View Topology

The P4Admin Topology tab is a Technology Preview feature introduced in 2021.4.

The Topology tab displays a graph of all the connected services in your multi-server deployment.

To zoom in or out, use the mouse wheel.

You can drag the nodes to a different arrangement, and the graph "remembers" your arrangement the next time you open P4Admin. If a new node is later added to your topology, the entire graph will be redrawn with the default arrangement, but you can still rearrange the nodes.

The Topology tab includes filters, such as:

Filter

 Example Use Case
Server IP Address - starts with Only see nodes with IP addresses that start with 10.5
Server IP Address - does not start with Filter out localhost and loopback IP addresses
Last Seen Date - is more recent than Only show records of the current day
Last Seen Date - is older than Only show records more than 3 days old

If you want to send the topology data to Perforce Support, click the Save Data button, then save the data To File and upload the file in a Support Request. You can also save the data To Clipboard.

To get basic information about a particular service, hover the mouse over that service. A tooltip pops up to show the service type and the IP address(es) it is listening on.

To get additional information about a particular service, click its icon to display the Server Info detail panel

This shows:

  • The ServerId "Name" associated with the selected service, as well as the service type.

  • A list of the IP address(es) associated with the selected service.

  • The output of the p4 info command, followed by the settings of the Configurables for that service.

  • The Open Connection button that allows you to add that server to the list of Connections and work with that connection in P4Admin.

The topology graph is a graph of services, not of servers. A given server might provide one or more services. A given service might be associated with one or more IP addresses.

The Topology tab is available for use if both are true:

  • P4Admin is connected to a server running Helix Core (P4D) version 2021.2 or greater.

  • You are a user with the super permission level.

For information about the underlying Helix Core command, see p4 topology in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Reference.

Icons

Each service type has its own icon.

Icon

Type of Server
commit-server
standard
edge -server
replica
forwarding-replica
standby
forwarding standby
build-server
proxy
broker

unknown, which means one of the following:

  • the server type is not recognized

  • a connection from a known service to the "unknown" service. In this case, the graph cannot display the ServerID for the missing service, and instead displays the IP address for the missing service. For example, the graph might show the icon for a service of type broker with brokerParis as the ServerID and a connection to DestinationServerAddress of 123.123.123.123:2, but the graph receives no data representing 123.123.123.123:2 as its ServerAddress.

Known limitations

  • A service cannot be permanently removed using the graph functionality, even if the server that ran that service has been decommissioned. However, the Last Seen Date filter allows you to hide old records, and this feature can hide decommissioned services.

    Note

    If a server is down, the "Server Info" detail panel will lack the data from p4 info, even if the graph still shows the service(s) associated with that server.

  • If a service changes any of its IP addresses, that service will be associated with both the former and the current IP addresses. However, the Last Seen Date filter allows you to hide old records based on timestamp, and this feature can hide a service associated with a time before the current IP address came into effect.