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Rebooting a device remotely

Shrek

Shrek

Joined
Mar 21, 2021
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Location
Colorado, U.S.A.
System Specs
System Name CyberPowerPC ET8070
Processor Intel Core i5-10400F
Motherboard Gigabyte B460M DS3H AC-Y1
Memory 2 x Crucial Ballistix 8GB DDR4-3000
Video Card(s) MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Storage Boot: Intel OPTANE SSD P1600X Series 118GB M.2 PCIE
Display(s) Dell P2416D (2560 x 1440)
Power Supply EVGA 500W1 (modified to have two bridge rectifiers)
Software Windows 11 Home
Is there a device that can reboot an unresponsive device remotely, namely by cutting and restoring the power?
 
IIRC team viewer allows it, but you would need to set a key and password so you could get back in after a reboot.

Edit sorry, not if it's not in windows.
 
i'd rather try to find out why the machine is unresponsive and needs to cut power in the first place.
 
Absolutely... but that is not how things are always done.

The machine is remote, and a person is sent to reboot it...
 
If the remote device is unresponsive, TeamViewer or another remote program is pointless.

I believe Belkin used to make such a device but sadly, I cannot find it now. But it looked very much like this: Amazon.com: ezOutlet5 - Internet Enabled IP & WiFi Remote Power Switch with Reboot (AC Power/Single Outlet/iOS/Android/Cloud/Web Controllable) - Newest Model : Electronics

Do note, however, you need to change the default setting in your BIOS to automatically power up after power is restored.

There are other types that let you dial in (Amazon.com: Remote PDU Power Switch - Controlled by Telephone : Electronics). This one supports cell phone access too.


GerKNG said:
i'd rather try to find out why the machine is unresponsive and needs to cut power in the first place.
Click to expand...
Shrek said:
Absolutely... but that is not how things are always done.
Click to expand...
Right. And very often, you don't have the luxury of time either. If a mission critical asset goes down or locks up, and you are across town - or beyond - getting it back on line NOW is the priority. In the middle of the night road trips - besides being no fun - can be very costly.
 
Yup, they are called PDUs. they are used in DCs a lot. You can connect them to networks and log into the interfaces to flip power on certain sockets. This is really good for things like certain kinds of bios updates that require total resets.

Here is a big link to newegg. This should give you an idea of what to look for in a more affordable segment. Many used ones go up for sale on ebay etc as well for cheap.

www.newegg.com

Power Distribution Units | Newegg.com

Get more than surge protection with these power distribution units. Pick the PDU that is right for your network and gain more control over your network.
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

EDIT:: Bill beat me to it.
 
Is there a RF path to it? I will look for a device now...
 
PiKVM is probably the closest to enterprise stuff
 
iLO, iDRAC, IPMI, and other such enterprise systems (for HP, Dell, and Supermicro respectively) all have BMC that can perform this operation.


These aren't on "normal" computers you or I usually buy however. These sorts of features are on servers. That being said, buying old / used servers from Ebay can allow you to get these features cheaply, and IMO is well worth playing with. (A couple hundred bucks on a 2012-era server with full iDRAC or IPMI / BMC controllers is a fun addition to anybody's basement lab).
 
Shrek said:
Need ethernet control as the server is in another town.
Click to expand...

Wait, is this a proper server? Like with iDRAC (Dell), iLO (HP), and IPMI (Supermicro)?

If so, your BMC is possibly built in (again: its called different things by different groups. iDRAC, iLO, IPMI). Have you seen anything called that on your server? Being forced to "hard reboot" servers is extremely common, and so a lot of servers just have this functionality built in... if you set it up correctly.
 
I don't know all the details.
 
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