Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 10:34:58 -0600 (CST) From: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com> To: dgy@rtd.com (Don Yuniskis) Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, freebsd-hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: Watchdog timers (was: Re: Multi-Port Async Cards) Message-ID: <199602011634.KAA08920@brasil.moneng.mei.com> In-Reply-To: <199602010757.AAA19863@seagull.rtd.com> from "Don Yuniskis" at Feb 1, 96 00:57:18 am
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> Does this gizmo *need* to reside within the "PC"? Are you really > wanting to let it grab the bus, poke around, etc.? Or, would something > more "passive" suffice (i.e. sitting on a serial port external to the > PC)? All I need in my machine room is Yet More Junk Hanging Off The Dozen FreeBSD Machines I Have Stuffed Into 56 Sq. Ft.. For me, at least, adding a lot of external hardware is not a pretty solution. > I'm thinking of a box I designed which did pretty much the same thing > (but for a different application). Essentially, a UART talking to > the host and a UART talking to an external modem (or whatever). > The MCU within would log messages coming in (from host) and could be > programmed to autodial on a specific set of conditions. The intended > application was remote data logging / error reporting. Could gather > data or accounting information (again, that's what the particular > application was concerned with) and report it to a remote facility > periodically. Also had hooks for external events (like monitoring > temperature, contact closures, etc.). > > I think this would "suffice" for crude watchdog with history... > setup a syslog to /dev/ttyxxx so this gizmo logs all pertinent > info (it had a boatload of NVRAM in it). And, tell it that if it > doesn't get any data in "N" minutes, it should autodial and/or > reboot the system (through an isolated contact closure). Now, there's a cool idea. Autodialer... hadn't thought of that. :-) > You could also configure it to try to login routinely (using a > bogus uid that has '/usr/bin/who' or '/bin/ps -ax' as it's shell) > so it can 1) verify that the system is up 2) see what's going on > 3) autodial if it can't get a login prompt, etc. > > On the incoming side, it could be configured to autoanswer and > allow a remote host to query the "log" it has recorded. Likewise, > it could be directed to reset the attached host (i.e. close the > isolated contacts). Along the lines of what I just wrote up. :-) > Does this fit the bill? I could see how much of this hardware > and software I can contribute if it's along the right lines. > Then, if someone wants to layout some boards and sell them > for "cost", I'm sure *most* of you guys could figure out > which end of a soldering iron to hold... :> There are possibilities in all of this :-) ... Joe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Greco - Systems Administrator jgreco@ns.sol.net Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI 414/546-7968
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