From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1HsklE-0001LA-Oa for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 28 May 2007 19:20:09 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l4SJIpaQ030163; Mon, 28 May 2007 19:18:51 GMT Received: from out2.smtp.messagingengine.com (out2.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.26]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l4SJEgwP025498 for ; Mon, 28 May 2007 19:14:42 GMT Received: from compute1.internal (compute1.internal [10.202.2.41]) by out1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8071D224017 for ; Mon, 28 May 2007 15:14:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from heartbeat2.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.161]) by compute1.internal (MEProxy); Mon, 28 May 2007 15:14:39 -0400 X-Sasl-enc: O/S8caaaFcquFtT11gNVWWMysKvwLAESrvNmWp5uFfJu 1180379679 Received: from [192.168.31.10] (cpe-76-185-203-114.tx.res.rr.com [76.185.203.114]) by www.fastmail.fm (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0968D13085 for ; Mon, 28 May 2007 15:14:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Sending console messages on Users From: Albert Hopkins To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <200705281852.35730.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> References: <200705281852.35730.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Gentoo Foundation Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 14:14:38 -0500 Message-Id: <1180379678.8155.25.camel@blackwidow.nbk> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: a2d65c88-d9cd-42ec-81bf-a9a740a92cd3 X-Archives-Hash: a542577609fff48642d03fc988fdab08 On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 18:52 +0100, Mick wrote: > Hi All, > > What is the way to send a console warning to anyone logged on a machine before > I reboot it? shutdown(8) does this for you. In addition there is wall(1). > > If the user is logged on a console I will only need to send it to the console; > in addition if the user is running webmin, or phpadmin, then I would really > like a popup of sorts to alert them to log out (something like the net send > command on MS Windows running with the messenger service). > > Is there such a thing? I could give a long explanation on why in practice this never works (even for wall msgs), but it's not interesting. Instead I'll give you some real-world examples of what I've seen. * Don't plan reboots during production or when production is at peak unless absolutely necessary. In the latter case most people will be expecting a reboot because they are aware of a problem that is affecting production. * For small shops, it's just as easy, and more effective, to just go door-to-door letting everyone know there's going to be a reboot. * Nearly every medium-large place I've worked had an overhead speaker system (dunno why, call me lucky) where unexpected crashes and reboots were broadcast. * For planned reboots, one site I worked sent out broadcast emails periodically before a scheduled reboot. There was a monthly schedule sent out as well as an email the week ans shortly before the reboot. This was a multi-platform, nation-wide operation and basically there was no universal way to let everyone know. Even for the single-platform shop I worked at, not everyone (that was affected) sat in front of a terminal. All relevant people or their supervisors were on the mailing list. If you didn't know, you didn't need to know. * Not even the Windows shop I worked at used net send to alert of reboots. Maybe nice idea, but it doesn't work. People are away from their computers, have the messenger service turned off, just click OK without reading the message, etc. etc. All that net send every did in my experience is generate a lot of phone calls from people who didn't understand what it was or what it meant. * The most effective way I've seen was a recent job. They simply announced on the loud speaker for everyone to log off and shut down until further notice. There was no reboot announcement, no explanation. Nothing. Even if a person wasn't affected everyone was told to log out and turn off their machines. This eliminated the phone calls from people asking "does this mean me?" We just had everyone off. For stragglers, VPN users, etc. They were manually disconnected. Let them figure out what happened when they get back. As for webmin and phpadmin users... well those people are administrators... shouldn't they already know? I wouldn't want a fellow admin bouncing a server without tapping me on the shoulder or giving me a call. Technology is rarely a good replacement for common sense. -- Albert W. Hopkins -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list