[Beowulf] Wake-on-LAN on old computers

[Douglas Eadline]

If the NIC/Motherboard does not support WOL, it won't work. The NIC must
be powered using a standby power cable connected to the motherboard. The
power supply must also provide the standby voltage as well. Check you
docs.

However, WOL requires reboot in any case. Most systems will be placed in
standby mode by simply issuing a "poweroff" command which does an OS
shutdown.

The only other alternative is to use something like and APC Masterswitch,
but you still have to reboot machines. Using something like diskless
Warewulf can decrease the boot time (I can reboot/start my little 8 node
Kronos cluster in less than a minute using WOL) There was also someone on
the Warewulf list working on a WOL package - I think integrated into the
scheduler so you wake up nodes when you need them.

--
Doug

> How does Wake-On-Lan work? Will it work w/ older NIC cards? Is there a way
> to automate it?
>
> If not, Is there a way to automate the shutting down and booting of 6
> computers once one boots(something in the startup scripts maybe)? I've got
> a cluster of 6 old machines that I want to use as a workstation, but I
> can't leave them running 24-7. I also don't want to have to boot 6
> machines every time I want to use the computer(that is, I don't want to go
> through the process). Is there any way to automate something like this?
> --
> Numbers rule the Universe.
> 	--The Pythagoreans
>
> Carpe Aptenodytes(Seize the Penguins),
> Jake Thebault-Spieker
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-- 
Doug