#74267 - 2003-04-01 03:21 AM
Alternative to Shutdown
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Glenn Barnas
KiX Supporter
Registered: 2003-01-28
Posts: 4402
Loc: New Jersey
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Good evening..
I'm working on a KixForms based alternative for rebooting our servers, and have a couple of questions..
Some background, so ya'll don't think I'm totally looney. (well, just a little).
1. The System Administrators are not allowed to reboot the servers, except when they install software that automatically reboots.
2. Only members of the Computer Operations staff may reboot a server.
3. A member of the Computer Operations staff may be told by a "customer" that their application isn't responding and the server should be rebooted. (this rarely fixes the problem - you'd think they'd learn by now and we wouldn't be having THIS discussion.)
4. After a member of the Computer Operations group reboots a server at customer request, someone in the Administrators group is assigned a problem ticket to figure out what happened. Of course, after a reboot, there's no locked services, hung apps, or anything else to look at. Rarely anything in the logs, either.
5. When a member of the Computer Operations group reboots a server, the central monitoring system detects several service failures and issues a flurry of "Auto-Prob" problem tickets and assigns them to - you guessed it - the Administrators group.
So, being tired of walking in to 4-12 problem tickets (all but 1 totally invalid), I've come up with a script that performs some of 5 procedures, depending on the curcumstances.
The Script concept:
After asking if this reboot is scheduled or unscheduled, and asking for the reason if Unscheduled, the script:
1 - Dumps process, memory, and network info to a log if Unscheduled. This gives us a "snapshot" of the system at the point of the suspected "failure".
2 - Disables the Alert Monitor to prevent false "Auto-Prob" events.
3 - Attempts to write an event to a central server log to generate ONE relevent Auto-Prob alert if Unscheduled.
4 - Attempts to run a unattended installation process - if install is queued and shutdown is Scheduled.
5. Uses the Kixtart Shutdown command to shutdown or reboot the server.
I've got two problems that I can't yet resolve.
1. I've added the "NoExit" entry to the registry, which removes the Shutdown command from the Start Menu. It doesn't remove it from the Ctl-Alt-Del menu (although a local policy will). We're still a mixed environment, and have many standalone servers in the DMZ, so policies are unmanagable. Does anyone know of a registry setting that will remove the Shutdown option from the Ctl-Alt-Del menu for All users?
2. Using the built-in Kix Shutdown command only works about 90% of the time.. no rhyme or reason for the other times it doesn't work. I've used XNET with nearly 100% effectiveness, but before I change the code to use that, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong with Shutdown, or can troubleshoot it somehow. I never see any error message. Here's the shutdown command:
code:
$RTN = ShutDown("", "Operator Initiated $RbtMsg", 0, 1, $REBOOT)
If @ERROR <> 0
"@SERROR" ?
EndIf
$REBOOT is either "0" for a shutdown, or "1" for a reboot.
Thanks for slogging through this, and for your help and suggestions. (Please don't suggest a change to the Computer Operations group.. we've already asked and were declined ![[Big Grin]](images/icons/grin.gif) )
Regards,
Glenn
_________________________
Actually I am a Rocket Scientist! 
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#74268 - 2003-04-01 05:36 AM
Re: Alternative to Shutdown
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Sealeopard
KiX Master
Registered: 2001-04-25
Posts: 11165
Loc: Boston, MA, USA
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