> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.vernemq.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.vernemq.com/1.10.3/administration/introduction.md).

# Introduction

On every VerneMQ node you'll find the `vmq-admin` command line tool in the release's bin directory. It has different sub-commands that let you check for status, start and stop listeners, re-configure values and a couple of other administrative tasks.

{% hint style="info" %}
`vmq-admin` works by RPC'ing into the local VerneMQ node by default. For most commands you can add a `--node` option and set values on other cluster nodes, even if the local VerneMQ node is down. \
\
To check for the global cluster state in case the local VerneMQ node is down, you'll have to go to another node though.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="danger" %}
`vmq-admin` is a live re-configuration utility. Please note that all dynamically configured values will be reset by vernemq.conf upon broker restart. \
 Don't use this to wildly re-configure a production system without keeping track what you are doing. `vmq-admin` gives you the flexibility to test stuff and react live, but please persistent any static configuration you need in the vernemq.conf file.
{% endhint %}