SUMMARY: Remotely power down Computers

From: Mike McBride (mcbride@pcsi.cirrus.com)
Date: Fri May 10 1996 - 16:14:51 CDT


Original question:

Like most facilities we have a few planned power outages per year which
effect all computer systems in the building. Since we have over 100 unix
systems(Sunos/Solaris) dispersed throughout the building, Is there a way
to rsh to all systems and invoke the eeprom to power down the systems?
Obviously, we can shutdown the OS, but it would be nice to remotely shutdown
the power to all the systems.

I should have specified that we have 90% SunOS machines. Basically,
I wanted a solution that would not involve purchasing any new
equipment. I was also not concerned with external devices since
most of all our desktops have internal drives. If I had all
Solaris systems that would work - but I don't.

Solution:

If your running newer versions of solaris on sun4m, sun4d and sun4u
archs, you can use the following commands to power off the machine.
init 5
poweroff
shutdown -g0 -y -i5
It was mentioned that there was a MIB for solaris on powerdown
at ucdavis.edu, but I couldn't get a connection to verify.
snmp based powerdown would be a great solution for anyone using
network management software.

If your running SunOS - the poweroff function does not exist.
However, there are alternatives. You can have a smart UPS to
control that function. My problem with this alternative is
it can get expensive. I think it's a great solution for a server
room, but not desktops.

UPS system by APC. their web site is www.apcc.com.
Also, Artecon has a remote power controller(LynxSwitch) that
has 5 serial interfaces. Their web site is www.artecon.com

Thanks to all who responded:

james mularadelis <jamesm@matrix.newpaltz.edu>
Marks, Evan R <markser@AETNA.com>
Fedor Gnuchev <qwe@ht.eimb.rssi.ru>
Michael Salehi x22725 <mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com>
Tim Wort <tim@Access.COM>
mike.garcia@sunman.chinalake.navy.mil
Guy Cole <guycole@netcom.com>
Stephen Harris <sweh@mpn.com>
Bob Hoffman <hoffman@cs.pitt.edu>
Ted Whitely <whitelyt@focushope.edu>
Alan Hill <ahill@lanser.net>
George Goffe <grgoffe@alexandria.arc.nasa.gov>
Bert Shure <Bert_Shure%SOLSOURCE@notes.worldcom.com>
Law Hon Man <hmlaw@cs.cuhk.hk>
Jeff Wasilko <jeffw@triple-i.com>
Chris Zanelli <chrisz@ind.tansu.com.au>
Casper Dik <casper@holland.Sun.COM>
Ray Trzaska <rtrzaska@uk.mdis.com>
Timothy Henrion <thenrion@csc.com>
Michael S. Fischer <mfischer@nsi.edu>

-- 
Michael McBride                        mcbride@pcsi.cirrus.com  
Unix Systems Administrator             http://www.pcsi.com 
Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.   voice: 619-535-9500
9645 Scranton Rd, San Diego, CA 92121  fax:   619-623-5765

Status: RO



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