KB / Dedicated Servers / DreamCatcher
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DreamCatcher Plans
The complete description of the DreamCatcher Plans is available here.
To choose a particular plan, please write to support with your choice, and we'll set you up within 48 hours.
DreamServers Panel
The DreamServers Panel provides some of the DreamCatcher functionality.
The Reboots Subtab provides you the capacity to reboot or powercycle your machine.
A reboot is a clean shutdown and restart of your server. Services are stopped cleanly, and the machine is then rebooted. This is ordinarily a safe operation and generally takes just a few minutes.
If a server is unresponsive, a clean reboot is not always possible. If you are unable to connect to your server via telnet or ssh, then a powercycle may be necessary. Power to your server will be turned off for 15 seconds and then restored. Once power is restored, the server will boot up normally.
The Services Subtab provides you with information about and some control over services running on your machine.
Services can have often several commands run upon them. For example, the following four commands can be applied to the "mail" service: update, config, stop, or restart.
- update: a partial configuration, configuring only the information that has changed since the last configuration, then restart or reload the service.
- config: a full configuration (from "scratch"), then restart or reload the service.
- stop: shut down the service
- restart: restart the service
It should be noted that a config or a restart will not necessarily fix a broken service (though it often will). There may be complicated reasons why your service isn't working, such as a hung process or overloading.
Clicking on show service execution history will show you a history of all the services that have been acted upon in some fashion by the DreamHost automated system.
For example, you might notice that new users were successfully configured at 4pm, or that your web statistics (analog) were successfully calculated at 2:30am.
In general, many of the services and commands might seem fairly cryptic. However, there may be special circumstances under which the ability to run the commands or view the data found within the Services Subtab could be very valuable to you as our customer. Under normal operations however, this subtab will likely not prove that relevant to your organization.
How can I begin receiving DreamCatcher Notifications?
To begin receiving DreamCatcher Notifications, simply write DreamHost Technical Support with a list of email addresses. Within 24 hours, those addresses will begin to receive notifications relevant to your machine(s).
We recommend using at least two addresses, one being a regular (preferably non-DreamHost) email address, and the other being a mobile device which you carry on your person regularly, such as your cellular phone or pager. Additionally, if possible, it's generally wise for multiple people within your organization to receive the notifications; you never know when you might not be available to take care of a problem.
