Power scheduler functionality (1 Viewer)

Gixxer

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • August 18, 2007
    1,383
    41
    40
    Spain
    Home Country
    Spain Spain
    things i am trying right now...

    1. i have set the "during the day" energy plan created with the software above, to make my server go to sleep after x minutes but only if i am NOT sharing media. lets see how it goes :O
    2. i dont have a proper watt meter logger just what you saw before so i have placed a webcam infront of the display and make a software take a picture every 5 minutes. after 1 or 2 days i will place all readings to an excel file and analyse the data. cool idea ehh yeah i know...cheap haha
    3. i still need to find out how to send WOL to my server by my htpc when it wakes up from sleep. "without using tvclient as that htpc is not used for tv". ideas are welcome.
     

    VdR

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 17, 2006
    612
    16
    Belgium
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    things i am trying right now...

    1. i have set the "during the day" energy plan created with the software above, to make my server go to sleep after x minutes but only if i am NOT sharing media. lets see how it goes :O
    2. i dont have a proper watt meter logger just what you saw before so i have placed a webcam infront of the display and make a software take a picture every 5 minutes. after 1 or 2 days i will place all readings to an excel file and analyse the data. cool idea ehh yeah i know...cheap haha
    3. i still need to find out how to send WOL to my server by my htpc when it wakes up from sleep. "without using tvclient as that htpc is not used for tv". ideas are welcome.

    2. :D

    3. I use a batch file:

    cd I:\Program Files\wol
    wolcmd 002185123DBE 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255

    You can find the wolcmd utility on the net. I run this when the client powers up, there are utilities that will run a batch when coming out of standby. That should do it.

    VdR
     

    Gixxer

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • August 18, 2007
    1,383
    41
    40
    Spain
    Home Country
    Spain Spain
    2. :D

    3. of course there are !! damn how could i have forgot i cant create a task using windows to be run when waking from standby :p so thats clear now.

    problem im having is that the computer is not going to sleep mode as i wish with the energy plan created.

    investigating....
     

    VdR

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 17, 2006
    612
    16
    Belgium
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    I just realized that my UPS is the perfect power usage data logger for my server, just needed to look in the logs.:D

    Before I installed the TV tuners: 165W
    After I installed the TV tuners: 185W
    When encoding an H264 movie: 263W

    Don't know about standby yet, still to set up the power scheduler.

    VdR

    Hmm, the UPS logger runs on the server so no logging while in standby.

    Worse; it seems that the WOL message I use to wake the server from shutdown, does not wake the server from suspend. I'm very surprised, is that normal behavior? Then how is the MP client going to wake the TV server?

    VdR
     

    vecnar

    Portal Pro
    April 21, 2008
    129
    10
    Home Country
    Ireland Ireland
    i mean that some of the computers at home are not running mp however i need the server awake for them.

    so i dont want that the server goes standby . i will try the powerscheduler option of bandwidth however that may be a problem if downloading stuff as traffic could be confused.

    so pending...
    1. how to make my htpc (movingpicts & tvseries) wake the server when comes out of standby???? im not using tv section in that htpc so cant use that. ANY IDEA ???
    2. check that server does not go standby when streaming to a pc without mp.

    any help is appreciated.

    1.I have a batch script which executes wake on lan of my tv server and starts mp client and in mp client i added startup delay so that tv server would have time to wakeup. So i am using this batch script anytime i want to start mp.
    I installed power scheduler plugin for mp clients and it will keep tv server awake while mp client is running.
    2. In regards to 2nd question it is necessary to install some third party application which i don't know off so i would say research on google.
    But if you find utility it will constantly send a heartbeat while client is not accessing files so server will be on without needing to be on. You could also write a batch script to send wake on lan packets every few seconds and turn it off when not needed.
     

    VdR

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 17, 2006
    612
    16
    Belgium
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    Worse; it seems that the WOL message I use to wake the server from shutdown, does not wake the server from suspend. I'm very surprised, is that normal behavior? Then how is the MP client going to wake the TV server?

    OK, I solved that, but only to create a more complicated problem.

    The power management for the NIC was not set to 'allow waking from standby', so I could wake from shutdown, but not from standby, fair enough, fixed.

    But now that the NIC is enabled (and it has to be to allow the MP clients to wake up the server from standby), the TV server power scheduler will not let the computer to go into standby anymore and if I force a standby it will wake-up again within 20 seconds max.

    Man, it is hard to save the planet :(.

    VdR

    From looking at the logs: MP does put the computer in standby, but it wakes up immediately again. That's consistent.

    Need to find out why it wakes up. There is nothing on the LAN that addresses the server.

    VdR
     

    vecnar

    Portal Pro
    April 21, 2008
    129
    10
    Home Country
    Ireland Ireland
    Pefrom the following tests in order to narrow down a problem:
    1)stop tv service and put computer into standby and check if computer wakes up by itself.
    >If it wakes up than it means that your nic driver settings you modified are causing this.
    >If it sleeps than you need to do test 2
    2)Enable extended logging and disable network monitor in power scheduler plugin in tv server configuration mode. Make sure that all mp clients switched off and wait till tv server goes into standby. make sure that there is no scheduled recordings in near 20 minutes.
    >if it goes into standby and doesn't wake up than it means that network monitor was a cause if you had enabled it.
    >If it goes into standby and wakes up, check tvserver.log if there are any clues to why tv server wokeup if there is no clues than make sure that your usb devices are not allowed to bring computer from standby. I had this issue with my usb mouse and wireless keayboard and i set only mce remote receiver to be able to wakeup computer (in device manager).
    Hope this will help to narrow down the cause.

    It is annoying when you try to save planet but computer refuses to do that :)
     

    VdR

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 17, 2006
    612
    16
    Belgium
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    1) It's the NIC settings!

    But this is what I found (see attached screen shot). You have to select 'only allow management stations ...', this actually means 'only allow WOL packages to wake the computer' (probably it's just me and everybody else knows that). It seems to be OK now. Still testing.

    VdR
     

    Attachments

    • NIC.jpg
      NIC.jpg
      119 KB

    vecnar

    Portal Pro
    April 21, 2008
    129
    10
    Home Country
    Ireland Ireland
    Congratulations on finding this out!
    As these settings usually configured only once i don't even remember that i had to select management stations only.
    Good luck with further testings!
     

    VdR

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 17, 2006
    612
    16
    Belgium
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    It seems to work now indeed. Just still waiting to be certain I'm not missing any recordings.

    Took the opportunity to put the socket watt meter in. Readings are somewhat different:

    shutdown:
    18 Watt (I measure before UPS, so this includes UPS power need)

    standby:
    100 Watt (That is a lot for shutdown, did notice that the fans keep running. On my clients they don't in standby, to be investigated)

    running:
    131 Watt

    VdR
     

    Users who are viewing this thread


    Write your reply...
    Top Bottom