non-server Tiger and remote or scheduled reboot?

If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough.
NO_SPAM wrote on :

I'm going to use FileMaker Pro 7 (not the server addition) with the built-in web publisher and fmnet host to share a database between computers, both locally and remotely. I have setup a few testboxes and everything seems to work fine (except I can't figure out if it's possible to access the database from outside the network through the filemaker app instead of a web browser . . . I'm pretty sure it's not possible).

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way? Or maybe a program that will automatically reboot during a freeze, or maybe just reboot the imac every 8 hours if it happens on the weekend or something?

Am I missing other obvious server-related things when using non-server OS X?

Troubled Tony replied on :

NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way?

You could setup a web page that asks for a password to reboot. Or a 'reboot' login that is run from a web page somewhere else, that those who might need it have bookmarked.

NO_SPAM replied on :

On 7/7/05 2:25 PM, in article hO2dnV8qgN9TAFDfRVn-qQ@redacted.invalid, "Troubled Tony" tt@redacted.invalid wrote:

NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way?

You could setup a web page that asks for a password to reboot. Or a 'reboot' login that is run from a web page somewhere else, that those who might need it have bookmarked.

I'm pretty sure I have no idea how to setup a page like that. Do you know of any examples out there? Is there something built-in to the OS that will let me do that, or is it all html-based?

Michael Vilain replied on :

In article BEF2FF89.1200%NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid, "NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid" NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 7/7/05 2:25 PM, in article hO2dnV8qgN9TAFDfRVn-qQ@redacted.invalid, "Troubled Tony" tt@redacted.invalid wrote:

NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way?

You could setup a web page that asks for a password to reboot. Or a 'reboot' login that is run from a web page somewhere else, that those who might need it have bookmarked.

I'm pretty sure I have no idea how to setup a page like that. Do you know of any examples out there? Is there something built-in to the OS that will let me do that, or is it all html-based?

You'd have to write the application that did this. It's not that hard--a perl CGI script running as root that runs the "shutdown" along with a HTML page asking for a username and password. I'd also log date/time and who requested the restart.

Troubled Tony replied on :

Michael Vilain vilain@redacted.invalid wrote:

"NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid" NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

Troubled Tony" tt@redacted.invalid wrote:

NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way?

You could setup a web page that asks for a password to reboot. Or a 'reboot' login that is run from a web page somewhere else, that those who might need it have bookmarked.

I'm pretty sure I have no idea how to setup a page like that. Do you know of any examples out there? Is there something built-in to the OS that will let me do that, or is it all html-based?

You'd have to write the application that did this. It's not that hard--a perl CGI script running as root that runs the "shutdown" along with a HTML page asking for a username and password. I'd also log date/time and who requested the restart.

Right: it's not that much work, but enough that we're not going to do it for you. To start, you need code that will receive and parse an HTML form that is sending a username and password, via HTTPS.

Once you have that, you need to make an appropriate "reboot" script available.

Mike Berger replied on :

If the server is frozen, how do you ssh into it? Is it just the one process that's hanging? Why reboot the entire machine? You can use ps to determine if the process is running or not, and if it's hung, kill and restart it.

NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid wrote:

I'm going to use FileMaker Pro 7 (not the server addition) with the built-in web publisher and fmnet host to share a database between computers, both locally and remotely. I have setup a few testboxes and everything seems to work fine (except I can't figure out if it's possible to access the database from outside the network through the filemaker app instead of a web browser . . . I'm pretty sure it's not possible).

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way? Or maybe a program that will automatically reboot during a freeze, or maybe just reboot the imac every 8 hours if it happens on the weekend or something?

Am I missing other obvious server-related things when using non-server OS X?

Mark Conrad replied on :

In article BEF200D8.F69%NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid, <"NO_SPAM@redacted.invalid"> wrote:

Here's my question: I'm sure a time will come when the "server" (just an old imac with Tiger on it and FileMaker Pro) will be frozen and no one will be at the office. If this happens I know I can ssh into it and do a "sudo shutdown -r now" or "sudo reboot", but I might not always be available to do that and none of the other guys are saavy enough. Is there an easier way? Or maybe a program that will automatically reboot during a freeze, or maybe just reboot the imac every 8 hours if it happens on the weekend or something?

Easy? Depends a lot on whether you decide to spend money on the easy way, or rather you decide to save money and instead spend time and effort learning and using the methods suggested by the other posters.

I have a similar problem here, and I do not have anywhere near your experience, so I chose to use the easy way out. (the high priced way)

I bought PowerKey Pro model 650 for $200, then decided to upgrade it with to the so-called "administrative" version by spending another $100 downloading the update software.

My "server" is an ordinary Mac G4 17-inch powerbook running non-server Mac OS 10.4.1

Initially, my $300 bought me nothing, because the option to turn on the powerbook was grayed out. (in-operative)

After a certain amount of fiddling around, I found an undocumented way of turning on the powerbook "server", by selecting "Restart" instead of the grayed out "Start".

Wiser heads in another thread informed me that when I use PowerKey to "Turn-Off" my powerbook server, that it really enters a strange mode whereby the powerbook is not really completely powered down, to the same extent that it would be if someone powered it down from its keyboard.

Be that as it may, I can power down, then later power up, or if I prefer I can just merely restart, all easily and under complete control from the regular GUI interface.

I can easily restart or power off/on once a day, once a week, or once every four minutes, or a mixture of all the above.

Most system freezes that could afflict my server can be circumvented, even by inexperienced people. (like me, for example)

For the much rarer freezes that might corrupt the PowerKey software itself, this method would not work, because the PowerKey software is necessary.

Likewise if the Mac clock gets corrupted, my scheduled restarts etc. will not work.

I can also physically remove the main A.C. power from a desktop computer, no matter how severe the freeze or how much the files in the computer are corrupted. This is done by placing an ordinary phone call to the PowerKey hardware itself, bypassing the frozen computer.

Likewise, the A.C. power to the computer can be restored later by another phone call directly to the PowerKey hardware.

Sophisticated Circuits Inc. claims that the "Kick Off!" software which is part of the administrative version of PowerKey is more robust.

In their advertisement: "No crash is too hard to keep Kick-Off! from doing its job"

There is a catch, the application itself has to support Kick-Off!

They have a listing of all the app's that support Kick-Off! at their website, I believe.

I have not yet checked out their claims, nor do I know whether most app's we are likely to use have the necessary Kick-Off! support code.

Mark-