASTSearchFolder>\bin\nctrl stop search-1

The following example restarts the configserver (which is the same as stop followed by start):

<FASTSearchFolder>\bin\nctrl restart configserver

Remarks

Remember to run nctrl reloadcfg after you change the node controller configuration file <FASTSearchFolder>\etc\NodeConf.xml for your changes to take effect.

The list of valid nctrl processes and the component they belong to are:

Process name	Associated with
browserengine	A component of the FAST Search Web Crawler
configserver	Administration (configuration)
contentdistributor	Content distributor
crawler	The main component of the FAST Search Web Crawler
fdmworker	A component of the Web Analyzer
indexer	Ilyzernandexing
indexingdispatcher	Indexing dispatcher
nameservice	Administration (name service)
nctrl	Administration (node controller)
procserver_n	Instances of item processing
qrproxy	Query processing component, interface with the Query SSA
qrserver	Main query processing component
samadmin	Administration (item level security)
samworker	Query processing component, handling item level security
search_n	An instance of the query matching process for one index partition
spelltuner	Administration (spell check dictionary improvement)
sprel	A component of the Web Analyzer, handing search clickthrough analysis
topfdispatch	Top level query dispatcher running on the query processing server
walinkstorerreceiver	A component of the Web Analyzer
walookupdb0	A component of the Web Analyzer
webanalyzer	The main component of the FAST Search Web Analyzer