KeepFCalive

Tietotori
Download keepFCalive 1.6

Requirements
• FCS and/or FCIS running on Mac OS X or why not on Linux :)
• Cron (included in Mac OS X and most Linux distributions) or launchd on Mac OS X 10.5

Instructions
• Download keepFCalive_1.6.dmg if you are using Mac OS X.
• Download keepFCalive_1.6.tgz if you are using Linux.
• Read the installation section.

License
© Joakim Nordling
Use for free at your own risk, do not sell the script.
If you make improvements to the script I would like to get a copy of the modified version.

Feedback
Feedback, questions, improvements and enhancement suggestions can be sent to:
joakim.nordling1222005_150002_1.pngtietotori.fi

Version history
       2009-04-25
• I've now added instructions about how to use launchd instead of cron to run keepFCalive (see the Installation page). The cause of the initial problem was that the option "AbandonProcessGroup" must be enabled, or launchd will kill the server when keepFCalive has done it's job.
       2008-07-21
• There has been a few questions about keepFCalive on Mac OS X 10.5. The 1.6 version seems to be running fine at least on a few servers running Mac OS X 10.5.2. Please note that the recommended installation is to use cron to start keepFCalive every 5 minutes. Some early experiments with launchd indicates that keepFCalive when run from launchd instead of cron is not capable of starting fcisd (or actually it starts, but terminates the second after). The problem is believed to be in the fcisctl command, which also fails when run from launchd. Of course there may be some kind of parameter that needs to be set for launchd that could make it work.
• It has been noted that cron produces this kind of lines in system.log:
Jul 21 23:25:00 Jockes-iMac com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10d490.cron[12356]): Could not setup Mach task special port 9: (os/kern) no access:
This is actually not a problem in keepFCalive, but in how Mac OS X 10.5.x handles cron. Fore more information please have a look at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5666826 
1.6     2006-01-02
• Now included a double-clickable Crontab installer to make the installation easier than before on Mac OS X. (included in the .tgz release, but not tested on Linux, neither documented or supported).
• Improved documentation (fixed some screenshots).
• keepFCalive now creats a log if one does not already exist, as the documentation implies.
1.5     for Linux               2005-12-28
• Celbrating that OpenText released FCS and FCIS 8.0 on Linux. Uploaded the .tgz file for the use of those running servers on Linux. The code is the same as for Mac OS X, but the "Double Clickable" folder is not included, since it's of no use on Linux.
• Slightly updated the documentation to match the Linux installation procedure.
• Improvement suggestions for making the installation guide better is appreciated!
• Linux users might notice they are expected to be more familiar with the terminal (less documentation for them). Please don't hesitate to ask me if something isn't easy to understand.
1.5             2005-10-15
• NB the default location for keepFCalive and associated files is no longer ~/bin/, it is ~/keepFCalive/, this means that all previous users of keepFCalive will have to modify their crontabs, please see the installation section for further information!!!
• This version now suits for use on two machine server set up, so you can install it on both your FCS and FCIS server, whithout modifying the script itself. Read more about this in the "Installation" section.
• Small changes in paths to make the script run on Linux too (a download in a better format than .dmg will soon be available for users of Linux).
• Upgrade instructions from previous versions and information:
- As mentioned above, you need to change the crontab!
- The logfile will remain in the old default place, ~/keepFCalive.log
- All special files (disableFCalive, alwayslogFCalive... now live in ~/keepFCalive/ and not in ~/bin/
1.1.5           2005-09-03
• This is what was supposed to be the 1.1.4 release. I accidentally made a beta version available, please DO NOT USE the version 1.1.4!!!
1.1.4           2005-08-31
• This version should be compatible with Mac OS X 10.4.x. Changed the way the script checks for existence of files.
• Corrected a bug. If generallog didn't exist and keepFCalive had been disabled, the script wasn't disabled!
• EnableFCalive now verifies it did enable keepFCalive. It will now report if it failed to enable keepFCalive. (The only known reason why this could happen is if the disablefile is not writable by keepFCalive).
• Thanks to BJ Thaman for reporting the Mac OS X 10.4 compliance problem in version 1.1.3 (and previous).
1.1.3           2005-05-08
• Added "double clickable icons" to disable and enable keepFCalive and one to shutdownFC (theese scripts are just easier ways to access the different controlscripts released previously).
• Minor improvements in the online documentation "Maintenance" section.
1.1.2           2005-02-28
• Bug Fixed. Now KeepFCalive always writes to log that it is disabled if it is both disabled and set to always log.
• shutdownFC.sh had a typo. The later comment should have been "Shut down FCS" not FCIS. Thanks to Andrew Penner for notifying me about this!
1.1.1           2005-02-12
• Changed old "debug" variable to look after the file/folder "alwayslogFCalive" instead. This means end users do not need to modify the script itself if they'd like to see cron is executing the script.
• Distributing as disk image, altough it is bigger that way. This way the files are executable by deafult and no "chmoding" is required for end users.
• Online documentation and improved installation instructions
1.1             2005-02-06
• Added possibility to disable keepFCalive using a file or folder named disableFCalive or disableFCalive~.
• Three new controlscripts
        • disableFCalive.sh
        • shutdownFC.sh
        • enableFCalive.sh
• Logging improvements
1.0             2004-11-07
• Initial release