[exe]Guardian Angel Discussion

[Michael McSharry]

I looked at GA this past weekend and learned that the reason the shutdown is faster with GA than a normal shutdown is that it just iterates through all the processes to send the close message. Well, it sends the close message to explorer which in essences closes down windows. It is probably random where explorer is in the list of processes. I started to address this, but ran out of time. Been too busy to get back into it, or look at Jeff's request. Likewise the exclude option needs to be looked into. I believe the no-parameter execution is 95% total cpu use so a backup that is cpu intensive would likely cause a restart as it is now.

[JeffCharger]

I had my "hang" problem again. When it offered me the option to send to MS or not (I said not) it indicated that it found a process 'hungapp'. I don't know if this assists you or not.

[Bill Brower]

Question: In it's stock form (just running it in the Windows StartUp directory without any switches), does it just restart when it monitors total CPU eaten and HomeSeer is the most offending process, or does it do it for any 95% + condition?

Why I am asking is I run Diskeeper in the back ground in the middle of the night, and sometimes NTBACKUP, which can cause a 10 minute high CPU load sometimes.

Would GA shut down that process, or possibly force a system reboot?

If so, in future revs, could you write code that would give a list of 'exempt' processes? config\mcsGuardianAngel.ini ????

I like the annotation at the beginning of the HS log saying that the reboot was GA driven. Any way also in future revs to have it list what the offending process was.

I really appreciate this software, I am more easy about HS running my software based security system now. Thanks again!

HomeSeer Page: http://wrb.tzo.com (Guest access closed until HS 1.7)
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512 MB RAM PC2700
3 Fujitsu 510 Touch Pads
Way2Call Hi-Phone USB
ATTNV Crystal 16
Ocelot / SECU-16 / SECU-16I
mcs Temperature (Works great!)
mcs Guardian Angel Version 1.2 (Works great!)
Video / Captures with ConquerCam (Separate Computer)
NetCallerID

[JeffCharger]

Just like clockwork, I have another "hung" system. I can't tell until tomorrow what the cause is, but I suspect it's the Webcam application like last week.

[JeffCharger]

thanks Michael - that's great.

I appreciate the assistance.

[Michael McSharry]

I do not know how Task Manager determines that a process is not responding. I can try so send it a NULL message and see if it returns an acknowledge. I might also try to send it something like a ENABLE message which might generate a signal for which I can wait to confirm it responds. I'll let you know if anything looks promising.

[JeffCharger]

I just encountered Webcam32 'hanging' again. I am running XP Pro.

Here are the attributes I found:

- in task manager, the application shows as "not responding" (although it briefly will go to "running" and then back to "not responding"
- CPU useage is hovering around 0-1%

Under normal operation the CPU useage would be 0-2% when idle, and up to 10-15% when sending a picture (maybe higher when sending video upload).

Is there any way to sense the "not responding" aspect and trigger a "terminate" based on this?

[This message was edited by JeffCharger on Tue, 30 September 2003 at 12:53 PM.]

[JeffCharger]

I don't believe that it does, but I am going to check into it further. Thanks for the tip.

[Michael McSharry]

Does webcam32 provide any status or scripting interface that might be able to be used? Does it produce a heartbeat or other indication that it is alive/connected?

[JeffCharger]

There doesn't seem to be any indication that Webcam32 has had problems other than in the Windows Task Manager the status will flip from "Running" to "Not Responding" for a few seconds. It then goes back to "Running". In these cases CPU doesn't do anything abnormal. Based on this, it doesn't appear that it will help in these circumstances.

[Bill Brower]

Excellent touch on the log entry on the boot up. I have in my start.txt file where HS emails me the GA log.

Thanks Michael!!!!!

9/22/2003 6:30:13 PM~!~Guardian Angel~!~Monitor computer Utilization at 95% for 300 seconds
9/22/2003 6:30:13 PM~!~Guardian Angel~!~When detected restart computer
9/22/2003 6:30:16 PM~!~Info~!~HomeSeer version is: 1.6.119
9/22/2003 6:30:16 PM~!~startup~!~Loading configuration XML file
9/22/2003 6:30:17 PM~!~startup~!~Restoring device status
9/22/2003 6:30:18 PM~!~startup~!~Initializing X10 Interface

HomeSeer Page: http://wrb.tzo.com
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512 MB RAM PC2700
Way2Call Hi-Phone USB
ATTNV Crystal 16
Ocelot w/ 8 I/O
SECU-16I to be added for security system upgrade soon
mcs Temperature (Works great!)
mcs Guardian Angel (Works great!)
ROC Outlook (Works great!)
Video / Captures with ConquerCam (Separate Computer)
NetCallerID

[Michael McSharry]

There needs to be some way to characterize the "hung" state. It webcam can provide this status then it can be worked in. If webcam normally uses some minimum cpu time and when the feed stops the time goes to near zero then this could be used.

[JeffCharger]

I tried the current version and it worked nicely in shutting down/restarting Homeseer as in the test script.

Is there anyway that it can recognize a 'hung' process? My biggest problem is when Webcam32 doesn't have a 'feed' and chugs to a stop.

[Bill Brower]

Or am I the Guinea pig tomorrow?

Cheers!

HomeSeer Page: http://wrb.tzo.com
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512 MB RAM PC2700
Way2Call Hi-Phone USB
ATTNV Crystal 16
Ocelot w/ 8 I/O
SECU-16I to be added for security system upgrade soon
mcs Temperature (Works great!)
ROC Outlook (Works great!)
Video / Captures with ConquerCam (Separate Computer)
NetCallerID

[Michael McSharry]

V1.2 corrected a lockup problem that occurs when a selective process is restarted. It also added the abiltiy to monitor for a process that stopped running. Running in this context means it is no longer in the Task Manager list of processes.

The update is posted in the library at the reference at the top of this thread.