Wake-on-LAN Implementation Notes

IMPORTANT! You must perform a hardware asset scan on your target machines prior to initiating a WoL request. The scan is required in order to obtain the MAC address of each machine.

The Wake-on-LAN (WoL) feature is used to wake up machines that are powered off or in reduced power states. This is performed from Machine View or Scan View by using a right-click command.

Machines that are sleeping, hibernating, or powered off cannot be restarted or awakened using a power state template, they must be awakened using the Wake-on-LAN feature.

Any connected machine that is sleeping, hibernating, or powered off (but with power available to the network card) can be awakened by a WoL request. One typical reason for using WoL is to turn on machines that have been powered off overnight or over a long holiday weekend, making the machines ready for use for the coming work day. Another reason may be to power on machines prior to performing maintenance tasks such as console-based patch or asset scans. Machines that are sleeping, hibernating, or powered off cannot be scanned, so using the WoL feature ensures that your maintenance tasks will be performed on schedule.

The Wake-on-LAN request can be issued immediately, or it can be scheduled to awaken machines at a certain time. It's like scheduling a wakeup call for each machine.

The Power > Send Wake-on-LAN request command works with the following target machine states:

Initial Target Machine Power State	Target Machine Awakened?
Fully powered on	No action
Sleep state	Yes
Hibernate state	Yes
Powered off	Yes