Wake on LAN > Schedule

This page only displays if Desktop Policy is installed.

The Schedule page powers on a machine that is offline. Typically machines are powered off in the evening to conserve energy, then powered on in the middle of the night to perform maintenance. Power on automation is performed using a scheduled Wake on LAN command. This is achieved by having an active agent on the same LAN send out an industry standard packet (magic packet) on the network with a specially encoded message with unique identifiers for each machine to be woken. There are two prerequisites:

Each machine must support remote power on, using one of two different technologies.
- The machine is a vPro-enabled machine.
- The Wake on LAN setting in the PC motherboard’s BIOS is enabled, if available. This setting enables power to a machine's network card even when the machine is powered down.
There must be at least one machine online on a given LAN to act as the controller to send out the ‘magic packets’.

Details of a Wake on LAN action can be found in the Agent Procedure Log for each machine. See Agent > Agent Logs.

vPro

For Wake On LAN, the vPro method of waking up machines is used by default. If vPro is not enabled or the machine is not vPro capable, then the non-vPro method is used to wake up machines. The benefit of using the vPro method is that, prior to running Wake On LAN, you can remotely enable vPro using the vPro module, without having to physically visit the machine. Wake-on-LAN needs to be enabled manually using the BIOS and can only be determined by manually checking the BIOS. Also, Wake-on-LAN requires another machine on the same subnet as the target. vPro can work via the internet if the machine has a public IP address or even another machine behind the same firewall but on a different subnet. Wake-on-LAN alerts do not apply to the vPro method of waking up machines.

Actions

This page provides you with the following actions:

Schedule - Click to display the Scheduler window, which is used throughout the VSA to schedule a task. Schedule a task once or periodically. Each type of recurrence—Once, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly—displays additional options appropriate for that type of recurrence. Periodic scheduling includes setting start and end dates for the recurrence. Not all options are available for each task scheduled. Options can include:
- Schedule - Distribution Window - Reschedules the task to a randomly selected time no later than the number of periods specified, to spread network traffic and server loading. For example, if the scheduled time for a task is 3:00 AM, and the distribution window is 1 hour, then the task schedule will be changed to run at a random time between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM.
- Skip if offline - If checked and the machine is offline, skip and run the next scheduled period and time. If blank and the machine is offline, run the task as soon as the machine is online again.
- Power up if offline - Windows only. If checked, powers up the machine if offline. Requires Wake-On-LAN or vPro and another managed system on the same LAN.
- Exclude the following time range - Applies only to the distribution window. If checked, specifies a time range to exclude the scheduling of a task within the distribution window. Specifying a time range outside of the distribution window is ignored by the scheduler.
Wake Now - Powers on the machine immediately.
Cancel - Cancel these schedule options.

Select All/Unselect All

Click the Select All link to check all rows on the page. Click the Unselect All link to uncheck all rows on the page.

Check-in status

These icons indicate the agent check-in status of each managed machine. Hovering the cursor over a check-in icon displays the agent Quick View window.

Online but waiting for first audit to complete