# Starting the Natural Access Server

Before you use NMS OAM or any related utility, start the Natural Access Server (ctdaemon) on each resource host. ctdaemon must be running for NMS OAM functions to be available.

This topic provides the following information about starting Natural Access:

- Starting Natural Access under Windows

- Starting Natural Access under UNIX

- Starting the Natural Access Server in the in-process mode

Note: If ctdaemon is stopped, all dependent applications receive an error. Stop and restart the service for NMS OAM functions to become available again. Note that applications accessing Natural Access in in-process mode only are not affected if ctdaemon is shut down.

For the NMS OAM Supervisor to start up within the Natural Access Server when it boots, the following line must appear in the [ctasys] section in cta.cfg (this line is included by default):

Service = oam, oammgr

## Starting the Natural Access Server under Windows

Under Windows, start ctdaemon as a service using a console window, or in the Control Panel.

To start ctdaemon in a console window:

Step | Action
1 | Access a command prompt on the host system. If the host system is a remote host, access the command prompt on the host using a separate third-party utility such as telnet, rsh, or rexec.
2 | Enter the following: net start ctdaemon

To start ctdaemon using the Control Panel:

Step | Action
1 | Open the Administrative Tools applet in the control panel. The Administrative Tools window appears.
2 | Open the Services applet within this window. The Services window appears.
3 | Double-click on NMS ctdaemon. The Properties window appears.
4 | Click Start.
5 | Click OK.
6 | Close the Services window.
7 | Close the Administrative Tools window.

For console interaction with the NMS ctdaemon service, invoke ctdaemon -c from any command prompt while the service is running.

## Starting the Natural Access Server under UNIX

On UNIX systems, invoke ctdaemon -i from the command prompt. This method allows full console interaction with the ctdaemon.

## Starting the Natural Access Server in the in-process mode

In certain debugging scenarios, it is useful to start the Natural Access Server in the in-process mode. When the Natural Access Server runs in this mode, tracing messages are reported directly to stdout.

To start the Natural Access Server in the in-process mode:

Step | Action
1 | Access a command prompt on the host system. If the host system is a remote host, access the command prompt on the host using a separate third-party utility such as telnet, rsh, or rexec.
2 | Enter the following: ctdaemon

When the Natural Access Server is not running in the in-process mode, tracing messages are captured in agpierror.log. Under Windows, this file is located in \nms\oam\log. Under UNIX it is located in /opt/nms/oam/log. Use the dectrace utility to decode ISDN information from this file, as follows:

dectrace -f \nms\oam\log\agpierror.log > mytrace.txt