Perle Systems Technical Note

Ping Probe Watchdog

In remote branch locations, it is imperative that IT equipment remain up and running at all times. This could be a local file server, POS, accounting ,CRM or an ERP system. A simple tool exists to test the availability of ethernet based equipment called a PING probe which are standards-based ICMP echo request packets . If a device does not respond in a timely fashion to a PING probe sent to its ethernet port, there is a good chance that the equipment has failed. Resolution and recovery can be made through access by administrators via an Out-of-Band connection to its serial console port or an automated watchdog device can monitor and then take corrective action as soon as a problem occures.

Perle IOLAN’s in conjunction with attached Perle RPS remote power switches can automatically power cycle equipment when the target Ethernet device fails to respond to periodic PING probes from the IOLAN.