[rescue] x10 controllers for remote power mgmt?

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:

> Assume that system A and system B are in the same room, reachable via
> the Internet.
> 
> What is the cheapest way to remote power cycle A or B?  Unfortunately
> neither A nor B is a E4500 with LOM :-( .

If you only need to do a full hard reset (not a power-cycle, but the next
best thing), and A and B are PC hardware, and you have the spare parts for
a Linux PC C, you could always wire a transistor in-line to the reset wire
on the motherboards of A & B, and use the parallel port[1] on C to assert
and deassert the bases of the transistors to mimic someone pressing the
reset button.

But, if you're not comfortable with that, don't try it.  You could easily
smoke your hardware, as the PC parallel port runs at a higher potential
difference than the reset header on your motherboard.

If A and B are non-PC, you'll need another solution, anyway. :)

> When I check out the x10 controllers, apparently there are utilities
> to communicate over serial with an x10 power controller and turn
> things off or on.  Would this work well with copmuter equipment?

A computer's dislike of power-cycling is pretty-much proportional to its
original selling price.  Crap PCs aren't going to suck any more than they
originally did if you pull the power out from under them a few times, but
you'll really piss off a decent workstation or server by giving it the ol'
120-reset more often than is necessary.

BTW, I have a friend with a house full of the x10 stuff.  It's very
intolerant to any interference.  I recommend you steer away from it for
power-cycling computer equipment, unless you like spontaneous rebooting.

> I have heard good things about the APC MasterSwitch but they are a
> little pricier than an x10 solution.

Not familiar with them.  BlackBox makes a nice powerstrip with a telephone
port.  Plug it into a telephone line, call it, wait for it to answer, and
then enter a code.  It asks you which ports you want to cycle, and that's
that.  But, then, you're not only paying for hardware, but for a phone
line.

--Jonathan
[1] small matter of programming.