Then you run the risk of the system hanging/crashing at boot-up and not being recoverable, remotely. Best just to turn the watchdog timer on in the BIOS.
Correct. But how often do you reboot and do you go through BIOS/UEFI/firmware in the first place, or do you kexec? How much does the remaining risk of getting stuck randomly on boot contribute to overall unavailability risk? How big is the risk of server getting stuck with watchdog working?
the server hard locked up?.
it needs to power off.
but you cant get to it because its behind a locked door.
in future?, add a routable ups.
you can remote into that and tell it to restart the computer.
there are cheap wall warts that you can remote into and turn off and on.
but tend to come with a mobile subscription so will end up more expensive long run.
I’m gonna make the best of the flight back and do multiple of these. I’m liking the IoT switch idea and the IoT finger looks pretty damn useful too.
Could someone fill me in on watchdog timers, I’ve seen them in BIOSs but I’ve never used it and Google has been remarkably unhelpful. All I get is SBC related info.
I would reply more, I’m super interested but I’m up to my neck with work.
just remember IOT devices have been regularly found to be insecure.
check online to make sure the devices don’t have a baked in password and known exploits.
good luck