itanuim server

[tarek_3]

Hi
I am installing a new itanuim server rx4640, is there any way in the itanuim technology to schedule the server to start at 8:00AM (the system start without user interaction), and Halted at 20:00PM.

Thx
TS

[Suraj Singh_1]

Hi,

I think shutdown can be scheduled but i don't think startup can be.

Regards

[Hein van den Heuvel]

What problem are you trying to solve?
Security?
Reduce energy usage/heat generation?
Reduce daily use hours hoping to extent the number of years of use?

In my personal experience, which is no official or compelling input by any standard, most system hardware problems are introduced on cold restart after a halt. Dunno, maybe things like thermal stress, and current peaks play a role. Fans that decide to get stuck, ethernet connections that fail to renegotiate, a dhcp server that happens not to be there when you needed it.

Whatever the cause, I personally find it more reliable to just leave the systems on, not to mention to be able to use them, should an unexpected need arise.

Restricted access can be obtained by normal security measures.

Of cours if you where to know that you'll loose power every night from 20:05 to some time in the morning then you would want to schedule a soft shutdown instead of a crash.
Allow the system to start itself when the power comes back?

Anyway... you should be able to use the remote console functions, through a 'Lights Out' package perhaps, as long as main power is retained, not all shutdown.

Just personal opinions,
Hth,

Hein.

[Geoff Wild]

As Hein mentions - what are you trying to accomplish?

Seems like you do not want access to the system from 20:00 to 08:00...

If that's the case - you could create a script that disables the network interfaces at 20:00, and enables them at 08:00...

Something like:

#!/usr/bin/sh

case $1 in
start_msg)
echo "Start network interfaces."
;;

stop_msg)
echo "Stop network interfaces."
;;
'start')
for i in `/usr/sam/lbin/laninfo |grep up |awk '{print $8}'`
do
ifconfig $i up
done
;;

'stop')
for i in `/usr/sam/lbin/laninfo |grep up |awk '{print $8}'`
do
ifconfig $i down
done
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
;;
esac


Rgds...Geoff

[rick jones]

You may want to peruse the manuals at docs.hp.com to see if an Itanium box running the OS you will be running supports WOL - Wake On LAN. As others have pointed-out, scheduling the shutdown at a specific time of day is rather straightforward via stuff like cron. It is the subsequent restart that presents the challenge.

I do not know if WOL is supported for HP-UX or not. However, if not, you might research what can be "programmed" into UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) solutions.

There are I believe also remote power on/of solutions for the data centre - those would require another system to contol them.

Finally, if you have the management card installed in your 4640, you could connect it to your network, and give it its own IP address etc. From that you can control the "main" power on the system and would be able to affect a power-on from a remote location (so long as the network was running of course).