I was also thinking of a third container that might be useful. A container, that interfaces to MQTT, that issues heartbeats, and can issue a shutdown command on equipment. The master controller would then have the ability to issue an mqtt shutdown command, listen for heartbeats, then when the heartbeat ceases, could issue a command to the IP Power Strip to turn off the power to that computer and report back status on the computer. This has the added thought that it would be universal, working on different operating systems. The code is pretty much the same, but the implementation is different.
This is a blog mostly about techie things, what I am doing to my apartment network on the cheap, IOT, 3D Printing, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, ESP32, ESP8266, Home Automation, Personal Weather Stations, Things That Go Bump in the Night, and some side issues that need discussing. Remember, sometimes the journey to an end is as much fun as the goal achieved!
