Automated Reboot best practice

[gatorback]

* Firmware:380.58*
* RT-AC68U (T-mobile)
* LAN: http://router/Advanced_System_Content.asp


I am interested in best practices to configure reboot scheduler. Is there a good line-of-reasoning used to decide inputs:

In the last 36 hours, there have be wired and wireless failures that were resolved by resetting the router. I realize that may be like using a hammer to kill a fly, but today is one of those days that the network uptime is critical.

Any suggestions with regard to deciding on inputs are appreciated.

 

[martinr]

* Firmware:380.58*
* RT-AC68U (T-mobile)
* LAN: http://router/Advanced_System_Content.asp


I am interested in best practices to configure reboot scheduler. Is there a good line-of-reasoning used to decide inputs:

In the last 36 hours, there have be wired and wireless failures that were resolved by resetting the router. I realize that may be like using a hammer to kill a fly, but today is one of those days that the network uptime is critical.

Any suggestions with regard to deciding on inputs are appreciated.

I'd imagine it all depends on how often your router is freezing (and what's causing it, which, of course you'll never know).

It's really strange how some people suffer with glitches like yours and other people - the lucky ones, myself included - have their routers running non-stop for months on end, rebooting only for updates.

Merlin said as such http://www.snbforums.com/threads/problems-with-reboot-scheduler-router-locks-up.33471/#post-269327


I guess "best practice" is what works for you, and certainly within a month, you'll be in as good a position as anyone to define it.

Good luck; it'll be interesting to see what you settle on.

 

[tsunami2311]

I have my router reboot once week @6am just cause a reboot is good a system, I have never left any of my systems or router one for days/weeks/months and never will

 

[PolarBear]

Elsewhere an the forum are many comments about the inadvisability of rebooting while USB storage is attached.

I am puzzled by this but have seen comments that suggest the problem is due to lack of memory to check the integrity of the storage attached.

Would a 32GB USB stick present a problem, or does the problem occur only with hard drives in the terrabyte range ?

Is there a way of unmounting the USB device, rebooting the router, then remounting the device,to avoid these problems ?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is there a way of unmounting the USB device, rebooting the router, then remounting the device,to avoid these problems ?

That's what the reboot procedure does.

The problem comes when you have a process running that doesn't have a (working) shutdown mode. In such a case the router will either wait indefinitely (hang) or be forced to kill the process. When a process is killed, if it has files open in write-mode there is a likelihood that the files or directory structure can become corrupted.

 

[PolarBear]

That's what the reboot procedure does.
The problem comes when you have a process running that doesn't have a (working) shutdown mode.

Thank you, that's very helpful.

What I am looking for is a way of rebooting manually a router which is 3 hours drive away, which has a 32GB USB stick attached.

So if I understand correctly:
I can access the router by (for instance) https from the WAN side, I can unmount the UBS stick (which ensures that all the files are closed correctly), and then reboot the router. When it comes back up, it will see that the file system on the stick is "clean", and it will not try to verify its integrity (and possibly run out of memory).

If I have understood correctly, this sounds perfect !

 

[ColinTaylor]

@PolarBear Yes that's probably the best procedure. Of course it's still possible that something writing to the USB drive might not shut down properly, you'll have keep an eye on that.

Anything that comes built-in to the router (i.e. media server) should shut down OK. Any third-party add-on's (i.e. entware, user scripts) are the responsibly of the author.

I don't know whether it will eliminate all the file system checks though. IIRC ext2/3/4 will do periodic checks at boot anyway. With an 32GB drive I wouldn't have thought you'd have a memory problem. I've seen people report memory problems with NTFS drives of 1TB or greater that contained thousands of files, but not with smaller drives.