CentOS - Apr 2005 - A 'simple' problem?

Here's one for you if you have the time:

I very stupidly killed the wrong process on a server on a remote site on
Friday and now I cannot ssh login to it! It's not a major problem as
it's
main functions are as a file and print sharer (samba) and to run
postfix/mailscanner, and I can have someone on site reboot the server when
they start work on Monday, but I was wondering whether I could 'get in'
by
other means to reboot it - so far I have tried the following without luck:

Simultaneous login requests to 'reach' a listening login as I think
I've
only screwed up pts0

A VNC connection to a machine on site and then using telnet (nope, telnet
disabled)

A VNC connection to a machine on site and then a VNC connection to the
server (VNC not running on this one).

Any suggestions to issue a remote reboot - as I said, it's not a major issue
as I can have the server rebooted by someone on site.

Thanks

Nigel Kendrick

On Sun, 2005-04-24 at 22:08 +0100, Nigel Kendrick wrote:
> Here's one for you if you have the time:
> 
> I very stupidly killed the wrong process on a server on a remote site on
> Friday and now I cannot ssh login to it! It's not a major problem as
it's
> main functions are as a file and print sharer (samba) and to run
> postfix/mailscanner, and I can have someone on site reboot the server when
> they start work on Monday, but I was wondering whether I could 'get
in' by
> other means to reboot it - so far I have tried the following without luck:
> 
> Simultaneous login requests to 'reach' a listening login as I think
I've
> only screwed up pts0
> 
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then using telnet (nope, telnet
> disabled)
> 
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then a VNC connection to the
> server (VNC not running on this one).
> 
> Any suggestions to issue a remote reboot - as I said, it's not a major
issue
> as I can have the server rebooted by someone on site.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Nigel Kendrick
> 
Serial connection are most useful in these cases, but after the fact
this is not very helpful. I have also used cron jobs when doing remote
admin on machine with good success, if changing firewall configs, I
would revert he change and restart iptables, doing ssh configs same
deal.

Another good thing is to have a generic local account that has sudo
privileges assuming you have someone that can hope of the console for
you.

As long as the changes you made did not toast anything a reboot is your
likely only recourse.

Ted

You might want to take a look at monit (http://www.tildeslash.com/monit/).
 It can be configured to restart monitored services in case they die.

Marko


On Sun, April 24, 2005 5:08 pm, Nigel Kendrick said:
> Here's one for you if you have the time:
>
> I very stupidly killed the wrong process on a server on a remote site on
> Friday and now I cannot ssh login to it! It's not a major problem as
it's
> main functions are as a file and print sharer (samba) and to run
> postfix/mailscanner, and I can have someone on site reboot the server when
> they start work on Monday, but I was wondering whether I could 'get
in' by
> other means to reboot it - so far I have tried the following without luck:
>
> Simultaneous login requests to 'reach' a listening login as I think
I've
> only screwed up pts0
>
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then using telnet (nope, telnet
> disabled)
>
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then a VNC connection to the
> server (VNC not running on this one).
>
> Any suggestions to issue a remote reboot - as I said, it's not a major
> issue
> as I can have the server rebooted by someone on site.
>
> Thanks
>
> Nigel Kendrick
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

Have you got 'magic script' turned on in samba?
If not, have you got swat running and able to turn on magic script?

If you do then you could run a script which will run 'service sshd 
restart' for you.

John.

Nigel Kendrick wrote:
> Here's one for you if you have the time:
> 
> I very stupidly killed the wrong process on a server on a remote site on
> Friday and now I cannot ssh login to it! It's not a major problem as
it's
> main functions are as a file and print sharer (samba) and to run
> postfix/mailscanner, and I can have someone on site reboot the server when
> they start work on Monday, but I was wondering whether I could 'get
in' by
> other means to reboot it - so far I have tried the following without luck:
> 
> Simultaneous login requests to 'reach' a listening login as I think
I've
> only screwed up pts0
> 
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then using telnet (nope, telnet
> disabled)
> 
> A VNC connection to a machine on site and then a VNC connection to the
> server (VNC not running on this one).
> 
> Any suggestions to issue a remote reboot - as I said, it's not a major
issue
> as I can have the server rebooted by someone on site.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Nigel Kendrick
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> 
> 
> 

-- 
John Newbigin
Computer Systems Officer
Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.ict.swin.edu.au/staff/jnewbigin