Server Restart Option
User Manual

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Server Restart Option Features

Once the Server Restart Option is installed in a PowerKey Pro unit, several new features will appear in the PowerKey Editor application.

New Preferences

Three new items appear in the Preferences dialog box after you install the Server Restart Option.

Force Restarts

If this option is checked, the PowerKey software will let the crash detection timer (see below) count down when a timed Event initiates a software restart. If the computer crashes while attempting to restart, PowerKey will run a When System Crashes Event after the crash detection timer counts to zero.

To force a restart, you must also have a When System Crashes Event in your Schedule.

Crash detection timer

This value is used by the When System Crashes Trigger (see below) to determine how long to wait before deciding that the computer has crashed. It can be set to any value between 30 and 1020 seconds.

Be careful not to set the delay too short, to avoid having long computations being interpreted as crashes.

Maximum Log File size

This value limits the size of the PowerKey Log file, which is created by the Add to Log Action (see below). When an entry is added to the log file which would make it exceed this value, the topmost (oldest) items are removed.

If you limit the size of the PowerKey Log file to less than 32K, it will never grow too large to be opened by SimpleText.

New Triggers

When System Crashes

This Trigger activates whenever the computer crashes. When the computer is running normally, the PowerKey software "pings" the hardware every 10 seconds. If this communication fails for a period of time (specified in the Preferences dialog box), the hardware will execute any When System Crashes Events in the Schedule.

If more than one When System Crashes Events exist in the Schedule, only the first one encountered will be executed. You can use Qualifiers if you wish PowerKey to react differently at different times or on different days.

When Timer Expires

This Trigger activates whenever the User Timer counts down to zero. The User Timer is maintained by the PowerKey software for use by custom programs when you want greater control over crash detection. You can set the value of this timer via an Apple Event or script; see below for more information.

New Qualifiers

System Running

This Qualifier restricts the Trigger to activate only if the computer is (or is not) running normally.

If the "is/is not" pop-up menu is set to "is," the Qualifier is true when the computer is running normally. If it is set to "is not," the Qualifier is true when the computer is turned off, or if has crashed, or if the PowerKey software is not running.

PowerKey Pro will only decide that a computer is not running after the Crash Detection Timer reaches zero. Until then, no Events with a System Is Not Running Qualifier will be executed.

This Qualifier is primarily useful for making sure Events only run when the computer is crashed. For example, you can create an Event which will restart your computer when the phone rings, but not if it's running normally.

How Started Qualifier Option: System Crash

You can now use the How Started Qualifier to restrict an Event to execute only if the system was started by a When System Crashes Event. See Chapter 4 of the PowerKey Pro manual, Trigger Qualifiers, for more information on the How Started Qualifier.

New Action

Add to Log

This Action writes a line of text at the end of a log file. When you create an Add to Log Action, a dialog box will appear. You can type any message you wish into this box.

When the Action is performed by an Event, this message, along with the current date and time, will be written at the end of the "PowerKey Log" file, which resides in the PowerKey Folder.

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