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Power cycle a device that has gone offline

Reboot an unresponsive room panel or screen by cutting its power for ten seconds, triggered the moment the health monitor notices it stopped reporting. For FM and IT teams who currently walk to the rack to do this by hand.

What this workflow does

  • A Ticket Opened trigger fires when the health monitor opens a ticket for a device that stopped reporting.
  • An If condition limits it to devices you're willing to reboot unattended.
  • A Power Cycle Outlet action cuts the outlet feeding that device for ten seconds. The power unit's firmware times the off period, so the workflow doesn't wait around.
  • An Add Comment action records the attempt on the ticket, so whoever picks it up knows a reboot has already been tried.
  • A second If checks whether the power unit actually confirmed the command, and sends a Direct Message when it didn't.

Workflow canvas: Ticket Opened → If → Power Cycle Outlet → Add Comment → If (Unconfirmed devices is not empty), with the second condition's true edge going to Send Direct Message and its false edge unconnected.

Prerequisites

  • Workflows enabled for your organization. See Enable workflows for your org.
  • Tickets and the health monitor enabled, so device-offline tickets are opened.
  • A Gude Expert Power Control unit connected, with Permit CLI commands enabled on it.
  • You know which outlet feeds the device. Naming outlets after what is plugged into them makes this obvious — see the setup article.

Build it

1. Create the workflow

Workflows → New workflow → name it Reboot offline panels → Create.

2. Add the trigger

Add node → Triggers → Ticket Opened.

3. Restrict it to devices worth rebooting

Add an If condition. Rebooting anything that goes quiet is rarely what you want — a battery sensor doesn't need its power cut. Match on the device's tag, model, or space so only the panels and screens you've decided about reach the action.

4. Add the Power Cycle Outlet action

  1. Add node → Actions → Power Cycle Outlet.
  2. Wire it from the true edge of the condition.
  3. Outlets — pick the outlet that feeds the device, or template it from a Find Devices node if you want one workflow to cover a whole rack.
  4. Off for (seconds) — 10 is enough for most equipment. Give a screen or a small PC longer if it needs to discharge fully.

5. Record the attempt on the ticket

Add an Add Comment action after the power cycle, so the ticket carries a note that a reboot was attempted and when.

6. Escalate when the reboot isn't confirmed

This is the step worth not skipping. The action has a single output — it doesn't branch by itself. What it returns is every outlet sorted into buckets, and Unconfirmed means the power unit never answered, so nobody knows whether the outlet actually moved. Branch on that with a second condition:

  1. Add node → Conditions → If, wired after Add Comment.
  2. Value 1 — click the data-reference icon and pick the Power Cycle Outlet node's Unconfirmed devices.
  3. Operation — Is Not Empty. It takes no second value.
  4. Wire the true edge to a Send Direct Message action. Leave false unconnected — a confirmed reboot needs nobody.

Putting this condition after Add Comment means the ticket gets its note either way, which matters most in exactly the case where the unit went quiet.

Note: the condition still reads the power cycle's result with Add Comment in between — data references are keyed by node, not by edge.

Try it

Unplug the network cable on a test device and wait for the health monitor to open its ticket. The outlet should cut and restore, and the ticket should pick up a comment. The Executions panel shows which bucket the outlet landed in.

Watch out for

  • Don't power cycle in a loop. If the device doesn't come back, the ticket stays open and the health monitor may open more. Add a Cooldown so one device can't be rebooted repeatedly within, say, an hour.
  • Anything else on that outlet reboots too. One outlet often feeds more than one thing.
  • A reboot fixes a symptom. A device that needs power cycling weekly is worth a look rather than an automation.

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