bruno@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (Bruce W. Mohler) (03/22/90)
We have an application with many PC's working as file servers in remote locations that often require a power on/power off in order to reboot them to clear a problem. However, because they are in a remote location, this means that a technician has to travel to that location just to perform this task. (Note the powering on/off is a last resort when the software has gotten so "honked up" that you can't ask it to reboot the system itself) Does anyone know of a card/peripheral that might allow a separate "maintenance" PC to control power to these file servers? It would be co-located with them probably with secured dial-up access (is that an oxymoron?) so that the technician, rather than traveling to the site, would dial up the "maintenance" PC and have it power on/off the file server in trouble. Does anything like this exist? Thanks, in advance. Bruce -- Bruce W. Mohler Systems Programmer (aka Staff Analyst) bruno@sdcc10.ucsd.edu voice: 619/586-2218
dlow@hpspcoi.HP.COM (Danny Low) (03/23/90)
>Does anyone know of a card/peripheral that might allow a separate >"maintenance" PC to control power to these file servers? It >would be co-located with them probably with secured dial-up access >(is that an oxymoron?) so that the technician, rather than traveling >to the site, would dial up the "maintenance" PC and have it power >on/off the file server in trouble. > >Does anything like this exist? There is at least one product that can do this but whether it fully meets this need is questionable. There are several hardware based debuggers for the PC code. Atron makes one such product (called the Atron Probe.) Part of these products is a probe that clips into the power at some point and can be used to force a power reset. You can also make such probe yourself. It is conceptually and practically very simple to do. All you have to do is find where to hook the probe. The remote wiggling of the probe is also simple as long as you do not worry too much about security. Danny Low "Question Authority and the Authorities will question You" Valley of Hearts Delight, Silicon Valley HP SPCD dlow%hpspcoi@hplabs.hp.com ...!hplabs!hpspcoi!dlow