Hardware & Connectivity
ATX Control
When a target machine becomes unresponsive—such as during a kernel panic or catastrophic system hang—standard software reboot methodologies fail.
The ATX Control subsystem is an optional hardware module engineered to provide direct, out-of-band physical manipulation of the server's power state, completely bypassing the host operating system.
Connection Architecture
The ATX implementation utilizes a compact adapter board bridging the appliance and the target server's motherboard.
- Appliance Interface: The adapter interfaces directly with the dedicated 8-pin GPIO connector located on the side panel of the USBridge hardware.
- Motherboard Interface: The control cable terminates at the server's Front Panel Header. It can be wired in parallel with existing chassis buttons or utilized as a direct replacement.
Control Model and Automation
The hardware adapter is driven via precision GPIO signaling. Because contact closures are triggered programmatically, identical hardware actions can be executed seamlessly across multiple administrative control surfaces:
| Control Surface | Primary Use Case |
|---|---|
| Client Application | Interactive remote control and manual rack-level troubleshooting. |
| REST API Endpoints | Deep integration into existing data center management software and monitoring dashboards. |
| CLI and SSH | Scripted automation, allowing headless recovery agents to trigger physical reboots. |
Available Hardware Operations
The ATX Control module exposes physical power actions identical to manual interaction with the server's physical front-panel buttons.
- Power State Management: Execute standard Power On/Off cycles, initiate graceful shutdowns, or issue long-press forced power-off commands for completely locked systems.
- Hard Reset: Trigger an immediate hardware-level reset of the target machine, forcing a complete POST cycle without power removal.