Automated/scheduled reboot of Nokia IPSO 3.9

[ChrisA]

We are running NGX HFA02 on two clustered IP710s running IPSO3.9. We currently log in to Voyager and reboot the firewalls once per month. We'd like to automate/schedule it. Is this possible? Is there a reason we would not want to do this?

Thanks,

[genlee]

What is the purpose of rebooting once a month? Not like they are running windows.

[ChrisA]

When we were running NG FP3 HFA14, we would get virtual defragmentation errors that we could only clear up with a monthly reboot. We don't have the problem in NGX, but it seems like a good practice to reboot servers and appliances on a periodic basis to clean up any "crap" lying around on the system.

[fdamstra]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

it seems like a good practice to reboot servers and appliances on a periodic basis to clean up any "crap" lying around on the system.

I think this is something you learned from Microsoft. :)

I have a firewall on SPLAT that hasn't been rebooted in over a year. I have a pair of Cisco switches that haven't been rebooted in 5 years, 8 months.

Of course, we have an AS/400 that for some reason they reboot weekly, even though those systems are known to stay up for years on end as well.

(Sadly, though, after renovating the data center without any interruption of service, the fire inspector is making us test the "Emergency Power Out" button, which will cut all power to everything in that room, so there goes our uptime).

Back on topic, to answer your original question, you can use /etc/crontab to schedule a job to run every month. I think you want a line like:
30 3 28 * * /sbin/init 6

That should (I've never used IPSO, but am pretty confident it's linux based) run the command '/sbin/init 6' at 3:30am on the 28th of every month. You'll want to double check the crontab syntax on IPSO ('man crontab' or 'man 5 crontab'), and replace /sbin/init 6 with whatever command you use to safely and cleanly reboot the box.

The one question I have is, what if it doesn't reboot successfully? Are you okay with that firewall being down from 3:30am until whenever the next admin arrives?

[donshoutarp]

Although this solution is not great for small deployments of Nokia boxes, Nokia Horizon Manager will allow you to schedule the reboots. It will even allow you to reboot the second member after the first comes back alive.

[ChrisA]

Thank you for the replies to my post. Yes, I am very concerned about what happens if the reboot does not happen normally, which is the main reason I have not automated it already. The next step, I suppose, would be to somehow automate a checkout that all is working well, and send a page to me if there's a problem. Off-topic, but yes, it is a major concern.

We only have two IP710s that are clustered. I think we looked at Horizon Manager and it was more than we needed. I'll check into it again. Thank you.

Does anyone else out there reboot their Nokias regularly?