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On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 18:52 +0100, Mick wrote: |
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> Hi All, |
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> |
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> What is the way to send a console warning to anyone logged on a machine before |
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> I reboot it? |
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|
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shutdown(8) does this for you. In addition there is wall(1). |
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|
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> |
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> If the user is logged on a console I will only need to send it to the console; |
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> in addition if the user is running webmin, or phpadmin, then I would really |
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> like a popup of sorts to alert them to log out (something like the net send |
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> command on MS Windows running with the messenger service). |
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> |
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> Is there such a thing? |
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|
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I could give a long explanation on why in practice this never works |
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(even for wall msgs), but it's not interesting. Instead I'll give you |
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some real-world examples of what I've seen. |
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|
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* Don't plan reboots during production or when production is at |
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peak unless absolutely necessary. In the latter case most |
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people will be expecting a reboot because they are aware of a |
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problem that is affecting production. |
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* For small shops, it's just as easy, and more effective, to just |
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go door-to-door letting everyone know there's going to be a |
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reboot. |
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* Nearly every medium-large place I've worked had an overhead |
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speaker system (dunno why, call me lucky) where unexpected |
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crashes and reboots were broadcast. |
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* For planned reboots, one site I worked sent out broadcast emails |
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periodically before a scheduled reboot. There was a monthly |
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schedule sent out as well as an email the week ans shortly |
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before the reboot. This was a multi-platform, nation-wide |
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operation and basically there was no universal way to let |
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everyone know. Even for the single-platform shop I worked at, |
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not everyone (that was affected) sat in front of a terminal. All |
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relevant people or their supervisors were on the mailing list. |
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If you didn't know, you didn't need to know. |
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* Not even the Windows shop I worked at used net send to alert of |
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reboots. Maybe nice idea, but it doesn't work. People are away |
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from their computers, have the messenger service turned off, |
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just click OK without reading the message, etc. etc. All that |
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net send every did in my experience is generate a lot of phone |
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calls from people who didn't understand what it was or what it |
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meant. |
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* The most effective way I've seen was a recent job. They simply |
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announced on the loud speaker for everyone to log off and shut |
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down until further notice. There was no reboot announcement, no |
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explanation. Nothing. Even if a person wasn't affected |
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everyone was told to log out and turn off their machines. This |
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eliminated the phone calls from people asking "does this mean |
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me?" We just had everyone off. For stragglers, VPN users, etc. |
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They were manually disconnected. Let them figure out what |
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happened when they get back. |
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As for webmin and phpadmin users... well those people are |
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administrators... shouldn't they already know? I wouldn't want a fellow |
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admin bouncing a server without tapping me on the shoulder or giving me |
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a call. Technology is rarely a good replacement for common sense. |
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-- |
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Albert W. Hopkins |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-user@g.o mailing list |
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