#Computer Watchdog
6 messages in this thread
John FYI…
Since we couldn't find a device to notify us of a system crash… We had
one designed/built.
A division of the company I work for built a "Watchdog" circuit for us. It
monitors the activity of our hard drives or serial ports (up to 4
computers) and phones my house if any system crashes, locks up or completes
its rendering. It seems to work great for overnight or weekend renderings.
I'd like your opinion on its usefulness, since we're about to persue
patents and marketing.
— Dave
David,
Just to let you know …. there are ALOT of utilities that will do that
under Novell 3.11 or 4.0. They're primarily used to allow System mangers to
watch thousands of units at a time. I'm sure when you approach the
copyright office, they'll be glad to give you a list.
I believe we had our first one about five years ago.
Of course you can still persue marketing your own unique approach, but
considering that all dedicated servers are specifically coded to check for
workstation crashes and port hangs, etc. , you're definately entering into
an already saturated market.
Our current hookup, not only keeps a watch on all units, but also allows
automatic reboots and reinitializing of comm ports without having to go to
the actual workstation. Then we get a printout of all activity and/or
problems as well as what was done to correct the problem. It saves a heck
of alot of time and money.
Paul
.
>>…. there are ALOT of utilities that will do that under Novell 3.11 or
4.0. They're primarily used to allow System mangers to watch thousands of
units at a time.<<
Thanks for the input. We are presently not running Novell, nor have the
need in the near future. LANtastic gives us the connectivity we need
without losing the benefits of DOS disk utilities and such, or requiring a
dedicated server. Although, I would be interested in hearing about how you
use Novell to monitor your rendering or frame accurate recording.
The prototype device cost around $500, and it simply verifies computer
activity by monitoring the hard drive or the serial data, for example. When
activity stops for a specified period of time, the device triggers an
autodialer to let me know a computer needs attention. I live about 20
minutes from the office, and this saves me "check-up" visits on the weekend
or modem calls to the office to monitor the activity. In the rare event a
rendering finishes earlier than I expected, I can run down and give the
computer something else to work on.
The great thing about Novell is the total control that you have over the
network. When running large networks, nothing else comes close. Being able
to remotely control hundreds of units and make changes, assign tasks,
automate everything, etc. just isn't available outside of Novell.
The great thing about R3 on Novell is the fact that you can use the server
to monitor exactly what each system is doing, it's efficiency, etc. By
taking the time to set a server up right, you can design an entire network
environment that allows 3DS to surpass workstation level performance.
Additionally, using the network to watch all of the stations, ups's, serial
transfers, disk access, etc., allows you the freedom of not coming into the
office. Simply call into the server and control everything, reroute tasks,
etc. If something goes wrong have the server reboot a station or
reinitialize a port, and it's done. No need to be on site. Also if you're
charging a client seperately for rendering time, you have a nice, neat
printed report of the actual cpu usage time of each station, and a total
for the job.
Did I mention that these networks can be in different buildings? different
towns? We currently have a way to utilize networks at 3 different
facilities during the evenings and weekends, allowing us to access hundreds
of units without leaving the house. Have a rendering job that needs to be
done overnight? Simply make a few phone calls, assign a few stations to the
task and its done. No fuss no worry.
I could go on and on …….
We've installed virtually every type of network possible, and from
experience I can say that a nicely configured Novell system is truly
beautiful to see.
Paul
.
The watchdog sounds like a very useful system. It seems, judging from the
description of its operation, that you could further devise it to re-boot,
re-start the batch-file rendering based on the batch file during which it
monitored the crash, and even save the last frame # so it could insert it
in the batch file, thereby not re-rendering old files, or hanging on the
"idiot prompt". That way visits to the office would be completely
unnecessary. That's something I would eventually pay for (I work out of my
home right now, so visits to the computer are easy <g>).
I am aware of similar utilities in Novell Netware, but since I'll probably
not be running that large of a network, I'll go with Lantastic. Your
"Watchdog" device would fit in to such a configuration nicely.
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
This type of notification system is all very well if it is set up without
error. Someone entered my phone number into a malfunctioning system (with
which I have no connection) and I receive an incoming phone call at 3:19 a.m.
almost every morning.
Of course Telecom cannot tell me who is sending the call, nor will they monitor
the line, so the calls just keep coming. Unfortunately I sleep onsite.
Ali