Scheduled Computer Power Control question

One thing you can do for now is to send a Wake-on-LAN task to wakeup all the PCs and then apply the shutdown job. This not might be the best solution but it will buy you sometime till you find another solution.

and solved it by writing VBscript that check the time before it execute shutdown.
so if we set the schedule to run in 19:00
we set the VBscript to make sure it's 18:30 to 19:30
and if not the script abourt.

in the morning, when the task try to run on comuter that was already shutdown, the script abourt becuase the time check fail.

i will post the script as soon as i can...

If you could post the script, that would be great!! Thanks for your help.

i post is also as download but meanwhile:

' This script check the current hour to decide if the application should run or not.
' there is three modes for the script : Disable time check, same day check, and next day check.
' Writen by Dima and haim.

On error resume next
Err.Clear
dim objshell
dim startTime
dim endTime
dim useTime
dim nCurrHour
dim sameday

' Enable or Disable the time check.
' set 0 to disable time check
' set 1 to enable time check

useTime=1

' Set if the time check is for the same day.
' set this to 1 if the start and ent time are in the same day.
' set this to 0 if the end time is in the next day.

sameday=1 

' Set start time of the script.
startTime=21

' Set end time of the script.
endTime=5

nCurrHour=hour(now)
wscript.echo "Current Time: " & nCurrHour

if sameday = 0 then
    if ( useTime and not ((nCurrHour >= startTime and nCurrHour <= 24) or (nCurrHour >= 0 and nCurrHour < endTime ))) then 
      wscript.echo "should run in: " & startTime & " and " & endTime
      wscript.quit (-1)
  end if
else 
     if ( useTime and not ((nCurrHour >= startTime and nCurrHour <= endTime ))) then 
      wscript.echo "should run in: " & startTime & " and " & endTime
      wscript.quit (-1)
  end if
end if
 
set objshell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

 ' Insert here your Application to run
objshell.run "%windir%\notepad.exe" 

if Err.number<>0 then
  wscript.echo  "Error: " & Err.number & "," & Err.description
  wscript.quit Err.number
else
  wscript.echo  "DONE OK! "
  wscript.quit 0
end if

note that i left the "Wscript.echo" lines
because you can use it in altiris to track errors.
just remember when you create the task to select under "Advenced" :

show script: hidden
[V] save script output with task status.

this alow you see all the computers that tried to
run the script in the morning.

I am having the same problem the only issue is that WOL doesn't always work very well in my network environment and  I am not sure why.   Also users that have laptops that may not be on the network at the time of shutdown WOL will not help those.   Sometimes those users leave their laptops in the building connected to their Docks but other times they take them home.    It seems rather silly for Altiris to power up a machine just to shut it down.   I mean in the Power Control task it says "Shut Down (If Available)"   Shouldn't that mean shut down the computer if it is not already turned off?   Any recent developments besides using a script similar to the one above.   Is there some sort of time out feature that can basically cancel the job if the computer doesn't respond so it doesn't force the job to run the next time the computer makes a connection?  I had a similar task set up in our Old Ghost setup just running the shutdown command line in a job and if the computer didn't respond it just came up failed on that computer but the computers that were on all shut down fine.

You can use a user defined token condition on the job.  You can use the icon field in the computer table of the express database to see whether the computer is on, logged in, or off.

Here is an example of how you can set this up:

Select user defined token in the condition creation dialog
Change the operation to "is exactly"
Change the value to 2
Copy the following into the token field:   %#!computer@icon%

The value of 2 in the icon column means that the computer is on but no one is logged in.  You can use any combination conditions to add the different states of the computer you would like the job to run in.  (I believe a logged in computer is 25)
If you want to shutdown both logged-in and computers that are on but not logged in you can change the operation to "starts with" and keep the value at 2.  This will grab any of the computers that begin with 2.  ( 2 and 25 are the only values I have seen but you might want to double check to make sure there are not others).

Once the condition is created add the shutdown task under that condition and leave the default condition blank.  Any computers that meet the condition will run the corresponding tasks and those that do not meet the condition will fail.

Much easier to use Group Policy to control.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_pm_ez_gpo

I have made my power down task(s) and a concern was raised by my Administrative staff.  If I set the computers to shut down and someone is logged in is there a way to make the condition using value 25 to prompt and wait maybe 5 - 10 minutes to allow a person that may actually be logged in using the computer to cancel the task.   I think I have it to force shutdown as that was what was recommended by the Altiris setup.     So basically if the computer is on but not logged into the computer would just shut down, but if it is logged in there will be a prompt allowing a user to click cancel or no and continue working.  If no response to the prompt is given after a certain time period the shutdown task would continue.

Yes, you can specify that in the AClient/DAgent settings.  It is on the "Access Tab".  I believe it defaults to 10 seconds.

I am not sure why but the power shutdown tasks I set run it seems to work but if it runs on a computer in the group that is off and fails it does not reschedule for the next time it is supposed to run. 

When I go to apply this Shutdown job I get a message that says:  Warning: You are attempting to schedule a job which does not have an tasks defined in the '(default)' condition" and I assume this is normal and to be expected.   I have the task set up like this:

Under Conditions:
Condition 1: Power down Computers Left On
                     Field: User Defined Token
                     Operation: Starts With (also tried "is exactly" and "contains" because I read that in other places I found on the internet)
                     Value: 2 (For Powered on and Logged off computers)
                     Token: %#!computer@icon%
Condition 2: Power Down Computers Left Logged in
                    Field:  User Defined Token
                    Operation: Is Exactly (also tried "contains" as that was what was said to set on another forum)
                    Value: 25 (For Logged in Computers)
                    Token: %#!computer@icon%
Condition 3: Default
            Left Blank.

I guess I want to make sure that is correct of if someone could check over the details and make sure the condition values are as they should be.   Also does the order matter?  Like should default be at the top?  Or should I put one condition over another?

Please Help because I am very frustrated and I find that I am having to VPN in every night and go to each Altiris Server and select the all Computers group and filter for Active Computers and shut them down.   I set the countdown task so they get prompted but there are literally over  1000 computers left on each night and Building Management is blaming technology for the high electric bills.

Thank YOu in advance for helping me as I seem to be making this process more difficult than it should be it would seem.

I'm pretty sure that you should not leave the default condition blank.  I would add a "run script" task in there with the following code as a place holder:

"REM DO NOTHING"

I don't believe it matters what order the conditions are in.  The default condition is for any machines that do not match your other conditions, they have to have something to do, even if it is a place holder.

As for the condition variables.  It all depends on the variables that you are looking for and your tolerance for it not being exact.

For example, if you know that the variable should be equal to "2" and there should be no chance that it should be anything else, then you should have "Is Exactly", if there is a chance that your variable may be "2.0", then you might want it to be "Starts With".

I would be very careful with "contains" if you are using numbers.  It can really throw you for a loop if you are looking for a variable of "2" but choose "contains" and get a variable of "958723" (as that variable contains the number 2 in it).

Hope this helps.

It's not a very good method because it could mean other reasons, but maybe ping the pc using the script? If no responce, then don't send shutdown.

Don't know if this has been sorted yet, but using alot of the ideas from here and on this thread i've pretty much got it down pat.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/powering-machines-down

Machines now will not wake up to shutdown.

Josh

The job is scheduled to run everday at 4:30 PM, the shutdown command is skipped if the first 3 characters of the %date% variable are equal to Sat or Sun, the job will also skip the shutdown command if the first character of the %time% variable is not equal to 4.   So in a nutshell the computer will only shutdown if the day is Mon - Fri and the time is between 4:00 and 4:59.

I hope this helps. 

REM Extracts day of the week from %date% and shuts down the computer if day is not Sat or Sun
REM Extracts current hour from %time% and skips shutdown if hour does not equal 4

set tempvar=%date%

set outputvar=%tempvar:~0,3%

set tempvar2=%time%

set outputvar2=%tempvar2:~0,-9%

IF %outputvar2% neq 4 goto end

IF %outputvar% == Sat goto end

IF %outputvar% == Sun goto end

Shutdown -s -f

:end