I’m running an old server at home, an IBM system x3400 m3, rocking two x5675 intel processors.
I currently have Windows Pro (NOT Server) installed on it and connected to it remotely through Parsec (opened a port on my router). I’ve tried using duckDNS to associate my IP with a domain, and got the service running on my server to automatically refresh the IP.
This server is my primary rig, used for gaming but also to host my family’s photos through Plex and backup photos from phones through Resilio file Sync.
However, the server doesn’t have the best power consumption, so I’d like to use WoL to remotely turn it on. I’ve enabled it in the BIOS, have checked the drivers to enable it, and tried using TeamViewer to use Wake on Lan, but it doesn’t seem to work.
Any suggestions on how to remotely turn it on? (the server also has KVM I think, or at least an apparently useless network port, tho I’m not exactly sure what that does)
I suggest to read up on the way Wake On Lan works, it’s pretty neat. it has to send a packet to a local broadcast address. I don’t think that can route over the internet so you need some device to send the packet from on the network or over a VPN connection.
For the KVM part, that model server should have some form of remote control. I think they called it the Integrated Management Module (IMM) on those things. The IMM is running as long as the server has power, it’s a tiny independent system. They have various licenses/feature sets but at minimum it should get you a web interface to see status of the server as well as power it on & off. It may also have remote console and media options but those are add-on costs so not everybody buys them. The default login information should be somewhere on the chassis unless it was removed or got lost. The old defaults used to be username all uppercase ‘USERID’ with password exactly ‘PASSW0RD’ with a zero instead of the letter O. I don’t recall when they changed to newer methods but it’s worth a try.
Hey there! Thanks a lot, someone else has proposed using IMM and I’ve found an official IBM manual on Lenovos webpage for all of this. Only an additional question, what is the expected power draw when only the IMM is on? I’ve got no way to actually check it, and the main reason to use it is to save power
Unfortunately I don’t have any servers to test that anymore and power was never a major concern at the time. Also a different use case, for me I’ve always used IMMs to remotely setup and troubleshoot for servers that I expected to be up 24/7.
You need to start learning about ipmi, try googling ipmitool and the name of your server.
Is it possible to set up WoL on a normal desktop computer?