Feature Request - Wake On LAN

[Matze]

Hi, another feature request from my side.

Would it be possible to send a WOL packet at the start of the backup job and just wait a few seconds (3-5) if the target is available after this time frame? My NAS (Openmediavault) is configured to go in standby after 20 minutes of idle time. At the moment I have to send a wol packet manually every time before I start the backup or I have to create a scheduled job to do this, one minute before the backup job. I think it should not be a big problem to include such a function, or?!

Thank you for all the work you did already!

[Dima P.]

Hello Matze,
That is an interesting request, but I am not sure I follow, what is happening in your case. Should not your NAS wake up from the idle state once it is pinged by any source in the network or, possibly, you want Endpoint backup to be triggered by the WOL packet sent from your NAS? Thanks.

[Matze]

Hello,

sorry for the delay, I was busy. My NAS suspend to an idle state (S3, S4 or S5 - don't know exactly) and only wake up by sending a magic packet as broadcast (including the NAS MAC address). So no, unfortunately it won't wake up by a simple icmp echo reply. I have little App's on my Windows machine and iOS devices to wake up the NAS manually if I needed. My HTPC with XBMC 13 has an automatic wake on LAN functionality included. The NAS will wake up if I like to stream some content from it. I thought maybe you can include such a function too?

[Dima P.]

It is a good request, thank you! Meanwhile, you could use a windows task scheduler with your app to send a wake up packet to NAS 1-5 minutes before the scheduled backup time in Endpoint?

[Matze]

Yes, I do this at the moment and it works. Unfortunately I have to remember to run the scheduled task manually, every time I run the backup job at another time. The other solution would be better, but I can live with the workaround for now.

Thank you for the quick (and helpful!) response here on the forum!

[Anguel]

It is a good request, thank you! Meanwhile, you could use a windows task scheduler with your app to send a wake up packet to NAS 1-5 minutes before the scheduled backup time in Endpoint?

Looks like this request concerns only WOL from the endpoints to NAS.
However, a major problem is waking up the endpoints when they are in shutdown state, i.e. a user goes home and shuts down his PC. In that case the wakeup checkbox in VEB does not work as the wake timers you set only apply to standby or hibernate mode but not to shutdown mode, at least Dell BIOSes do not power on the PCs after a shutdown and the backup is missed. Ok, one could put in some tasks to execute WOL command line, however for ease of use you could maybe implement WOL in VBR. This way VBR can send out a WOL packet to wake up the endpoints and this is another reason to buy VBR It should be no problem as VBR always knows when the next job is scheduled for each physical machine...

BTW: Shutdown after endpoint backup works great. However, I prefer to use the hibernate option as shutdown force-closes all programs if the user has forgotten to close a program. Maybe you could put a warning just to make sure the user does not get angry that he has lost his unsaved data due to Veeam shutting down his PC AFAIK Veeam still does not backup endpoint RAM contents

[Dima P.]

does not backup endpoint RAM contents

True.

lost his unsaved data due to Veeam shutting down his PC

We got a timer popup after the backup is completed, so you can cancel the shut downs initiated by VEB

This way VBR can send out a WOL packet to wake up the endpoints and this is another reason to buy VBR

Good idea for a “deeper” integration with VBR. Thanks, I’ll take it to the internal feature discussions.

[Anguel]

We got a timer popup after the backup is completed, so you can cancel the shut downs initiated by VEB

I noticed the popup, however you should never expect that the user is always in front of the PC and is looking at the screen.
Additionally, it is also possible that the PC was waken from sleep after the user has gone home but has not done a shutdown, the backup is then performed and a force-shutdown is initiated. This way unsaved docs will also disappear.

Good idea for a “deeper” integration with VBR. Thanks, I’ll take it to the internal feature discussions.

It is probably not even required that the WOL is done in advance as I read somewhere that VEB has a 10 min interval after the scheduled point in time in which it will still trigger the backup.

Anguel

[Dima P.]

however you should never expect that the user is always in front of the PC and is looking at the screen.

That’s why we don’t set this option by default and got a timer if its on. If you are sometimes working late post probably you will notice it, it you are constantly working late – time to change the backup schedule