p4 admin

Perform administrative operations on the server.

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] admin checkpoint [-z | -Z] [-p [-N threads] [-m]] [prefix]
p4 [g-opts] admin journal [-z] [prefix]
p4 [g-opts] admin stop
p4 [g-opts] admin restart
p4 [g-opts] admin updatespecdepot [-a | -s type]
p4 [g-opts] admin resetpassword -a | -u user
p4 [g-opts] admin setldapusers
p4 [g-opts] admin end-journal
p4 [g-opts] admin sysinfo
p4 [g-opts] admin resource-monitor

Syntax conventions

Description

The p4 admin command allows P4 Server users with the super permission level to perform administrative tasks, even when working from a different machine than the one running the shared P4 Server service.

To stop the service, use p4 admin stop. This locks the database to ensure that it is in a consistent state upon restart, and then shuts down the background process.

To restart the service, use p4 admin restart. The database is locked, the service restarts, and some of the p4 configure settings that require a restart are applied.

Some configurables under Configurables reference indicate that a complete server shutdown and restart is required for a change to take effect.

checkpoint and journal

To take a checkpoint, use p4 admin checkpoint [prefix]

p4 admin checkpoint [prefix] is equivalent to logging in to the server machine and taking a checkpoint with p4d -jc [prefix]. A checkpoint is taken and the journal is copied to a numbered file. If a prefix is specified, the files are named prefix.ckp.n or prefix.jnl.n-1 respectively, where n is a sequence number. The MD5 checksum of the checkpoint is written to a separate file, checkpoint.n.md5, and the lastCheckpointAction counter is updated to reflect successful completion.

Regarding the -p option:

  • -p is the option for parallel processing and has sub-options for -N numberOfThreads and -m for multifile checkpointing.

  • if -N is omitted, a checkpoint uses the number of threads specified by db.checkpoint.threads configurable

  • if -m is omitted, a checkpoint will use parallel threads, but not multifile parallel threads

Checkpoints and journals use Unix epoch time. See the Timestamp and Unix epoch time information.

You can store checkpoints and journals in the directory of your choice by specifying the directory as part of the prefix. (Rotated journals are stored in the P4ROOT directory, regardless of the directory in which the current journal is stored.) If no prefix is specified, the default filenames checkpoint.n and journal.n-1 are used.

The p4 admin journal command is equivalent to p4d -jj. For details, see Triggering on journal rotation in the P4 Server Administration Documentation. The files are created in the server root specified when the Perforce service was started.

Alternative to p4 admin checkpoint with p4d utility

You must be connected to the server to issue the p4 admin checkpoint command, and P4 Server must be running.

For an alternative that does not require P4 Server to be running, see Checkpoint and journal options of the p4d utility in the P4 Server Administration Documentation.

spec depot

The p4 admin updatespecdepot command causes the service to archive stored forms into the spec depot.

  • If the -a option is used, all of the form specification types are archived.
  • If the -s option option is used
    • only those of the specified type are archived
    • the other types are created in the spec depot

password reset

The p4 admin resetpassword command forces specified users with existing passwords to change their passwords before they can run another command. This command works only for users whose authMethod is set to perforce. However, you can use it in a mixed environment, that is an environment in which authentication is based both on P4 Server and LDAP.

  • To force password reset of all users with passwords (including the user with super permission who issued the command), use p4 admin resetpassword -a.
  • To force a single users to reset their password, use p4 admin resetpassword -u user.

LDAP

The p4 admin setldapusers command allows you to convert all existing non-super users to use LDAP authentication. The command changes the AuthMethod field in the user specification for each user from perforce to ldap. If super users want to use LDAP authentication, they must set their AuthMethod manually.

Options

p4 admin checkpoint

-p Requests a parallel checkpoint.
-N threads Specifies the number of threads to use during the parallel request.
-m Uses multiple files if there are multiple parallel threads because db.checkpoint.threads is greater than 1 or the -N option is greater than 1. See Parallel checkpointing, dumping and recovery in the P4 Server Administration Documentation. See also checkpoint examples.

-z

Save the checkpoint and journal file in compressed format. The .gzsuffix is appended to compressed journals and checkpoint files, which are in gzip format. If you do not specify -z or -Z, no compression occurs.
-Z For p4 admin checkpoint -Z, save the checkpoint in compressed format, but leave the journal uncompressed for use by replica servers. The .gzsuffix is appended to compressed journals and checkpoint files, which are in gzip format. If you do not specify -z or -Z, no compression occurs.
prefix If a prefix is specified, the files are named prefix.ckp.n, where n is a sequence number.

p4 admin journal

-z

Save the journal file in compressed format. The .gzsuffix is appended to compressed journals and checkpoint files, which are in gzip format. If you do not specify -z, no compression occurs.
prefix If a prefix is specified, the files are named prefix.jnl.n-1, where n is a sequence number.

p4 admin updatespecdepot

-a

For p4 admin updatespecdepot -a, update the spec depot with all current forms.

-s type

For p4 admin updatespecdepot -s, update the spec depot with forms of the specified type, where type is one of client, depot, repo, branch, label, typemap, group, user, job, stream, triggers, protect, server, license, jobspec.

p4 admin resetpassword

-a

All users

-u user

The specified user

other sub-options of p4 admin

p4 admin sysinfo dumps the output of reporting commands as run on the server host operating system. This is intended for use under guidance of Perforce Support to gather information about the environment of P4 Server.

p4 admin resource-monitor is explained in the output of p4 help admin-resource-monitor. See also System resources in the Performance tuning chapter of P4 Server Administration Documentation.

g-opts

See Global options.

Usage notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier? Can File Arguments Use Revision Range? Minimal Access Level Required Command Alias

N/A

N/A

  • super

  • the checkpoint, journal, stop, and restart options are available to an operator user

p4 admin journal is equivalent to p4d -jj

p4 admin checkpoint is equivalent to p4d -jc

p4 dbstat, p4 lockstat, and p4 logstat are standalone commands but the old p4 admin syntax remains as an alias for backward compatibility.

  • To require all newly-created users with passwords to reset their passwords before invoking their first command, set the dm.user.resetpassword configurable:

    p4 configure set dm.user.resetpassword=1

    Running p4 admin resetpassword -a resets only the passwords of users who presently exist (and who have passwords).

  • Because p4 admin stop shuts down the Perforce service, you might see an error message indicating that the connection was closed unexpectedly. You can ignore this message.
  • The spec depot must exist before running p4 admin updatespecdepot.

Examples

p4 admin stop

Stop the shared service
p4 admin restart
This form of server restart is adequate for some, but not all, configurable changes to take effect. See the "Server restart required?" column of the tables of the Configurables reference.

checkpoint examples

p4 admin checkpoint

Create a checkpoint named checkpoint.n, and start a new journal named journal, copying the old journal file to journal.n-1, where n is a sequence number.
p4 admin checkpoint name
Create a checkpoint named name.ckp.n, and start a new journal named journal, copying the old journal file to name.jnl.n-1, where n is a sequence number.
p4 admin checkpoint -Z -p -N 8 -m /mnt/p4depot/BACKUP/checkpoint/checkpoint_dir
Create a checkpoint, compressing the checkpoint (not the journal), in multifile (-m) parallel (-p), with 8 threads, and using the prefix specified in the final argument.

journal examples

p4 admin journal
Rotates the active journal for an incremental backup between checkpoints.
p4 admin end-journal

In a failover scenario, this command:

  • ends journal replication at the most recent successfully replicated consistency point
  • returns the journal number and the offset of that consistency point
  • stops the standby server's journalcopy thread

Related commands

To see the status of the last checkpoint

p4 counter lastCheckpointAction