Force reboot of a remote Linux machine

To force the kernel to reboot the system we will be making use of the magic SysRq key.

The magic_SysRq_key provides a means to send low level instructions directly to the kernel via the /proc virtual file system.

To enable the use of  the magic SysRq option type the following at the command prompt:

echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq

Then to reboot the machine simply enter the following:

echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

Voilà! Your system will instantly reboot.