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Manage and monitor child nodes

Updated

A centrally managed Smoothwall setup includes a Smoothwall Appliance running as a parent node and one or more Smoothwall child node Appliances managed by the parent. After you set up central management, you can manage the child nodes.

Check node statuses

If Allow parent to monitor status is on, you can monitor your child nodes from the System > Central management > Overview page on the parent node. Review the Status column:

  • Green tick: The node is functioning.
  • Red cross: The node needs immediate attention.
  • Orange exclamation mark: Check the node for potential problems.

Select the Status text to open the node’s details page.

Reboot or refresh a node

You may need to reboot a node after updating it. You can also reboot the Smoothwall Appliance you are signed into from the Shutdown page.

  1. Go to System > Central management > Overview.
  2. Select the Status for the node you want to reboot or refresh.
  3. Select Refresh node to check for new updates.
  4. Select Reboot node to restart the node:
    • Select Now to update the node immediately.
    • Select Later, then select a time from the dropdown to update later.

  Note

If the scheduled time has already passed today, the update will occur tomorrow at the selected time.

  1. Select Schedule reboot.

Disconnect and reconnect a node

To temporarily stop the parent from applying replication settings to a child node, disconnect the child node.

  1. Sign in to the child node.
  2. Go to System > Central management > Settings.
  3. Change Node role to Disabled (not centrally managed).
  4. Select Save.
  5. Make the required changes to the child node.

  Tip

While disconnected, the child node displays Node not contactable on the parent node’s System > Central management > Overview page.

  1. Change the Node Role back to Child.
  2. Select Save.

Remove a child node from central management

  1. Sign in to the child node.
  2. Go to System > Central management > Settings.
  3. Change Node role to Disabled (not centrally managed).
  4. Sign in to the parent node.
  5. Go to System > Central management > Settings.
  6. Find the child node.
  7. Select one of the following:
    • Delete to stop using the child node completely, such as if you no longer require a centrally managed setup.
    • Disable to remove the child node from central management while keeping it in the list for future use.
  8. Select Save.