14.2 Windows: Managing the GroupWise Agents

Basic agent monitoring and management is most easily performed on the System Overview page in the Admin console. For instructions, see Making the Most of the System Overview. Refer to the following additional tasks as you maintain all the GroupWise agents on Windows:

14.2.1 Manually Starting and Stopping the Windows GroupWise Agents

This section has information for options you can use to manually start and stop Windows GroupWise agents.

Manually Starting and Stopping the GroupWise Agents as Services

There are two ways to start or stop GroupWise agents as services on Windows.

By Using the Windows Services Tool

You can manage the GroupWise agents just as you would any other Windows services.

For example, on Windows Server 2012 R2:

  1. From the Windows desktop, click Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

  2. Select the agent service, and then click Start.

    or

    Select the agent service, and then click Stop.

When the agents run without a user interface, you can monitor them by using their agent consoles. See Monitoring the Agents from Your Web Browser.

By Using the gwsc Command

You can also manage the GroupWise agents by using the gwsc command, which is short for the gwadminutil services command.

For the gwsc command, each agent is designated in terms of its object name or of the name of the domain and post office associated with it:

  • POA:
  • MTA:
  • GWIA:
  • DVA:
  • poa_object_name or post_office_name
  • mta_object_name or domain_name
  • gwia_object_name
  • dva_object_name

Use the following set of gwsc commands to start and stop the agents as services and verify their status:

gwsc -query

Displays the status of the GroupWise agents that are configured to run on the server.

 
gwsc -query name

Displays the status of the specified agent.

 
gwsc -start

Starts the GroupWise agents that are configured to run on the server.

 
gwsc -start name

Starts the specified agent.

 
gwsc -stop

Stops the GroupWise agents that are configured to run on the server.

 
gwsc -stop name

Stops the specified agent.

 
gwsc -list

Lists the agent services that are configured on the server.

Manually Starting the Windows Agents As Applications for Troubleshooting

In general, you should run the Windows agents as services without a user interface, so that they can be managed in the Admin console.

Occasionally, when troubleshooting a problem that occurs at agent startup, the problem can occur before the agent console can be displayed and before error messages can be written to the agent log file. Under such circumstances, you can start an agent with a user interface in order to view any errors that the agent displays on the server console before the agent stops again.

IMPORTANT:When an agent is running with a user interface, it cannot be managed in the Admin console.

To run the agents as applications, you can create desktop shortcuts for them. The desktop shortcuts need to contain the following commands:

Syntax:
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwpoa.exe 
                                          /home \post_office_folder
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwmta.exe 
                                          /home \domain_folder
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwia.exe 
                                          /home /gwia_folder
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\Monitor\gwmon.exe 
                                          /home \domain_folder
Example:
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwpoa.exe 
                                          /home \mail\powin
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwmta.exe 
                                          /home \mail\domwin
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\gwia.exe 
                                          /home \mail\domwin\gwia
c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\agents\Monitor\gwmon.exe 
                                          /home \mail\domwin

14.2.2 Using the Windows GroupWise Agent Log Files

Agent status messages and error messages are written to the agent log files (mmddagent.nnn) in the following directories:

  • POA:
  • MTA:
  • GWIA:
  • DVA:
  • Monitor:
  • post_office_folder\wpcs\ofs
  • domain_folder\mslocal
  • domain_folder\wpgate\gwia\000.prc
  • c:\ProgramData\Novell\GroupWise\gwdva
  • c:\ProgramData\Novell\GroupWise Monitor

NOTE:On some versions of Windows Server, the ProgramData folder is not visible by default. To display it in File Explorer, click View, and then select Hidden items.

14.2.3 Uninstalling the Windows GroupWise Agents and Applications

If you move the GroupWise agents to a different server, you can uninstall the agent software from the old location to reclaim disk space.

Agents:

In the Control Panel, click Programs and Features. Right-click Micro Focus GroupWise Server, and click Uninstall.

Monitor:

Stop the Monitor Agent, and then delete the c:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server\Monitor folder.

Applications:

Stop Tomcat, and then delete the following folder:

c:\Novell