my $failedActivation = 0;

  sub activateFirstCluster
    {
     
  my $offlineStatus;

   if ($failedActivations eq  3 ) 
  {

  $offlineStatus = &executeTaskSequence($clusterHost, @offLineSequence);

  }
  else
    {

    $command = "/bin/ls";
                          
    ($error = &runSystemCommand($command)) && $failedActivations++;

  print "failed $failedActivations times\n";

    return $success;
  }

    }