No, this is a tool that can be used in a well designed architecture. Would I do this with a single database server, probably not. Would I ever run a single database server? Also probably not.
Also, by this point, you’ve probably already kernel panicked or something. There’s not much left that can be saved and you probably needed that backup five minutes before the host came up.
You need an OS app to run and a setting in the BIOS. The app at the OS level gives a heartbeat to the watchdog module on the mother board. If you miss some heartbeats, the firmware on the motherboard sends the reset command.