Good Thing… Bad Thing June 15, 2007
Posted by Steve in General Wittering, Moans, Whinges and Rants, Techie Stuff.trackback
Good thing: Developing and deploying an innovative system[1] so that the UPS on a server at work can text me when the power goes off.
Bad thing: Being worken up by news of power cuts at work in the middle of the bloody night.
[1] An over-complicated lash-up because the UPS software and the authentication method on the mail server aren’t compatible.
This sounds a bit like a security system i’m fitting the house, which will email/text me if movement is found, once its all setup. ( i only hope it works)
This is a hideous combination of systems needed to send these emails because of the compatibility problem… the UPS software calls a batch file. That uses WGET to call a PHP script on an intranet server which sends the email. Then a rule on my mail account forwards it to SMS.
Seriously.
Luckily the main purpose of the UPS is to guard against some idiot unplugging the server (has happenned) the fact that in a power cut you’re relying on half a dozen other servers having their UPS devices working to get the alerts out isn’t too big an issue.