Keep-It-Up Remote Management

KIU has a tiny "embedded" webserver that allows you to remotely manage your Mac.

You can enable this webserver in the preferences dialog. You will be asked to enter a password, if you had not done so already. You can also choose the port number on which the webserver runs (>1023). This way you can prevent any conflict with a real webserver or other network software.

If you use the MacOS X personal firewall, you need to add a port corresponding to the portnumber you chose above, like this:

firewall_options

To remotely manage your Mac: from any computer, point a browser to your Mac using the portnumber you chose.

e.g.:

http://mymac.mydomain.com:2666
or
http://143.14.78.22:2666

(If you don't know the URL for your Mac, consult the KIU FAQ )

You must enter a username (always "kiu") and the password you chose.

You can now perform several tasks using the webinterface. Notice that this webinterface deliberately doesn't use fancy graphics, to ensure speedy access even over slow connections.

websample

1. General System Info:

Get some statistics such as the remote system's uptime, free harddisk space, and the system load.

the system load reflects the average processor load over the past few minutes. On single CPU systems this number is more or less equivalent to a percentage of available processor power, e.g. a load of 70 means the CPU is used for 70%, a load of 150 means the CPU is overloaded by 50%. KIU indicates if the load is low, medium or high by changing color from green to red
the volume table gives information about each mounted volume such as Free Space, Volume Size, number of Files, number of Directories, Volume Last modified.

2. Memory Statistics

Get statistics about the memory usage of your Mac and determine if you should add more RAM to speed up your Mac.

3. Shutdown & Restart:

A. Remotely shutdown or restart your Mac.

These commands come in "Clean" and "Forced" versions, both having specific advantages and disadvantages:

Clean Restart/shutdown:	Forced Restart/shutdown:

First all applications are terminated, then the computer is restarted/shut down. Unfortunately, if an application puts up a dialog when asked to quit, it can block this process indefinitely.	First an attempt is made to terminate all applications in a normal way. After a given time period KIU will Force Quit any applications that are still running, allowing this process to proceed. You should set this time period high enough to give all applications ample time to quit (recommended:180-300 seconds)
Advantages: this is a safe way to restart/shut down without any data loss	Advantages: always works, even if some application doesn't quit. This ensures your Mac always restarts and becomes available again. If availability of your server is very important, select this method.
Disadvantages: this process may get blocked, probably leaving your server in an undesirable state.	Disadvantages: some unsaved data may be lost from applications that are Forced Quit.

The restart/shuts down happens in 5 phases:

phase 0: KIU notifies anybody sitting at the computer that a restart is in progress.

phase 1: KIU asks all applications to quit and waits 10 seconds

phase 2: (optional, only if some apps did not quit yet). Every minute, KIU will ask each remaining application to quit. As a side effect, your Mac may beep every minute. Phase 2 lasts until all applications have quit (Clean Restart) or for the given time period (Forced Restart).

phase 3: KIU Force Quits any remaining applications.

phase 4: KIU restarts or shuts down the computer.

Notice that once that phase 1 has begun, the restart/shutdown can only be stopped by quitting KIU. The webserver remains active during these phases and other commands can be given, e.g. if you notice that a Clean Restart/Shutdown got blocked, you can still give a Forced Restart/Shutdown command. When a restart/shutdown is in progress, the current phase of the restart/shutdown is shown at the bottom of the webpage. This is updated each time you go to another page.

B. "Quit all apps"

This will try to quit all open applications except for KIU, the finder and the Logonwindow.

C. Force Quit the Classic Environment

This will force quit the Classic environment and any Classic Applications that may be running.

4. Processes:

A process is another word for a program running on your Mac. You can

view all running processes
Quit or Restart any process. It is possible that a program puts up a dialog when you try to Quit or Restart it. This prevents the completion of your remote command.
Force Quit any MacOS X application. This will not work for Classic Applications. Try a regular Quit first, because any unsaved data will be lost.

Notes:

the processtable only contains true MacOS applications (no Unix processes). Unix processes can not be managed by this version of KIU-X.
if you quit a process, and this process is on the list of "watched applications", KIU will relaunch the application.

5. Launch Applications/Open documents

You can remotely launch applications, open documents or run an AppleScript. To make an application/document/script available for remote launch, you must first make an alias to it and copy it to the "KIU Weblaunch Items" folder in the preferences folder (use the Open Itemfolders menu to locate this folder). Then choose File->Rescan Itemfolders (or use the Rescan Itemfolders weblink) to make the aliases show up. Applescripts must be saved as "application", option "never show startup screen".

The possibility to remotely run an Applescript allows you to perform any remote management task that you can write an Applescript for.

Note: it's only possible to launch true MacOS applications this way, you can't launch Unix processes or scripts.

6. View Logfiles:

You can remotely view logfiles generated by KIU or any other application. To make a logfile available for remote viewing, you must first make an alias to the logfile and copy it to the "KIU WebLog Items" folder in the preferences folder (use the Open Itemfolders menu to locate this folder). Then choose File->Rescan Itemfolders (or use the Rescan Itemfolders weblink) to make the aliases show up.

The file must be a plain textfile (i.e. type 'TEXT'). Binary logfiles will not show up in the "View Logfiles" menu. It's possible that Unix-type logfiles don't show up either. In that case, simply rename the alias to make it end in ".log" to make it appear in the menu.

You can choose which portion of the logfile should be shown (last 4KB-256KB). Choose small portions if your network connection is very slow.

7. Rescan Itemfolders:

If you add or delete any items in the KIU itemfolders (Startup Items, Weblaunch Items, Weblog Items), you need to tell KIU to rescan these folders before KIU will see these changes. You can do this by selecting this link in the webpage or choosing File->Rescan Itemfolders from the application menu.