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Be Alerted When a Mac or SecuritySpy Freeze Up (Ping Monitoring Tools)?

edited April 2019 in SecuritySpy
Hello,

Can anyone recommend a way to be alerted remotely should SecuritySpy and/or the Mac running it freezes up? I am just starting to investigate various ping monitoring tools, but maybe some of you already have a well tested route that can be recommended. Here is more to the story...

I have a system dedicated to SecuritySpy that operates in a remote area and with Internet access. It is critical that it remain functional 24/7. Last year the Mac Mini that ran everything began to spontaneously restart (sadly, a known issue for some 2010 versions). Of course SecuritySpy picked right back up capturing video once restarted, but no communication of this event was available until I enabled an AppleScript that sent me an email after the restarts. There have been incidents in past years with other Macs where the computer froze up and required a manual restart. Very, very rarely over the 18 years of using SecuritySpy has the program itself done the same thing. I have a Mac Mini 2018 that is now at the heart of this particular setup and sure enough, it froze up for a yet to be determined reason a few days ago. My goal is to find a method that regularly checks in and makes sure the Mac and SecuritySpy are on the job.

So, any suggestions?


More Microchips Than Sense,
Dr. Z.

Comments

  • edited April 2019
    https://uptimerobot.com I use this, pointing towards my SS server on an external port. I get a notification if it loses connection so I can check what's happening.
  • I use Simon as well - it's pretty nifty because you can get it to relaunch the app, or even restart the box if it fails in a certain pattern / order.

    There's a difference between the app closing for some reason (crashing) and becoming unresponsive - in task manager it will say something like "Not responding" when this happens.

    The way I do it is to set up a montior in Simon that uses applescript to list cameras / perform some other non important function - if that script fails I know that SS is most probably "Not responding" or frozen for some reason, you can then tell Simon to force quit the app and relaunch it.

    The next problem you face - who watches the watcher! :D
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