cdnite

I need a device or add on card that will send and email or failure notice if the server goes down. Please help!!

Thanks for your time --Chris

DuckieHo

You would need another server to monitor the server in question. Some components like RAID controllers have the ability to email if the array is faulting.

__________________
To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

cdnite

I know about the RAID card like the Areca but are there any dedicated cards to do this? Any managed NICs or something?

--Chris

DuckieHo

Some NICs can as well... however, if it's a power loss, the NIC obviously won't be able to send a message.

__________________
To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

the_beast

As Duckie says, you can't get a server to send a message if it has failed, because, well, it's failed...

Management cards like LightsOut or DRAC will probably be able to alert you of most things, but also probably need a second server to monitor them. They are all proprietory (and expensive for home use if that is the application) though - what server do you have?

DuckieHo

Does anyone produce a NIC with a BBU?

__________________
To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

the_beast

Not that I know of.

ComGuards

Depends on the "server". If you're running a name-brand server, you might be able to get a customer-installable management card.

For example, with Dell's PowerEdge-series of series, you can get their iDRAC option, which is essentially an add-in card for complete server management, including console redirection (KVM-over-IP), as well as full server-management capabilities, including SNMP, SMTP notification, etc etc.

Mid- and high-end HP Proliant servers offer the same thing, as do IBM xServers.

Again, such devices are manufacturer-specific.

If you have a cheap / old system lying around, you can install Big Brother monitoring (www.bb4.org). It's a software monitoring system that's got a highly customizable client-side agent. You can monitor everything from disk space to CPU usage, Windows event logs, etc. Also works with Linux servers. It will report loss-of-connectivity to a server (usually just a simple ping test), and also reports unexpected reboots and the such, etc.

We ran that at my last company for a while until switching to a paid-monitoring service.

ComGuards

And yes, those proprietary management cards usually do have a battery backup unit. It's roughly like having a computer-on-a-card-in-a-server. You can do everything with those cards, including shutdown / reboot the server, modify BIOS settings, etc etc. One of the reasons we don't buy anything but name-brand servers these days.