XP + W7 = Utility for Wake On LAN? (scheduling feature required)

[Jayce]

Pretty sure I've figured out the perfect low power backup solution for my parents house so everybody there can be backed up to my file server. My file server is an older system, Pentium Dual core, nothing special, and it supports WOL capability. The idea is this, to have the file server in suspend mode all of the time. At 5:55 PM every night, every system sends a WOL packet to kick it on.

(Reason all systems would send a WOL packet is in case other systems are offline... i.e. it makes no sense to have one specific computer handle the WOL packet because, what if it's powered off? Then it kills it for everyone else.)

Anyway, all systems send WOL packet, then at 6:00 PM they all sync data, and at 7:00 PM it goes back into suspend mode.

That way the server is suspended 23 hours a day and only online and using up normal-operation-power one hour a day. Great!

My family uses a mixture of Linux and Windows. I have the Linux side covered thanks to crontab and a simple wakeonlan command utility (wakeonlan 11:22:33:44:55:66, bingo bango done). But I need to find something similar for Windows.

Is there a wake on lan utility for Windows that has a scheduler so I can launch it at 5:55 PM like the above example? I did find this guy - WOL - Magic Packet Sender - Free Windows Software - but there's no scheduler. Can XP/7's task scheduler handle that void? Is there a command line utility available for XP/7 that may work?

Open to all options here... just need a utility for XP/7 that handles WOL and a way to utilize it at a specific time.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Windows task scheduler can handle WOL tasks if you use a simple batch file to initiate it. One thing you should think of is, what if another system is offline? Will it get the WOL packet too? What if there are too many computers for the file server to handle in that one hour time period? Have you considered the bandwidth of your own home network, plus the speed of the hard drive or raid array that will be the destination for backups?

 

[Jayce]

There's a maximum of 4 computers that would back up to the system at once, hardly something that would demolish the overall throughput. If a system is offline, that's fine, there's always tomorrow, the next day, the next day, etc. That's why I chose 6 PM, a time that's most likely to have all of the systems on at once. Even if it misses a backup, like I said, no big deal... as long as it's within a week, that's still a good gig.

I'm not using RAID on this system, simply having a single hard drive in it to serve some sort of redundancy. I've thought about RAID, but software RAID on Linux I've personally seen no more diminished speed running mdadm RAID over single drives, so even if I do, it wouldn't cross my mind to worry about it.

All in all, we're good - I just wasn't sure how to do the WOL thing on the Windows side.

That said, how would I initiate WOL? I'm still trying to understand WOL on Windows before I even get into any degree of batch files or scripting.


EDIT - you know, I just had a facepalm moment... instead of worrying about WOL for all platforms, I could just set up RTC in the BIOS to wake it up... that way instead of waiting for WOL, I can just have it set for 5:55 and it'll essentially do the same job, it's just the server itself is in control of waking up, not the clients.

EDIT II - I kind of retract my facepalm moment. I have several computers, and each one supports WOL and RTC BIOS-based wakeup. Each one I've tested, and each one is different and/or unreliable.

HTPC - WOL's from off, but not suspend.
NAS - WOL's from suspend, but not off.
HTPC - Won't RTC on at specific time.
NAS - Won't RTC on at specific time.
Parent's NAS - Won't RTC on at specific time. (However, I had it work 3-4 times when I tested it, but when I re-adjusted the time to the exact time I wanted, it keeps failing. Three days now, not a single power on. It's not set to auto suspend or auto power off yet, so if it kicks on, it stays on... and it's not on... nice)

I'm beginning to think the best thing for me to do is set up a light timer, adjust the BIOS to power-on after power failure, and have the light timer control everything. Not the most glorious situation, but I'd bet 100 bucks it'd be the most reliable one.

EDIT III - Further conversation with other users on forums, IRC, etc., have concluded several others have found a similar level of unreliability with certain WOL chipsets and RTC features in the BIOS. Considering a huge portion of today's surge strips come with a timer feature, plus the fact stand alone timers are like 7 bucks at RadioShack, it's hard to pass up. At least I know that darn system will be on when the darn unit says it'll be on...