NSMS Wake on LAN Gateway Service
A desktop computer and monitor will consume about 920 kWh of electricity if left on all year, but only 198 kWh if switched off at the end of each working day. This equates to an annual saving of up to £86 and 387 kg CO2eq. (Based on 80 Watts for a desktop, 25 Watts for a LCD, £0.12 per kWh, and 0.537 kg CO2eq per kWh. More details and further estimates...)
Cost Savings by Saving Electricity
OUCS, OeRC (Oxford e-Research Centre), OUCE (Oxford University Centre for the Environment) and Estates have developed an institutional wake on LAN (WOL) service to help reduce the energy consumed by desktop computers. Implementing this service allows computers to be switched on remotely, for instance to:
- switch computers on automatically before people get to the office each morning
- support teleworking by allowing staff to switch their office computer on when working away from the office
- never miss a backup by enabling the HFS Service to switch computers on just before it performs a backup
Having the facility to switch desktop computers on remotely should make it possible to switch computers off more often, without negatively affecting work. To facilitate this service IT support staff must install a gateway server within their networks. NSMS offers a pre-configured embedded appliance (FiDo) that can easily be installed in a department's or college's network to overcome the obstacles of configuring and managing one's own gateway. Furthermore NSMS continuously upgrades the whole software stack running on the appliance, removing any requirement for local staff to maintain this device.
The FiDo - Oxford's embedded monitoring and Wake on LAN gateway
NSMS offers the FiDo - a tiny device about the size of a small alarm clock - that can be located anywhere in your building where a free power and ethernet socket can be found. FiDo is Linux powered and consumes at most 7.0W running at 100% CPU utilization, which will rarely happen.
NSMS ships fully configured devices that just need to be connected to a department's or college's network and should 'just work', as long as communication to the central servers at OUCS is not blocked by a departmental firewall. Furthermore NSMS offers a fully managed service covering the operating system and the whole software stack running on the device: from initial configuration, to system monitoring and security patching, all the way through to disaster recovery in the event of hardware failure or software corruption.
Features of the service contract include:
- Initial system configuration including WOL gateway certificate generation
- Registration of the WOL gateway with the central WOL service
- Constant system monitoring
- Timely installation of security patches
- Continuous upgrades of the WOL gateway software stack
- Hardware replacement service and warranty exchange
- Email support during the initial gateway set-up phase
If your device fails, NSMS will replace it with a new configured gateway within two business days. The failed device should be returned to NSMS. Provided that it is still under warranty (12 months), there will be no charge for a replacement.
To keep the annual costs as low as possible this service does not include desktop set-up assistance. Nevertheless the University's Green IT project offers comprehensive documentation as well as email and limited on site support on a best-offort basis.
For the technically interested the full specs are: 1.2 GHz ARM Marvell Kirkwood 88F6281 CPU, 512MB SDRAM memory, 512MB Flash, USB 2.0, SD card reader, Gigabit Network, JTAG mini USB, Dimensions 110 x 69.5 x 48.5 mm.
Costs
Embedded wake on LAN gateway management fees are £400 per annum and
device. This equates to the cost savings gained by switching off only 5 desktop
computers and monitors at the end of each working day.
The FiDo device costs £100 and comes with a
one
year limited warranty provided by the UK distributor.
Register
NSMS is running an initial pilot phase with a limited amount of customers. We plan to continually increase the number of managed FiDo devices on a first-come first-served basis.
