Linux watchdog and systemd watchdog

systemdwatchdog

Any way to register application with systemd watchdog at runtime ?
I mean don't use systemd unit file, via systemd API for example

Linux watchdog is used for system reset only ? Can it be used for application reset ?

Best Answer

Systemd's watchdog can be mainly used for 3 different actions:

  • hardware reset (leveraging the CPU hardware watchdog exposed at /dev/watchdog). This is enabled by the RuntimeWatchdogSec= option in /etc/systemd/system.conf
  • application reset, as long as this is foreseen in the systemd unit definition
  • system reset as a fallback measure in response to multiple unsuccessful application resets. Also defined in the systemd unit

example unit file:

[Unit]
Description=My Little Daemon
Documentation=man:mylittled(8)

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mylittled
WatchdogSec=30s
Restart=on-failure
StartLimitInterval=5min
StartLimitBurst=4
StartLimitAction=reboot-force

The example is taken from: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/watchdog.html, which gives a pretty complete overview of what and how you can use the watchdog service.

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