Very Computer

Maybe I am nuts, but you would think that a multi-user, multi-tasking
operating envirnoment like D3 would notify the console during a
shutdown/reboot process that there are users still connected to the
system.

While I can think of several ways to solve this, I have always checked
to see if users are logged on or not before a shutdown or reboot.
This was true on with my PERTEC, AP/PRO, & PROPLUS systems.

Now however with CTL-ALT-DEL, D3/NT & Windows, everybody knows how to
reboot!  Yes a warning is presented that the VME is shutting down -
but we know HOW The rebooter will answer this question!  Maybe the
solution is to put the Windows machine in a locked closet.

I have also found that Shutdown will not only automatically disconnect
users, it will also automatically shutdown the OSFI servers.

Reboot is some better, it only automatically disconnects the users,
and then asks you if each OSFI server should be shutdown.

Doesn't it seem reasonable to me that a multi-user system should warn
the unsuspecting rebooter that they are going to drop a user or two?

Not really looking for an answer - just venting.  I can tell you I
believe weird things can happen when a reboot/shutdown occurs when a
user is logged on.  May tie into the recent threads on "end" versus
"exit" and whether the user is a serial or telnet user.

In any case be aware.

Craig.

Pierre Trinephi at RD wrote a program many years ago called D3Tray.
It intercepts the shutdown message from Windows, warns the user if D3
is up, does a clean shutdown of D3 before Windows goes down, and
allows the user to cancel the shutdown.  It does a lot more than that,
but that's probably its claim to fame.

I believe D3Tray will be bundled with D3NT 8.0.  If you still want it
for free I believe you can get it from the RD FTP site.  If you don't
want to load foreign code on your system you can write your own.  I
wrote a routine I call NebulaMonitor that I use here - it's saved my
*a couple times.

Be careful what you ask for, it might already be available.
Personally I prefer utilities like this in the third-party market, you
never know when one of the vendors will find time to support them, or
decide to cancel support entirely.

Just my 2 lire,
Tony

"Craig Morroni" wrote
[venting about shutdown/reboot]

In the 'closing the barn door after the horse escapes' department,
you can put a proc or macro in dm,dm,  user-shutdown  to do
whatever salvaging is possible.  I just put
N
DISPLAY  Hello from dm,md, user-shutdown

in our d3/linux.  Haven't tested this on d3/nt, come to think...

Sounds like a rant and a management problem.

Review the power-off and shutdown programs in file bp (dm account).
All the program source is there.
You can modify them to fit your installation.

D3Tray is available from Raining Data and can be customized.

Not just anyone should be doing a CTRL-ALT-DELETE on the D3 server.

CTRL-ALT-DELETE does not do an automatic reboot on a NT or Win 2K server.

All the tools are provided to you, it is up to you how you use them.