1. KIU watches certain applications and monitors if they are still running. If an application no longer runs because it "unexpectedly quit" or because the user quit it, KIU will attempt to relaunch this application (and open certain documents) or restart the computer. This will ensure that your application is always running and available. This is especially important for all kinds of server applications.
2. KIU can restart your Mac at certain scheduled moments in time. This feature can for example be used to prevent memory fragmentation in your server.
3. KIU can be told to keep a selected application in front of all other applications.
4. KIU can be used to perform remote management of your Mac using a webbrowser. KIU has a tiny "embedded" webserver that allows you to remotely:
• restart/shutdown the Mac
• view, kill or restart running processes
• launch applications and execute Applescripts
• view logfiles generated by KIU or other applications
• get some info about the system.
5. KIU can send e-mail messages to you, actively alerting you that certain events took place: e.g. an application was relauched, server restarted, free diskspace of free memory is falling below a certain preset level, ...
Keep It Up requires System 7. It is compatible with all versions of the MacOS up to OS 9. Open Transport TCP/IP 1.1.1 or higher is required for the remote management and e-mail features.
B. What does Keep It Up NOT do ?
KIU will not restart the system in case of a "System Error". When this happens, you will get a "bomb" and the entire system comes to a halt. To cure this, you should run "Autoboot". Autoboot is another utility written by yours truly, which restarts a mac in case of a System Error or freeze up, and I recommend running it alongside with KIU.
KIU only acts on "application errors". These kinds of errors don't halt the entire system, but only one application and you get the infamous "The Application xxx has unexpectedly quit because an error of type ZZ occurred" message.
Keep It Up and AutoBoot together will ensure maximal availability of you computer.
C. How to use Keep It Up.
Configuring KIU is really simple. If you launch KIU for the first time, it will create a folder called "KIU StartUp Items" in the System's Preferences folder. There's also a "KIU WebLaunch Items" folder and a "KIU WebLog Items" folder, which are described in the remote management section below.
If you put an alias of an application in the "KIU StartUp Items" folder, or one or more aliases of documents belonging to the application, KIU will "watch" this application ("watched application") and relaunch it if it (unexpectedly) quits, re-opening the documents. KIU can check up to 75 aliases. Don't put both an alias to an application and aliases to documents of that application in the KIU Items.
KIU will launch all aliases in alphabetical order, which allows you to influence the launch order. Multiple documents belonging to the same application should be in close alphabetical proximity if you want to be able to predict launch order.
If the name of an alias in the KIU folder ends with a ".1" (e.g. myserverapp.1), this application will be kept in front of all other applications. This improves the performance of the selected application.
After you put an alias in the "KIU StartUp Items", you need to quit and relaunch Keep It Up, in order for KIU to notice the changes in the folder.
All you still have to do, is put an alias of KIU in the System's "Startup Items" folder. At startup, KIU will be launched, and KIU will launch the "watched applications", opening the selected documents. Do not put an alias to an application in both the "KIU StartUp Items" and the System's "StartUp Items", because to function most efficiently, KIU must be allowed to launch the applications.
While KIU is running, it will put up a small window:
This window is only there because the Mac OS likes to quit applications that have no windows open in case of low memory conditions. This little window prevents Keep It Up from being quit.
D. Keep It Up preferences
The preferences dialog offers several options:
General Options
KIU is often used for Macs that are accessible by the general public to ensure that certain applications (e.g. a demo, kiosks, ..) keep running even if the user quits them. By using a password, you can prevent KIU itself from being quit. If you enable "Ask password on quit", KIU will refuse to quit unless a correct password is supplied. On restart/shutdown, this password is not needed.
You can also protect the preferences dialog using the same password.
Delay Options
Activate KIU after ... minutes of time
If one of the "watched applications" is no longer running, because it "unexpectedly quit" or because the user quit it, KIU will attempt to relaunch this application and open any documents that were in the "KIU StartUp Items" folder.
As a consequence, when you're sitting at your computer, you would never be able to quit such an app, because it would be relaunched immediately. To avoid this, KIU will not become active until a certain time has elapsed in which the user performed no keyboard/mouse interaction. This time is user configurable.
Launch each app with a delay of ... seconds
After launching an application, KIU will delay the launch of the next application by a certain amount of time. If you have 2 applications A and B which depend on each other and you need to make sure A is fully initialized before B is launched, increasing this delay will do the trick.
Delay before restart
KIU can restart your Mac (see below).The Mac will wait for this period before it actually restarts the computer, putting up a notice and sounding a voice alert to warn anybody sitting at the computer that a restart is imminent. You can now still quit KIU to prevent the restart.
Restart Options
If KIU does not succeed to relaunch the app due to an error or if the number of application relaunches exceeds a certain number, it will restart the entire system. Before KIU restarts the computer, it will warn you that a restart is pending (notification with a voice alert).
The options are:
"Restart this Mac": if you uncheck this, KIU will simply exit instead of restarting the computer. You should uncheck this option if you only want KIU to attempt relaunches but never to restart the Mac.
"Number of Relaunches": if this number is exceeded, the computer will be restarted. Don't set this number too high: it's better to restart the entire Mac now and then to increase stability. Only relaunches are counted (not the initial launch of the applications). If set to zero, KIU will never attempt to relaunch an app, but will always restart the computer if an application quits.
"Restart Method": There are 2 restart methods, both having specific advantages and disadvantages:
• Clean Restart: First all applications are terminated, then the computer is restarted. Unfortunately, if an application puts up a dialog when asked to quit, it can block the restart process indefinitely. To avoid this situation, you should install Okey Dokey which automatically dismisses dialogs after a certain time period (see KIU FAQ). If you use Okey Dokey, you must set the Okey Dokey activation time to less than 60 seconds. Sadly, Okey Dokey doesn't work for all types of dialog.
-Advantages: this is a safe way to restart without any data loss
-Disadvantages: the restart may get blocked, probably leaving your server in an undesirable state.
• Forced Restart: First an attempt is made to terminate all applications, but after the given time period KIU will proceed with the restart, even if one or more applications have not yet terminated. You should set this time period high enough to give all applications ample time to quit (recommended: 120-240 seconds). If you use Okey Dokey, set the Okey Dokey activation time sufficiently low compared to the forced restart period (e.g. 30 seconds, never higher than 60 seconds)
-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: some unsaved data may be lost from the application which did not quit.
The restart 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. Fase 2 lasts until all applications have quit (Clean Restart) or for the given time period (Forced Restart).
• phase 3: KIU terminates the finder and also writes the names of any remaining applications to the KIU log file
• phase 4: KIU umounts all disks and restarts the computer.
Notice that once that phase 1 has begun, the restart can only be stopped by quitting KIU.
E. 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.
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 file)
You must enter a username (always "kiu") and the password you chose.
You can now perform several tasks:
• General System Info: get some statistics such as the remote system's uptime, free harddisk space, and the system load (a system load > 120 indicates a busy system).
• Shutdown & Restart: remotely shutdown or restart your Mac. These commands come in "Clean" and "Forced" versions, both having specific advantages and disadvantages:
• Clean restart/shutdown: First all applications are terminated, then the computer is restarted/shutdown. Unfortunately, if an application puts up a dialog when asked to quit, it can block the process indefinitely. To avoid this situation, you should install Okey Dokey which automatically dismisses dialogs after a certain time period (see KIU FAQ). If you use Okey Dokey, you must set the Okey Dokey activation time to less than 60 seconds. Sadly, Okey Dokey doesn't work for all types of dialog.
-Advantages: this is a safe way to restart/shutdown without any data loss
-Disadvantages: the process may get blocked, probably leaving your server in an undesirable state.
• Forced restart/shutdown: First an attempt is made to terminate all applications, but after a given time period (see Restart options, forced start period) KIU will proceed with the restart/shutdown, even if one or more applications have not yet terminated. You should set this time period high enough to give all applications ample time to quit (recommended: 120-240 seconds). If you use Okey Dokey, set the Okey Dokey activation time sufficiently low compared to the forced restart period (e.g. 30 seconds, never higher than 60 seconds)
-Advantages: always works, even if some application doesn't quit. In case of a restart, this ensures your Mac always restarts and becomes available again. If availability of your server is very important, select this method.
-Disadvantages: some unsaved data may be lost from the application which did not quit.
The restart 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. Fase 2 lasts until all applications have quit (Clean Restart) or for the given time period (Forced Restart).
• phase 3: KIU terminates the finder and also writes the names of any remaining applications to the KIU log file
• phase 4: KIU umounts all disks and 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.
The "Quit all apps" command will only try to quit all open applications except for KIU and the finder.
• Processes: a process is another word for a program running on your Mac. You can view all running processes, and kill (=quit) or restart (=quit+launch again) them. The process table shows all processes, even the ones that are normally not visible.
Note 1: it is possible that a program puts up a dialog when you try to kill or restart it. This prevents the completion of your remote command. To avoid this situation, use Okey Dokey (see KIU FAQ).
Note 2: if you kill a process, and this process is on the list of "watched applications", KIU will relaunch the application.
• Launch Applications: you can remotely launch applications or run an AppleScript. To make an application available for remote launch, you must first make an alias to the applescript/application and copy it to the "KIU Weblaunch Items" folder in the preferences folder. 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.
• 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. The file must be a plain textfile (i.e. type 'TEXT'). Binary logfiles will not show up in the "View Logfiles" menu. You can also choose which portion of the logfile should be shown (last 4KB-64KB)
F. E-mail notification
KIU can send e-mail messages to you, actively alerting you of certain events (e.g. an application was relauched, server restart,...). You can enable this feature in the preferences dialog:
Enter the sender and destination e-mail addresses in the From: and To: fields. You can enter multiple destination addresses separated by commas. The From: and To: addresses can be the same. Many SMTP servers check if the sender address is a valid one, others let you fill in anything you want. If you get any errors in the logfile saying something like "we do not relay", the SMTP server does not accept the sender address.
You also need to enter the (dns) name or IP address of a valid SMTP server.
When enabled, KIU will send e-mail notifications when
° an application gets relaunched
° KIU restarts the Mac
° somebody uses an invalid username/password to access the KIU webserver
° an alarm is triggered (see below)
The KIU e-mail client will only try to deliver e-mail once. If it doesn't succeed, the message is discarded. Any error messages can be found in the KIU log file.
G. Alarm Triggers
KIU can monitor the memory and disk resources of your Mac. If free memory or disk space falls below a certain preset level, it will alarm you by sending an e-mail notification and creating an entry in the KIU log file.
You can enable this feature in the preferences menu:
° make sure you enable the e-mail notifications (otherwise the alarms will only create an entry in the KIU logfile)
° enable the disk and/or memory check and enter the level at which an alarm should be triggered. Typical values for disks are 5%-10%. Typical values for memory are 10%-30%
KIU checks free memory for each individual application, except for some applications which are know to grab all available memory for buffering (eg. Filemaker Pro). KIU also checks the largest unused memory block (= free memory to launch new applications).
KIU checks all disks for free space, except for read-only disks.
The checks are repeated about every 5 minutes. When one or more alarms are triggered, KIU will send an e-mail message for each alarm. It will then stop sending messages during the period you entered as "notification interval". After this period, the same or new alarms can be triggered again.
H. Log File
KIU always keeps a log file of all relaunches, restarts, errors, etc... If you have any trouble with KIU, always check the log file for clues.
You will find this "KIU logfile" in the Preferences Folder. You can view this log file by selecting "Open Log File" from the file menu. This will launch BBEdit and open the log file, so you must have BBEdit on your harddisk.
If you want to use another text editor, create a file using your favorite text editor and use exactly the same name as the original logfile. Now replace the original logfile with the one you just created.
I. Schedule
When you select "Schedule" from the File menu, you can specify 2 scheduling options:
First of all you can set KIU to disable any application relaunching during 2 periods of the day. Check the appropriate checkbox to activate this option. Set the periods by clicking on the 'begin' and 'end' time displays (00:00 in the boxes). You can reset a period by setting the begin time equal to the end time
Secondary, you can also tell KIU to restart the computer on a regular time basis. You may have all kinds of reasons to do this, e.g. because sometimes your server becomes too slow if it isn't restarted from time to time. Check the appropriate checkbox to activate this option. Set the days of the week on which you want the computer to be restarted and click on the "at 00:00 " time display to set the correct hour.
The scheduled restart uses the same restart method selected in the "Restart Preferences". Read the section "Restart Options" in this manual for a detailed description of the restart process.
Note: the restart will not happen if:
* the computer is not "idle" at the time of restart because somebody is using the Mac.
* other applications do not give KIU processing time at restart time.
J. Shareware
This software is shareware. This is not another term for free software, as many people seem to think. Shareware software must be paid, just like ordinary commercial software. The difference is that a shareware author uses cheap distribution channels to keep costs down and this system also allows you to evaluate the software before you decide to purchase it.
You may evaluate KIU for a reasonable amount of time. You will be regularly reminded to pay your shareware fee by a notification. This message, when not dismissed, will remove itself after 1 minute to allow foreground processing to continue. The message will also be logged.
After you pay your fee, you will receive a serial number, which you must use to register your copy. The messages will disappear.
Distribution:
You can distribute this software by giving it away to friend, upload it to a BBS or online services like Compuserve or AOL, or send it to any ftp site. Basically you can distribute it any way you like, as long as you don't ask any money for it, other than a small charge related to distribution costs (cost of a disk, postage or download fee) and keep it together with this unmodified document in the original compressed archive this product came in.
You may not sell this product or bundle it with any other products (commercial or other) without explicit written permission by the author of this software.
You may not modify Keep It Up or this document in any way nor distribute Keep It Up without this document or the other files and applications that came with it.
Price:
The fee is U.S. $22 for one copy; $17/copy if you buy more than one copy.. Mind you: you don't pay for the number of users, but for the number of Macs you run KIU on.
A site license is U.S. $220.
You will receive a personal registration number that will reflect the number of copies you paid for .
Payment:
All shareware payments are handled by Kagi. Look in the Registration folder for details on how to register.
Contact info:
e-mail: karl.pottie@village.uunet.be or karl@kagi.com
Check the AutoBoot/KIU web pages if you want info on the latest release, download sites, tips, ...
http://www.vl-brabant.be/mac
If you want to send me a bug report, be sure to state Macintosh model, system version, used inits (system extensions) and cdevs (control panels). Always include the KIU log file. Describe the problem as clearly as you can: what happens ? Which circumstances ? Can you eliminate the problem by turning off some extensions ?
LIMITED WARRANTY AND LIABILITY:
THIS SOFTWARE COMES 'AS IS'. I CAN NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS OF DATA CAUSED BY THIS PRODUCT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, WHATEVER THE NATURE OF THE DAMAGE. I DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT KEEP IT UP WILL IN PERFORM AS DESCRIBED IN THIS MANUAL.
