AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide
AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide
AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide
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6.11 TTY Remote Reboot (<strong>4.3</strong>.2)<br />
<strong>AIX</strong> <strong>4.3</strong>.2 has added the ability to communicate with a system that has stopped<br />
responding on the network but is still processing device interrupts. The feature<br />
allows a system administrator to force a machine to take a predetermined action<br />
when a user defined character sequence is entered on a serial port. The feature<br />
can only be enabled on native serial ports. Only one serial port on a machine can<br />
be configured for remote reboot. Serial ports configured on 8, 16, 64, and 128<br />
port adapter cards are not supported.<br />
The feature is configured by setting two ODM attributes that have been added to<br />
native serial ports. The new attributes are reboot_enable and reboot_string. The<br />
reboot_enable attribute has possible values of no, reboot, and dump. The<br />
reboot_string attribute is used to store a case sensitive user defined string up to<br />
16 characters in length. It is advised to choose an unusual character sequence<br />
that would never normally be typed. For example ReEbOoTmE. This allows the<br />
serial port to be used for a normal login session, if required, without the possibility<br />
of accidentally rebooting the system.<br />
Table 24. Settings of reboot_enable Attribute<br />
Value of reboot_enable<br />
Attribute<br />
no<br />
reboot<br />
dump<br />
Result<br />
Remote reboot disabled. No action taken if<br />
reboot_string is entered.<br />
Machine will reboot when reboot_string is entered and<br />
confirmed.<br />
Machine will dump system image to dump device when<br />
reboot_string is entered and confirmed.<br />
The settings appear on the SMIT Add a TTY, and Change / Show<br />
Characteristics of a TTY panels as:<br />
REMOTE reboot ENABLE<br />
REMOTE reboot STRING<br />
no<br />
[#@reb@#]<br />
Interrupts must be enabled on the port for this feature to be active. One way to<br />
insure interrupts are enabled is to enable login on the port; with the port enabled,<br />
getty is running and holding the device open, although the user does not need to<br />
be logged in for the system to recognize the reboot string.<br />
If the user defined reboot string is entered when reboot_enable is set to reboot or<br />
dump, the user defined string is erased from the screen and replaced with the<br />
symbol > that is the confirmation prompt. If the user presses the 1 key on the<br />
keyboard, then the predefined action specified by reboot_enable will occur. If the<br />
user presses any other key, the user defined string reappears on screen; the<br />
subsequent character is appended, and no other action is taken.<br />
An error log entry is made when the remote reboot facility is enabled or disabled<br />
on a serial port. An entry is also made when the facility is used to reboot a<br />
machine or force a system dump. The entry is created when the machine next<br />
starts the errorlog daemon indicating the action taken and the name of the tty<br />
device used to initiate the action.<br />
134 <strong>AIX</strong> <strong>Version</strong> <strong>4.3</strong> <strong>Differences</strong> <strong>Guide</strong>
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