WoL ... help me out (application specific)

[Maverick2002]

I want to try out WoL functionality on some boxes here at the office in our attempt to cut the energy bill, but I've never used it before. I've been reading up on some of the Windows 7 improvements to it (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617165(WS.10).aspx), but how do you actually send application-specific packets? Or is there some sort of default packet type that all applications send?

Specifically, our biggest desire for WoL functionality is 3ds Max distributed rendering via Backburner (the application is running throughout the night, but while it's idle the computer should shut down and flip on when a job is sent through), though other applications (LogMeIn remotely and Radmin locally) should be able to wake a system up as well.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

TIA!

 

[JackMDS]

Maybe this can Help, http://www.ezlan.net/WOL.html

 

[Maverick2002]

Thanks, but is there a way to get a program to actually send these magic packets rather than manually doing it through a utility?

 

[Nothinman]

Unless the application has the option built into it or has the ability to run scripts/batch files before it's job, not that I know of.

 

[BTA]

Do some google searching, I found a program not long ago that will send the magic packet from a client pc either manually or on a schedule. I'm at work so I can't look at the name of it. It didn't take me long to find though.

Also, if you have an actual scheduled time you want the machine to always hibernate or sleep, you can do sleep and wake just using the windows task scheduler. No need for WoL.

 

[Maverick2002]

It's not really on a schedule. It's going to be between 5:30pm - 7:30am weekdays, but during that time the computers should go to sleep if they're not being used and wake up when they get a job command, so it's not a rigid schedule.

 

[klocwerk]

Thanks, but is there a way to get a program to actually send these magic packets rather than manually doing it through a utility?

No.
Some (few) applications support WoL natively, but it's more or less black magic.
It's a pain in the butt honestly. Modern sleep modes are fairly efficient, if you really need to do rendering every night your best bet is to leave them on.

 

[Maverick2002]

Thanks, I think we may have a workaround solution though, something like auto sleep after 30 minutes and a centralized custom app that sends magic packets to the entire farm (manually) when we need to render something through the night.

 

[JackMDS]

If the systems are only a Sleep you do not need a magic packet.

If the computers are set to wake on any Network traffic any Ping or arp will wake them up.

 

[stlcardinals]

If you are familiar with PowerShell, you can do it with that.

http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2007/04/01/powershell-wake-on-lan-script.aspx