What to do if the fteListAgents command shows an agent status of UNKNOWN

You used the fteListAgents command to list the agents that are registered with a coordination queue manager or the fteShowAgentDetails command to display the information about an agent. The agent status is shown as UNKNOWN.


Why this problem occurs

Managed File Transfer agents publish their status at regular intervals to the SYSTEM.FTE topic that is hosted on the coordination queue manager to which the agents are registered. Tools like fteListAgents and fteShowAgentDetails subscribe to the SYSTEM.FTE topic, process the publication received, and display the status of an agent. If the received publication is older than 5 seconds, the agent's status is marked as UNKNOWN or UNREACHABLE. The UNKNOWN status is reported against an agent for different reasons, including:
  1. A significant difference in the system time between the agent queue manager host and the coordination queue manager host.
  2. Stopped channels between the agent queue manager and the coordination queue manager, which prevent the status messages from reaching the coordination queue manager.
  3. An authorization issue that prevents the agent from publishing its status to the SYSTEM.FTE topic on the coordination queue manager.
  4. An agent failure.


Troubleshooting the problem

Use the ftePingAgent command to determine whether the agent can be contacted and is running. Reasons for the agent's status publication not reaching the coordination queue manager:

  • Coordination queue manager is down or not reachable.
  • Message is stuck in IBM MQ network. For example, high priority messages are taking precedence over the status message in the channel and transmit queue issues.
  • Agent is busy making transfers or is stuck.
  • Agent is unable to publish due to authority issues.


Display the status age in command line

From IBM MQ Version 9.1.0, when you run the fteListAgents command, a column that shows the time from the last status update by the agent is included in the output. The age of the status that was last reported by the agent helps you determine the best action for troubleshooting the UNKNOWN status issue. The Status Age value is also displayed when you run the fteShowAgentDetails command. The Status Age value is displayed in the output from both commands, as default. For more information, see fteListAgents and fteShowAgentDetails. The Status Age is the difference between the time when the fteListAgents or fteShowAgentDetails command is run and the time of the last status that the agent reported, on the host where the coordination queue manager is running.


Display the status age in IBM MQ Explorer

The Status Age information is available in IBM MQ Explorer when you view the list of agents and display individual agent properties.

Parent topic: MFT general troubleshooting


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