There is a command you can run from an nirspecserver xterm prompt as any numbered account user nirspec status to check the health of communications and servers.
Here is what the output of nirspec status should look like when everything is in a good state:
[nspec5@nirspecserver ~]$ nirspec status nsdewar1 : is running on nirspecserver. nsdewar1 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsdewar1 : 1 2200 1184 2121 1165160 14460 3.0 4-03:26:10 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython2 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nslakeshored -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsdewar/nsdewar_dispatch_1.conf nsdewar2 : is running on nirspecserver. nsdewar2 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsdewar2 : 1 2452 1184 2121 1165160 12568 3.0 4-03:34:05 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython2 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nslakeshored -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsdewar/nsdewar_dispatch_2.conf nsdewar3 : is running on nirspecserver. nsdewar3 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsdewar3 : 1 2701 1184 2121 996388 12568 1.2 1-16:40:14 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython2 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nslakeshored -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsdewar/nsdewar_dispatch_3.conf nsdewar4 : is running on nirspecserver. nsdewar4 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsdewar4 : 1 8172 7450 2121 705468 24872 0.2 00:28:37 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython2 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nsvariand -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsdewar/nsdewar_dispatch_4.conf nsheaders : is running on nirspecserver. nsheaders : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsheaders : 1 15454 14730 2121 4760964 90628 8.5 5-01:06:26 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/bin/keygrabber -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsheaders/keyheaderd.conf -y /kroot/rel/default/data/nsheaders/keyheader.conf nsmores : is running on nirspecserver. nsmores : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsmores : 1 3213 1184 2121 1852688 19116 4.6 6-06:55:06 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython3 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nsmoresd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsmores/nsmores.conf nsmotor1 : is running on nirspecserver. nsmotor1 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsmotor1 : 1 13143 1184 2121 162752 94500 3.9 09:39:36 /usr/bin/tclsh8.5 /kroot/rel/default/bin/galildisp.tcl nsmotor nsmotor_dispatch_1 nsmotor2 : is running on nirspecserver. nsmotor2 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsmotor2 : 1 3730 1184 2121 159860 36460 3.9 5-06:13:22 /usr/bin/tclsh8.5 /kroot/rel/default/bin/galildisp.tcl nsmotor nsmotor_dispatch_2 nsmotor3 : is running on nirspecserver. nsmotor3 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsmotor3 : 1 3979 1184 2121 715948 6172 0.0 00:26:20 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython3 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nsmotor/nsadamd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsmotor/nsmotor_dispatch_3.conf nsmotor4 : is running on nirspecserver. nsmotor4 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsmotor4 : 1 18094 17888 2121 1342724 32316 2.1 2-21:20:05 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython3 /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nsmotor/nsrotd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsmotor/nsmotor_dispatch_4.conf nspower1 : is running on nirspecserver. nspower1 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nspower1 : 1 4228 1184 2121 707528 28932 0.4 13:14:51 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nspowerd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nspower/nspower_1.conf nspower2 : is running on nirspecserver. nspower2 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nspower2 : 1 4485 1184 2121 707528 32712 0.4 13:04:44 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nspowerd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nspower/nspower_2.conf nspower3 : is running on nirspecserver. nspower3 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nspower3 : 1 4749 1184 2121 707528 28536 0.4 13:08:15 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nspowerd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nspower/nspower_3.conf nspower4 : is running on nirspecserver. nspower4 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nspower4 : 1 5030 1184 2121 707528 28344 0.4 13:00:17 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nspowerd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nspower/nspower_4.conf nsrestart3 : is running on nirspecserver. nsrestart3 : PPID PID PGID UID VSZ RSS %CPU TIME COMMAND nsrestart3 : 1 5404 1184 2121 620376 5348 0.1 04:59:05 /kroot/rel/default/bin/kpython /kroot/rel/default/sbin/nsrestartd -c /kroot/rel/default/data/nsrestart/nsrestart_3.conf