# Following a new primary

Following the failure or removal of the replication cluster's existing primary server, repmgr-standby-follow can be used to make "orphaned" standbys follow the new primary and catch up to its current state.

To demonstrate this, assuming a replication cluster in the same state as the end of the preceding section (promoting-standby), execute this:

        $ repmgr -f /etc/repmgr.conf standby follow
        INFO: changing node 3's primary to node 2
        NOTICE: restarting server using "pg_ctl -l /var/log/postgresql/startup.log -w -D '/var/lib/postgresql/data' restart"
        waiting for server to shut down......... done
        server stopped
        waiting for server to start.... done
        server started
        NOTICE: STANDBY FOLLOW successful
        DETAIL: node 3 is now attached to node 2

The standby is now replicating from the new primary and `repmgr cluster show` output reflects this:

        $ repmgr -f /etc/repmgr.conf cluster show
         ID | Name  | Role    | Status    | Upstream | Location | Connection string
        ----+-------+---------+-----------+----------+----------+--------------------------------------
         1  | node1 | primary | - failed  |          | default  | host=node1 dbname=repmgr user=repmgr
         2  | node2 | primary | * running |          | default  | host=node2 dbname=repmgr user=repmgr
         3  | node3 | standby |   running | node2    | default  | host=node3 dbname=repmgr user=repmgr

Note that with cascading replication, `repmgr standby follow` can also be used to detach a standby from its current upstream server and follow the primary. However it's currently not possible to have it follow another standby; we hope to improve this in a future release.