Logging into bogged down server

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 20:07 -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> For some reason, this email client deletes all the received message when I reply
> and then select text instead of html... When I get back home and restart the FC4
> machine, I'll get back on SquirrelMail. Anyways... I'm STILL trying to ssh into
> the bogged down server. No luck yet. I did change the DNS server to send stuff
> away from this server in the hopes it would eventuall finish off all those
> processes and start accepting my ssh login (to the IP address instead of the
> domain). No luck so far. In a couple days I can go hit the reset button.
> 
> Besides the modifications to configs suggested so far, I'm also thinking of
> adding a hardware watchdog timer to the machine so it'll reset itself should it
> ever do this again. I've seen a couple circuits on the web, based on a 555 timer.
> One of them I found looked like it could be locked up if the machine crashed
> during a watchdog reset. Back when I was designing MC6802 based systems, I did a
> watchdog timer like that and had to drive 100 miles in Kansas to hit the reset
> switch on a system. Watchdog timers I design now reset on an edge instead of a
> level so if the reset line gets stuck at either level, the watchdog will time out
> and reset the system. So, that's my next project! 

Useful.  We use remote-controlled power strips.  You can log into the
strip (modem or TCP/IP) and power-cycle any of the outlets on it. 
HIGHLY recommended for "dark data centers".

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      The moving cursor writes, and having written, blinks on.      -
----------------------------------------------------------------------