Re-Booting of Cenracom Gold Elite consoles?

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 4:52 pm

Dumb question for the Centracom Gold Elite gurus. Is it good practice to reboot the terminals on occasion or at set intervals? Or is it totally un neccessary and fine to leave them on continuiously for months on end?

We have them here and I am just wondering if it something we should be doing on a regular basis.

mastr · Post by **mastr** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 5:09 pm

FWIW, I leave them on, and have not yet seen any problem that I could blame on the practice.

N9LLO · Post by **N9LLO** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 5:19 pm

I have 5 at work that only get booted when the power goes out

Chris

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 1:05 pm

The older Centracom consoles running NT 3.51 benefitted from regular re-booting, due to a virtual memory glitch which could occur when running for extended periods. There are a few other glitches out there across the NT 4.0/2000/XP platforms in which regular re-booting can be helpful (locking up on TX was mentioned in another post recently). But, other than the very rare issue like that, regular re-booting is not required. Our 911 center has been running 24/7 for the past 5 years on NT 4.0, with no issues attributed to the extended up time. It's truly best to leave them alone unless there's a specific reason not to.

Todd

Jay911 · Post by **Jay911** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 2:13 pm

Wavetar,

I'm just a lowly dispatcher, not a supervisor or administrator or anything so maybe I'm out of place for even bringing this up

- but it looks like you may be able to answer a question I have about the system.

Often, we find that an alias change (on the supervisor's position, using Alias Database Manager) will only show up on one or two of the four positions in our center. For example if 703812 was 01PUMPSPARE and should now be 02PUMPSPARE, after the change is made, for several hours, two of the four positions might still show 01PUMPSPARE (unless they are rebooted). We're running on Win2K. My computing background wants me to believe there's some kind of networking issue here - is that the case, or have you heard of this before at all?

How are things going in Halifax, btw? I hear that we lost a medic and a civilian from trees falling on vehicles. Sorry to hear about that.

Thanks,
--j.
Jason Low

mastr · Post by **mastr** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 4:15 pm

"after the change is made, for several hours, two of the four positions might still show......"

If you edit a listing in the alias database, it may not show up for some time. If you delete the alias and create a new one, they seem to update faster. FWIW, you do not have to re-boot the entire machine to "force" an update of the DB--just close the Centracom application out and restart the op position file.

Post by **wavetar** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:15 am

Alias changes 'should' show up within 5 minutes at all consoles, if everything's working correctly. We never had problems for years until the last upgrade...I don't recall the exact release number off-hand. Now we have the same issue you talk about. The only way to get some of the consoles to show the updated alias is to re-start the Centracom program. Affects different consoles at different times. Motorola knows about it, but there's basically nothing to be done about it, since we are running the highest Matrix available for NT 4.0, and Motorola has no plans to make changes to it. We basically have to wait until the entire system upgrades (part of a provincial-wide system upgrade) to the latest XP version of things...probably next year. There are so many different O/S & Service Pack & firmware revisions it's impossible for me to say whether yours has a known problem or not. Your best bet is to have the problem witnessed by a Motorola FTR. At least then it'll be dealt with as an actual 'issue', as opposed to a 'problem they've never heard of'.

Todd

Ray D O · Post by **Ray D O** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 9:38 am

You might also try locking and then unlocking adm on the adm server if you want to update several consoles.

Post by **wavetar** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:03 pm

Jay911 wrote:
How are things going in Halifax, btw? I hear that we lost a medic and a civilian from trees falling on vehicles. Sorry to hear about that.

Thanks,
--j.
Jason Low

Wow, I don't know if you edited your post to include that, or if I completely missed it!
Overall, things are ok. It's the first actual 'Category 1' hurricane to hit Halifax in something like 50-years. Normally, they hit landfall somewhere in the U.S. first, lose power, and often aren't even tropical storm status by the time we get it. Often times it doesn't appear any different than any other storm we might experience. This one was definitely different.
Approximately 200,000 people were left without power Monday morning. There were still about 150,000 as of noon today. I just had my power back on about an hour ago, so nearly two full days without it. Many others won't have it until Thursday or later. I definitely envied the guy up the street with the Honda generator running the whole time!
A couple of towers came down, but overall there wasn't much disruption in local wireless communications, including Police & Fire, and 911 dispatch. All generators & UPS systems worked as they should, which was nice, since I am one of the people who get called when things don't work so well. Other than about 3 hours today spent looking at our AMSS sites, I've more or less been on vacation since there's no power at work either. Tomorrow there's a generator on the way, or so I hear.
The news about the medic is true. A tree fell on the ambulance he was driving. Very sad. The civilian I heard about, but don't know any details...no power means no TV to keep up with the news!
We were basically taught a lesson in the power of Mother Nature, one we'll hopefully keep in mind the next time around, as many people were caught unprepared. I have a new-found respect for those living in Florida & the Carolinas, who see these things all too frequently.

Todd