ADSM-L

Re: TSM and Wake-on-LAN

2006-07-10 16:51:07
Subject: Re: TSM and Wake-on-LAN
From: "Bos, Karel" <Karel.Bos AT ATOSORIGIN DOT COM>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:50:19 +0200
Hi,

Don't know anything about configuring WOL, but...
- It is not something buildin in TSM;
- If you configure some station to power on these machines back-ups can
be performed;
- If you configure your clients to be in TSM schedmode=polling and the
startup window of the schedule is large enough, your back-ups will run
as scheduled. With prompted you have the posseblity that if the clients
is starting up a little to late, the back-up schedule will be marked as
missed.

Hope that this helps.

Regards,

Karel

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Michal Mertl
Sent: maandag 10 juli 2006 22:44
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: TSM and Wake-on-LAN

Richard Sims wrote:
> On Jul 10, 2006, at 1:49 PM, Michal Mertl wrote:
>
> > There is about 20 Windows workstations configured to be backed up by

> > TSM server during the night. The users often turn them off when 
> > leaving the office and backup thus fails (the server can't contact 
> > them). If TSM (or some 3rd party application executed by pre-backup 
> > script or something) sent WOL packets to the workstations and they 
> > were correctly configured the backup will succeed.
>
> Michal - Thanks for the additional info, for us to evaluate the
essence
>           of the scenario.
>
> Based upon my experience in the industry, I think it's a Bad Idea to 
> have shut down computers come to life in the middle of the night, for 
> several reasons.  The first and most apparent is security - 
> particularly with Windows systems.  There have been many occasions 
> where viruses and worms have introduced overnight: literally.
> Picture the scenario where an office shuts down at 5 pm, turning off 
> their Windows PCs.  A new Internet mechanism for attacking Windows PCs

> is implemented starting at 8 pm.  These office PCs come to life at 1 
> am and are almost immediately hit - before the backups get a chance to

> get started.  Not only are the PCs corrupted when staff arrives the 
> next morning, but there is no chance of recovering recent data.  I 
> can't imagine any Security Department being happy with WOL.
> Where offices are unattended, PCs should be turned off for the day, 
> providing the opportunity for support personnel to act on security 
> alerts before PCs are turned on the next day.
>
> Another issue is safety.  Computers and their peripherals are 
> connected to substantial electrical energy sources, and generate heat.

> Imagine some custodial staff or movers coming into the vacated office 
> area to do some work, where they push things around or pile material 
> on top of "turned off" equipment.  That equipment comes on and, after 
> a while, overheats.  Lots of opportunity for calamity there.
>
> What would make more sense is for the office PCs to be equipped with 
> software which will perform a set of day-end housekeeping tasks, and 
> then shut down.  One of those tasks would be backup.  I'm not a 
> Windows expert, but software of that nature must be out there.
>

Thanks for your comments. Yours are valid concerns but I only manage the
TSM and was asked to find out about WOL.

In the meantime we are planning to inform the users about the situation
and ask them to leave the machines running overnight at least from time
to time so that we have some backup.

Thanks again.

--
S pozdravem

Michal Mertl
ICZ a.s.

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