Remote Restarts

Wow LOL, its really late, Please ignore the "each on seperate IP addresses". That was stupid. :-P

do you not have any connectivity from one server to the other?

you can install terminal server service on these servers & do remote managenet  .

check this doc on how to do remote administration on windows 2003 .
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/tsremoteadmin.mspx

else you could download
psexec & ps shutdown from this site

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pstools.shtml

& use it to remote manage your servers from the command prompt .

It depends on severity of lock-up. Can you login to the server locally, or do you need to press 'reset' to reboot it?
If there are only few services and server is still operational, you can try remote management programs like TightVNC, NetOp Remote Control.
There are also reboot.exe in Resource Kit (useful, if server is in local network).

...or shutdown.exe with certain params also included in resource kit.... (i prefer this to reboot.exe)

Should be:
shutdown -m \\servername -t 10

If you need more permissions to do that, you can either open the command prompt with correct credentials (runas) or use the "runas" command in the shell

Hope this helps.
J

oh, and when you do this, set up in another DOS window the following

ping -t computername
or
ping -t ipaddress

....That will allow u 2 c when the remote computer has started to reboot and when it is back up. Then give it 60 seconds to start it's services before VNC'ing back into it.

JB

If it's something that requires a hard reset of the system you would have to go to a hardware solution like a Compaq Insight board. I'm sure there are other manufacturers of this type of card, but this is the only one that I know of and can speak to. Even if your OS is completely locked up, you can reset the system with these types of cards. A solution that some may feel worthwhile for truely critical servers.

Here is a link to the software that monitors the cards: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/cim-description.html

I have experienced this too.  While not using VNC, I do have PCAnywhere on my servers..  Many times if Terminal Server locks up, PCA will work fine and let me get into the box to reboot.  I haven't tried bradje's command personally, but that should also be a very workable solution.

--Bradje-- I tried to do the following: shutdown -m \\servername -t 10 -f -r
I get an error saying acess is denied. I went a head and hard booted it, but I am going to go over everyones suggestions, and try and find away to fix this, or resolove this problem in case it happenends again.

Also, I have terminal services in stalled and setup, I was logged in remotely when the server decided it wanted to lock up. I was booted out, and couldnt get back in.

--Bradje-- I setup VNC, im rather impressed on how smoothly everything seems to work over the local network, I will have to test it out remotely to really see how well it works. The only problem that I can tell though, on logout of the server, the machine defaults to the ctrl-alt-del login screen, everytime I send the ctrl-alt-del command, the task manager opens on the local machine. Ive checked all the options, everything looks correct as far as where the commands are suppose to be sent too, any suggestions?

I would suggest PS tools from sysinternals is another option to go, pretty powerful command interface.

here is the link:

http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/7/13-7-61.shtml


hope this helps

Dee

Im rather impressed with VNC, Im going to check out that link deemehtani, I figured out the whole ctrl-alt-del problem, that program is really universal and seems to run decent on most windows platforms.

miketech04,

I don't know what level of security you need, but in my environment they require encryption and the ability to notify the operator of an incoming connection. UltraVNC is the flavor of choice. http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/ Just another flavor of VNC built off of the open source main package (RealVNC). It has as a nice feature of being able to use MS logon credentials for authentication as well.

When you hit CTRL-ALT-DEL in Windows while using VNC you will always either get the Windows Security dialog box or Task Manager (if you are not part of a domain).  There is no way as far as I know to use that keystroke to control what is happening in VNC. This is however why that put that command in the toolbar. Send CTRL-ALT-DEL to host.

Hi Mike

I also like VNC more, but PS tools works gr8 at times when you have slow connection (no graphics),

Good luck

Dee

With VNC u right-just click on the Top Left Corner of the VNC window (the icon in the Title Bar) and it will allow u to send Ctl-Alt-Del to the remote PC.
<<<<<I tried to do the following: shutdown -m \\servername -t 10 -f -r
I get an error saying acess is denied.>>>>>>
The access denied message means that you have to establish an authritative connection first to the remote machine.
You could do this via Explorer (Map Network Drive to say \\machine\c$) or via DOS box.

eg  net use * \\remotemachinename\ipc$ /u:remotemachinename\administrator password
or    net use * \\remotemachinename\ipc$ /u:remotedomain\DomainAdmin password


Another good part with VNC also is that u can change the password on all remote machines that it is loaded on, via a simple registry entry that can be downloaded to each PC.

And yes u r correct, it will run on all windows platforms like NT, 2000, XP. Haven't used it for 98 but it should.
HTH,
JB