Alan writes:Alan writes:
> Where I disagree is more to the response to the original question.
> Instead of doing debug to reboot, using "remote console" is a fine way to
> remotely take control (or share with the real console) of you HP3000.
 
My point is that the remote console is a pre-setup, relatively inflexible
mechanism.  For a random dial in port, it simply isn't accessible.
 
(Well, not quite true...I've seen a setup at HP where the DTC plus a
special Y-cable allows anyone connecting to the DTC to then request
a connection to the remote console port)
 
> The rs-232 cable is some funky modem cable and the only problem is when
> the short haul modems go down and come back up, we need to unplug the
> cable from the back of the HP3000 to lower and raise the appropriate
> signals to "connect" to the remote console.  Then the operators have to
> hit the "break" key to take control.  All messages and keystrokes appear
> on the "real" console in the remote computer room.
>
> The operators have no problem doing control-a's and control-b's to shut
> down and restart the system and we have found it to be quite reliable.
 
No, they should have no problems.  The remote console is a nice device,
but one that is setup ahead of time.
 
> (All of the HP's were on an X.25 network).  Then I had a simple SPL
> program that called the Halt Intrinsic and passed it the number to display
> in the system failure message on the console.  I was not thrilled for the
> reason that we were doing this, but it was the way to get it done.
 
Steve Cooper reminded me of the time he needed to reboot an apparently
working 3000/III, so he could test the crash recovery code of Environment/3000.
The system was in Washington, but Steve was in California.  He called the
operator, who said: "why should I reboot? the system's working fine"...and
wouldn't reboot.  So, a simple HALT call later, Steve calls the operator
and says "the system seems to have stopped, is anything wrong?"  The
operator checks, says "the system seems to have crashed...I'll reboot it".
 
Stan (hoping that operator isn't reading this) Sieler