OT: RE: pingscript to deal with flakey connections

[Remco Barendse]

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006, Joshua Hirsh wrote:

> Hi Remco,
> 
>  I don't have a script like this in production, but it isn't very hard
> to write :-P
> 
>  Attached is one I just wrote in perl (about 20 minutes). It requires
> the fping binary to be installed (http://www.fping.com/). This
> particular version can be set with a threshold level, so you can take
> your server offline if 4 out of 5 sites are offline.
> 
>  You'll want to verify that you've removed your hourly cron job to check
> the status of MailScanner, otherwise it will start itself back up
> (/etc/cron.hourly/check_MailScanner on my system).
> 
> 
>  I've only tested this on my workstation, but it seems to run as
> expected. The standard disclaimer applies.. I wrote it, but take no
> responsibility for its use or any damage you may incur on your systems
> from using it. If you like it, great. If you don't, edit it to your
> liking or just delete it ;-)

Wow! You really wrote all that in just 20 minutes?? Looks complicated!

If I am not mistaken, the hourly cron job will not bite, some time ago it 
was made intelligent I believe and now checks if MailScanner was not 
stopped purposely, if it was, it will not restart MS.

Thanks again!!!   This is a real life saver, especially I am on holiday 
and they call me and I have to explain how to stop MS on one box to get 
outgoing mail working again.

Cheers!
Remco