Keep-It-Up Features
Keep-It-Up is a tool that helps to keep your Macintosh server up and
running. It relaunches
applications that crash, it can restart the Mac on a regular basis and
it can monitor free
disk space. It also allows you to remotely manage and monitor your Mac
using a webbrowser. It works on MacOS X and MacOS 9.
Read on to learn more about the features of Keep-It-Up:
A. Keep your (server) applications running
- Keep-It-Up (KIU) can relaunch selected applications
if
for
some reason they stop running (crashes, accidental quits,...)
- KIU can detect applications that are hanging ("application not
responding") and then kill and relaunch the application.
- KIU can also perform regular scheduled restarts. This
reduces
the
chance of anything going wrong in the first place.
- KIU can also be told the keep one (server) application always
in
front,
which improves the performance of this application. This also comes in
handy for kiosks to prevent your application from being switched to the
background.
B. Remotely Manage your Mac
KIU can be used to remotely manage your Macintosh (server) using
a webbrowser.
KIU has a tiny "embedded" webserver (running on a port of your
choice)
that allows you to remotely:
- restart/shutdown the Mac
- view, kill or relaunch running applications
- launch applications
- run Applescripts
- view logfiles generated by KIU or any other application
- get some info about the system (free disk space, uptime, ...)
The web interface approach has several advantages over remote
management
solutions such as "Timbuktu Pro":
- you can manage the Mac from any computer that has a
webbrowser
installed
(Mac, PC, PDA, ...)
- it's small and fast
- doesn't slow down your Mac
- it's unlikely to cause conflicts with other software.
C. Monitor Network Services
KIU can check if certain Network Services are still available by
polling the network port and checking for a valid response. In case of
failure, it can notify you via e-mail, relaunch the corresponding
application or restart the Mac. This way you can monitor your
webserver, ftpserver or application server (e.g. FileMaker Pro) and
check if it is still serving data and doesn't hang.
D. E-mail notifications and alarm triggers
KIU can send e-mail messages to you, actively alerting you
of certain events:
- free memory or free diskspace falls below a
certain
preset
level
- an application gets relaunched
- KIU restarts the Mac
- somebody uses an invalid username/password to access the KIU
webserver
E. Keep Appleshare volumes mounted
KIU automounter will mount Appleshare volumes at startup and remount
these volumes if your Mac gets disconnected from the Appleshare server
is interrupted. An e-mail is sent when a volume is remounted or when
the mount fails if the Appleshare server is unavailable.
F. Virtual Memory statistics (OS X only)
Virtual memory statistics help to determine if performance of your Mac
can be improved by adding more RAM to your system.
KIU-X continuously collects these statistics, which you can consult in
the KIU webinterface.