Onoffrestart

Onoffrestart is a fault-recovery technique used in computing and embedded systems. The approach relies on deliberate cycles of turning a device or service on and off, with pauses between cycles, in order to clear transient faults and restore normal operation. It is typically employed when software-initiated resets are ineffective or when a hardware fault prevents normal boot.

Mechanism and implementation details: A cycle usually begins with an on phase in which the device powers up and initializes. If the system does not reach a healthy state within a predefined window, an off phase follows to cut power or stop the service, allowing a clean slate for the next attempt. Cycles continue for a fixed number of iterations or until a health check confirms proper operation. Implementations may use firmware watchdogs, operating-system scripts, or orchestration tools, and variants may apply backoff or throttling to reduce wear and power consumption.

Applications and use cases: Onoffrestart is used in scenarios with unreliable hardware or flaky software components, such as Internet of Things devices, edge compute nodes, consumer electronics, and some industrial controllers. It can serve as a last-resort recovery method when more graceful restart procedures fail, or when a quick reset is preferable to manual intervention.

Considerations and limitations: Repeated power cycling can cause data loss, wear on hardware components, and thermal stress. It may mask root causes rather than resolve them, and is not suitable for time-critical or safety-sensitive systems. Careful configuration, monitoring, and escalation policies are recommended.

See also: watchdog timer, reset, power cycling.