Am 29.06.2011 um 21:50 schrieb Emmanuel Noobadmin:
Since I'm not the only person who face problems trying to remotely access a locked up server, surely somebody must had come up with a solution that didn't involve somebody/something hitting the power button?
Yes, it's called "out of band management". Have dial-in access to IPMI/iLO interfaces or just an APC remote controlled power-switch to power-off the server.
Perhaps this suggestion is applicable: setup a cron job where the sshd server is restarted (once or several times per day, or per week, etc).
At one time, I had a server on an ISP that, with time, became woefully underpowered (the anti-spam/anti-virus program ate CPU power and RAM) to the point that occasionally, and with more frequency (once a week?) sshd would become unresponsive. This required that someone be at console to restart sshd; or if the problem was not understandable, reboot the box.
Having sshd restarted in cron worked until we got a new, soopa-doopa box.
Rainer
Max