We are using an asynchronous FPolicy engine to collect file audit events from ONTAP.
As shown in the logs below, when FPolicy server goes down, ontap exhausts all 20 of its configured reconnect attempts in just 39 seconds (from 09:41:48 to 09:42:27). Once these retries are exhausted, the engine transitions to a permanent disconnected state (TCP Connection to FPolicy server failed) and does not auto-reconnect when the server comes back online even after a minute.
Event logs in the diagnostic mode -
Time Node Severity Event
------------------- ------------------------- --------- ---------------------------
7/15/2026 09:42:27 FsxId04eda4994b6009ffe-01 ERROR fpolicy.server.connectError: Node failed to establish a connection with the FPolicy server "x.y.z.z" of policy "cloud_poc_policy" for Vserver ntfs-fsx (reason: "TCP Connection to FPolicy server failed.").
7/15/2026 09:42:27 FsxId04eda4994b6009ffe-02 ERROR fpolicy.server.connectError: Node failed to establish a connection with the FPolicy server "x.y.z.z" of policy "cloud_poc_policy" for Vserver ntfs-fsx (reason: "TCP Connection to FPolicy server failed.").
7/15/2026 09:41:48 FsxId04eda4994b6009ffe-01 ERROR fpolicy.server.disconnect: Connection to the FPolicy server "x.y.z.z" of policy "cloud_poc_policy" is broken for Vserver ntfs-fsx ( reason: "Connection to FPolicy server is broken(EPIPE) received." ).
7/15/2026 09:41:48 FsxId04eda4994b6009ffe-02 ERROR fpolicy.server.disconnect: Connection to the FPolicy server "x.y.z.z" of policy "cloud_poc_policy" is broken for Vserver ntfs-fsx ( reason: "Connection to FPolicy server is broken(EPIPE) received." ).
Engine Config -
vserver fpolicy policy external-engine show -vserver ntfs-fsx -engine-name cloud_poc_engine -instance
Vserver: ntfs-fsx
Engine: cloud_poc_engine
Primary FPolicy Servers: x.y.z.z
Port Number of FPolicy Service: 32200
Secondary FPolicy Servers: -
External Engine Type: asynchronous
SSL Option for External Communication: no-auth
Timeout for Canceling a Request: 20s
Timeout for Aborting a Request: 40s
Interval for Sending Status Requests: 30s
Max Reconnect Attempt: 20
Maximum Outstanding Requests for FPolicy Server: 500
Timeout for Disconnecting Non-responsive Server: 100s
Interval for Sending Keep-Alive Messages: 2m
FQDN or Custom Common Name: -
Serial Number of Certificate: -
Certificate Authority: -
Receive Buffer Size: 262144
Send Buffer Size: 1048576
Session ID Purge Timeout During Reconnection: 10s
Is Resiliency Feature Enabled: true
Maximum Notification Retention Duration: 10m
Directory for Notification Storage: /data/
External Engine Format: xml
Policy config -
Vserver: ntfs-fsx
Policy: cloud_poc_policy
Events to Monitor: cloud_poc_event
FPolicy Engine: cloud_poc_engine
Is Mandatory Screening Required: false
Allow Privileged Access: no
User Name for Privileged Access: -
Is Passthrough Read Enabled: false
Persistent Store Name: -
Documentation https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/nas-audit/plan-fpolicy-external-engine-config-concept.html#what-the-advanced-external-engine-options-are doesn't have any info on this.
