WHS has several add-ins available to automatically manage powering on/off the server. Lights Out is one of these add-ins. It monitors and graphs the uptime of the computers in the WHS network. By installing an included service on the client machines, and with the setting of appropriate options, it can be used to control the power state of the home server itself. There are several other monitoring and event options that can be set, which I will discuss below.
Installing the add-in is as simple as any other add-in. Copy the msi installer to your D:Software/Add-ins folder, open the WHS Settings dialog in the console and install the software from the Add-ins tab, as shown below.
I did say simple above. While it is simple to install the base add-in, Lights Out does require a few additional steps to allow it to control the power state of the home server. The first of which is to disable a feature left over from the Small Business Server 2003 base OS, which WHS is built upon. This service, SBCore, interferes with the power saving functions of Lights Out. It is absolutely unnecessary for the operation of WHS. In order to disable SBCore, there are 2 methods you can use, the easy one and the risky one. This article explains in detail the process to disable SBCore. I chose the easy method. The following picture illustrates how the SBCore Service Properties should appear when disabled.
If all you want to do is monitor networked computer uptime and schedule various events, you are done. If you wish to use a computer(s) to control the power state of your WHS, you will need to install a service on the client machine(s) that Lights Out will use to control the power state of your WHS. When you install Lights Out, it creates a folder, illustrated below, that contains this service. Copy (or use a RDC to execute directly) this file to the computers you wish to control Lights Out and install it. At this point, Lights Out is almost ready to control the On/Off state of your WHS.
At this point, you will need to access the program. Open the WHS console and locate the Lights Out tab along the top. When you click on this item, you will see a window similar to the one below. A lot of server/client uptime information is displayed on this diagram/chart. One really has to look closely to get much from this chart. I only had a few computers on during those times shown on the chart. I can imagine that the readability of chart would become quite difficult with 11 computers being shown on it.
Along the top of the Lights Out window are several items. The Refresh buttons “refreshes” the uptime data. I am not sure if it actually does anything, though, as my chart data seemed to be up to date.
The right button in the middle set brings up the “About” window, as seen below.
The middle button in the middle set brings up the “Settings” window. Which is where you want to be to make your general program settings. This window can be accessed from the WHS Settings option, also.
I left most of the settings in their defaults, as I was mostly interested in Client monitoring. Without changing any BIOS or NIC settings, I proceeded to see what the various power options would do. As can be seen below, I did not change the default settings for the NIC card.
Proceeding to the tests, what follows are the results.
Test 1: “Do nothing”
The results:
- Shut down the monitored client with WHS still on.
- Wait 10 minutes. WHS stays on.
- Restart. Shut down WHS. Shut down the client.
- Wait 10 minutes. Start workstation. WHS turns on.
Test 2: “Suspend”
The results:
- Shut down the client with WHS still on.
- Wait 10 minutes. WHS goes into suspend.
- Restart. Wait 10 minutes. WHS stays off.
Test 3: Hibernate
The results:
- Shut down the client with WHS still on.
- Wait 10 minutes. WHS goes into hibernate.
- Restart. Wait 10 minutes. WHS stays off.
Test 4: “Shut down”
The results:
- Shut down the client with WHS still on.
- Wait 10 minutes. WHS shuts down.
- Restart. WHS starts up.
You may have noticed some strange or mixed results with my tests. It seemed to be hit and miss whether this add-in worked the way I had thought it should. I decided to set my NIC to “Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby”. And I changed the Lights Out setting to Hibernate. Big mistake!
The results:
- Shut down the client with WHS still on.
- Wait 10 minutes. WHS does not shut down.
- Restart. WHS goes into hibernation! Hitting the power button required user input to start it up correctly.
If I had a headless machine, I would have been in what some have termed an endless boot cycle! As I had gone this far, I decided that there was one more thing to try. I went back to my NIC setting and unchecked the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
The result: Success! Lights Out now worked the way it was designed to work.
Now that I had the power management settings working, it was time to see what else there was to Lights Out. One of the options Lights Out has is called Calendar. Clicking on this item brings up what is shown in the following picture, a calendar.
From here, you can add, edit and delete various uptime events of specific occasions. Clicking on the Add options brings up the following screen, where you can add events for whatever occasion you desire.
Using the calendar, one can bypass client monitoring and control the uptime for the WHS. For a single event, or as a daily event. I did not test to see how well this worked. I have no doubts that it would based upon the final success rate of the the client monitoring tests. It is interesting to note that I could “add” an event on a past date. Perhaps one can go back in time? Not…
That is about it. Which is quite a lot! With Lights Out, one has a very powerful power management tool. Is it plug-n-play? No. Is it for the average consumer? No. With power comes complexity. Various configurations can wreak havoc (as I went through above) on a system. Since Lights Out requires one to disable SBCore, it would be nice if the author included a utility to perform this function. Or at least detailed instructions vs. the “Search the web for a solution” attitude. That is not the kind of solution I find acceptable for something that is required to be done.
I did mention a couple of items earlier that I felt needed work. The Uptime chart is not very readable and needs an overhaul to provide improved readability. One can add an event to a past date, which should not happen.
And, of course, there should be a troubleshooting section on various hardware parameters that may need to be checked into, if various shutdown options do not work. For example, the NIC options were the default options set by WHS or least I had never changed them previously.
Program enhancements? I am still trying to digest everything that Lights Out can do currently! Other than the aforementioned suggestions just discussed, I can not think of any at this time.
Do I recommend Lights Out? Absolutely, yes! It requires some work to get everything working correctly, but it is worth it. What I really like is the ability to simply power up (or down) my workstation and let Lights Out take care of my WHS. I can now really stick it a closet as I never have to touch it for anything.
Author: Martin Rothschink
Version Reviewed: 0.7.7.122
Release: 11Oct2008
28. December 2008 at 11:52 am
Hello.. i live in the south of the Netherlands. And i`m using WHS since the beginning. i`m also a favorite visitor of WGS. Lights out is a great add-in. for me it make`s it worth to use WHS always.
28. December 2008 at 5:56 pm
Help! I used Lightsout for couple of weeks but I think it killed my Media Smart Server messing with the core stuff. I spoke with HP support who told me this would void warranty but did RMA it? is this true? they said the HP server was designed as an always on device and a couple of people told me it is not worth the inconvenience. what gives?
28. December 2008 at 5:57 pm
Something about some PSU they said I could not handle the hibernation?
28. December 2008 at 6:05 pm
This might be true using Suspend, which puts the machine in a low-power state, but not hibernate. Hibernate saves your on-state to disk and then powers off.
28. December 2008 at 10:42 pm
Thanks Jim for your detailed and positive review of LightsOut.
Let me comment some of your observations.
Disabling SB Core
This is required for all home build machines. I assume that Microsoft has released a hotfix only for OEMs. The original version of sbscrexe.exe is 5.2.3790.3959, on a Fujiitsu-Siemens Scaleo we found version 5.2.3790.4173. The next minor update 0.8.0 of LightsOut knows about this version and does no longer display a warning message.
Installing LightsOutClient
It’s not necessary to copy the installer nor use RDP, simply open \\Server\Software\LightsOut on your client to access the installer. Update 0.8.0 also knows that this share is called \\Server\Logiciel on a French WHS.
Chart readability
This is indeed a problem when you have a large number of clients. You can lower the number of days displayed. Version 0.8.0 will add tooltips to help identify the machine and the runtime.
Test 1 and 4
This is as expected. The NIC and the Bios are responsible for Wake-On-Lan when your WHS is shut down. Some NIC drivers offer additional options not controlled by Windows.
Test 2 and 3
This is as expected. In standby the NIC settings have to be changed for Wake-On-Lan to work. The NIC option “Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby” is required and simply enables wake up. But now your WHS will start up by any activity, for example, when your router is scanning the network. That’s the reason for the third option “Only allow management stations to bring the computer out of standby”. Enable this and only magic packets (wake on lan) can start the machine. These settings are documented in the manual and online help of LightsOut.
Test 5
You wrote (*)
* Shut down the client with WHS still on.
* Wait 10 minutes. WHS does not shut down.
This is probably a result of the missing third option on the NIC settings which keep the server active. To verify this I need your log file.
* Restart. WHS goes into hibernation! Hitting the power button required user input to start it up correctly.
This should never happen. I will look into this problem and try to reproduce and fix this. On restart the server should always run for 10 minutes. Have you restarted the client also?
Thanks for your advice to disable “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. This seems to be one source for some strange issues.
Summary
I’m not happy with the SB Core situation. I still hope that Microsoft will release a public hotfix for this issue. Your proposal for a troubleshooting section or FAQ makes sense. I will definitely create one.
Regards
Martin
29. December 2008 at 6:27 pm
I stream music to a Squeezebox from my WHS, and unfortunately the WHS is not able to stay on when powered up by lightsout. This means that without any PC’s running the music will shut down after ten minutes. Hopefully a work around this problem will be introduced in future versions of lightsout. Because the rest of the functionalities rock!!
Regards
29. December 2008 at 9:30 pm
@Andreasf – Yes, this is already planned for a future version, not in 0.8.0 but definitly in the follwing version.
Regards
Martin
30. December 2008 at 1:33 pm
Martin,
I just bought my Tranquil SQA-5H-2000 and installed your great addin after reading this review. Thanks!
The SQA-5H-2000 has version 5.2.3790.4173, though there have already been a few auto MS updates, so I don’t know if that was originaly on the whs.
I wasn’t sure what to do after reading the review (your reply was not there yet), so I figured I should just follow the instructions in the manual. With one exception, I did enable the first 2 options (“allow computer to turn off” + “allow to bring out of standby”), but kept “only allow management stations…” disabled. It all works like a sharm and I don’t experience the issue mentioned in test 5. I do see in the uptime Diagram that the whs wakes up for 10 minutes or so about every 2 hours (while it should not), so that might be the “Only allow management stations…” setting. I have it enabled now.
Leaves me with a question that probably also relates to another reply:
If I am away from home, without any pc running, then the whs is sleeping.
1) What will happen when I access my whs website? Will it wake itself due to the WoL?
2) I supose this is a WoL sent from the router, does that mean the “Only allow management stations…” settings must be disabled?
3) Will lights out put the whs back to sleep after 10 minutes because there are no other pc’s running? Workaround?
Also
.
4) The WoL capabilities setting in the NIC’s advanced settings has a choice between “None”, “Magic packet”, “Pattern Match” and “Pattern Match & Magic packet”. Can you explain what the difference is? I chose the last option (I figured better too much then too less
5) I don’t really like having to run the “LightsOutClientService.exe” on every workstation. Why is it needed? If it is to see which computers are still running, why can’t you use the “WHSconnector” service which is already running?
Thanks
JeePee
30. December 2008 at 6:30 pm
@JeePee – In short:
LightsOutClient is ONLY used for wake up of the server, monitoring is based on WHS Connector.
To wake your WHS from the internet you need a router with support for this and then use a website like this one here: http://www.wakeonlan.me/index.php or http://www.remotewakeup.com/en/
For WOL Magic Packet is the required setting for your NIC, Microsoft calls this “Only allow management stations…”.
Should you have additional question please use the official support forum here at WGS: http://forum.wegotserved.co.uk/index.php?showforum=89