The power management monitoring and wake on LAN facilities

4. Installing FiDo software

To use these facilities FiDo software must be installed on the local network. At Oxford there are two options:

  1. OUCS installs and manages the FiDo software on behalf of Colleges and Departments
  2. IT Support Staff download and install the open source FiDo software.

PLEASE NOTE: OUCS is currently developing an improved PMM and WOL service. As a result we have decided to pause registration of new FiDo software installations. We expect to release a new beta service in May 2011.

The process of installing FiDo software takes a few hours and requires the ability to:

  • Install and compile packages, editing configuration files and setting up system paths and variables
  • Perform simple changes to the network and firewalls
  • Deal with security certificates (creating and importing into Java keystore)
  • Understand the concept that underpin encryption and PKI

The main steps in setting up FiDo software on your network are:

1. Decide upon hardware. We recommend you install the FiDo software within a VMware environment if possible. If you don't use VMware you can install a the software 'from source', preferably on an existing server to avoid the purchase of new hardware (a machine with 256MB memory will normally work well).

2. Apply for a digital certificate. The FiDo software communicates securely with the central WOL server hosted at OUCS using the HTTPS protocols. To implement HTTPS each installation needs a certificate, at Oxford you must use GlobalSign, the ITSS wiki provides detailed information on how to do.

3. Download and install the FiDo software. The FiDo software is distributed with a number of options:

As mentioned above you must add a GlobalSign certificate to each installation.

4. Register the FiDo software with the central WOL service. Once installed the FiDo software needs to be registered with the central WOL service (managed by OUCS). To do this please send an email to greenit@oucs.ox.ac.uk with the following details:
  • Main contact email address for your IT group
  • Friendly name of the FiDo software e.g. oucs-offices
  • Registered DNS name of the FiDo software
  • IP address that the FiDo software will use
  • Netmask of the subnet where the FiDo software is installed

You will need to wait a few hours while we update the central WOL and registration services with the details of your FiDo software. We will send you an email when this is done. You will then be able to start registering computers to use the WOL service (see next section).

5. Configuring the network. If you have a firewall it must allow communication between the gateway and Central Services (wol-central.oucs.ox.ac.uk; pmm-central.oucs.ox.ac.uk) on port 8443. If the FiDo software resides behind a NAT, relevant redirections must be set up. Lastly the PMM uses ARP queries so please bear this in mind to avoid issues with IPS/IDS systems.

If you need help with installing the FiDo software please send an email to greenit@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

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