> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mango-5m.gitbook.io/mango5m-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mango-5m.gitbook.io/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection.md).

# Resource Protection

A second resource whose only job is to keep the admin menu running - and to record what happened while it was not.

Mango Admin ships with a second, server-only resource. Its only job is the first one's continued existence.

Stop the admin menu and it starts again on its own, within a couple of seconds. Everything that happens while it is gone is held and handed back. And the attempt itself becomes a security incident with whatever the server can honestly say about who made it.

{% hint style="info" %}
**The goal is not to make the engine incapable of stopping the resource.** Anybody with your server console ultimately controls your server, and this page will not pretend otherwise. The goal is that *any unauthorised stop results in automatic recovery and an auditable incident*.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
**There is no page for it in the panel, by design.** A guard with a dashboard is one more thing to keep an eye on. Everything it does is written where you already look: **Audit Log → Watchdog**, next to the bans and reports from the same minute. The console and Discord get the same lines as they happen.
{% endhint %}

## What it is for, day to day

Sabotage is the reason it exists. It is not the reason you notice it.

**The panel goes down for boring reasons.** A bad config edit, a Lua error after an update, somebody stopping it to debug and getting distracted, a resource that failed above it in `server.cfg`. It starts it again, gives up after three tries in two minutes rather than hammering, and then retries quietly every five minutes — so fixing the broken file brings the panel back without anyone remembering to.

**It catches the failure that looks like success.** A resource whose Lua died on load reports `started` forever. Nothing else on your server notices; your staff just say the panel will not open. The heartbeat asks the panel to answer through its own export, and three missed answers get it restarted.

**It makes restarting the panel free.** The panel holds a lot in memory — the audit log, the population and telemetry charts, the sparklines, uptime, everyone's join time, a frozen sky. Restarting normally throws all of that away. The guard keeps a rolling copy and hands it back, so updating mid-shift no longer costs your staff their log and their graphs.

**Nothing is lost while it is gone.** Joins, leaves, deaths, kills, reports, honeypot trips and telemetry are held and replayed into the audit log, marked as caught by the guard. Two minutes of downtime stops being a two-minute hole in the record.

**Players do not hit a wall during that window.** `/report` keeps working, bans are still enforced at the door, decoys stay armed. Downtime stops meaning "unmoderated".

**And it is an operations record, not only a security one.** Every stop, restart and refresh is logged with whatever the server can honestly say about who did it, and it can post to Discord. "Why did the panel restart at 3am" has an answer — usually txAdmin, not a person.

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>How It Works</strong></td><td>What it watches, how it recovers, and why it cannot loop.</td><td><a href="/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection/how-it-works.md">How It Works</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Installing the Watchdog</strong></td><td>Renaming it, naming the two resources, and the order they start in.</td><td><a href="/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection/installing-the-watchdog.md">Installing the Watchdog</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>While the Panel Is Down</strong></td><td>What is held for it, and what it gets back.</td><td><a href="/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection/while-the-panel-is-down.md">While the Panel Is Down</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Incidents and Who Stopped It</strong></td><td>What the server can honestly tell you, and what it will not guess.</td><td><a href="/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection/incidents-and-who-stopped-it.md">Incidents and Who Stopped It</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Security Actions</strong></td><td>What happens automatically to whoever did it.</td><td><a href="/mango5m-docs/resources/mango-admin/resource-protection/security-actions.md">Security Actions</a></td></tr></tbody></table>