Feature Request: WOL / PC Status with USB docks

[Moopere]

This might not have much universal appeal ... or perhaps it does ... lets see.

I have just recently begin rolling out Dell WD19 USB docks to connected Dell laptops. I'd diddled with USB docks in the past and they all failed really basic management capability, so I never rolled them out en-masse.

These new WD19 docks are almost full function though, so we're going with them (and the old style docks, with the big connector under the laptop are all long gone now).

The 'problem' with all these news docks is that they are usb. The reason its a problems is:

• The dock itself has a MAC address, this can usually be bypassed and configured in such a way so as to take on the MAC of the connected laptop, however ...

• MAC passthrough from the laptop to the dock only usually works from an S5 state. After a G3,the laptop has lost power and so has the dock, so, the laptop doesn't get to power up and pass through its MAC address to the dock ... therefore the dock doesn't respond to WOL requests to the laptops MAC (!!!)

• Turning off MAC passthrough and using the dock native MAC works for WOL, but, you don't necessarily get a response from the WOL app that the laptop has actually come up. This is due to not knowing, on any given day, which laptop might be connected to what dock. So, ping requests don't work as you'd expect. Whichever laptop is connected to a dock will wake up when the dock is hit with a WOL request ... but we never know which laptop that is.

A scenario to help make the above clear:

Imagine an office with 10 docks, and 10 laptops. Any laptop could be plugged into any dock on any given day. I want to wake up laptop 5 of 10 ... how would I do that?

Now, certainly I could just turn on all the docks, and this might be the only reasonable answer. However, It feels to me like we almost need some sort of option or setting that allows a disconnect between MAC and Ping address. Or the ability to ping a MAC (!!!?)

I really don't have a well thought through answer ... but thought I'd throw the scenario out there for folks to think about.

[basildane]

If you use the FQDN for the machine, rather than the IP address, then it will determine the "wake" state from the name. Does that help?

[Moopere]

No I don't think it will.

The nature of the problem is because of the complications introduced by USB docks that have MACs.

'Normal' WOL: From a big field of connected PC's will wake up a specific PC given a magic packet to its unique MAC. So, in an office of 100 PC's, WOL works really well and as designed. From that big bunch of PC's we know which one we want and we know how to wake it.

Now imagine 100 PC's in the office but each one has (potentially) an almost random MAC. So, the PC itself is stable, has a non changing DNS name, but the MAC could be any one of 100 - this is because of the docks ... they have their own MAC and we can't use the passthrough MAC address from the laptop because I've never seen a USB dock yet that will respond to a passthrough MAC address after a G3 PME.

Right now, as the remote Admin, I know the MAC of the dock in the workspace where theres a chance the laptop I want is sitting. The docks don't move after all. I WOL that dock and the connected laptop wakes up ... but this could be any laptop - its probable its the one I want, because reasonably often the staff will place -their- laptop into -their- dock, but it isn't the case 100% of the time.

So, a laptop wakes, then I have to work out if its the right one. If its not, I'm stuck. Its a real problem.

Related to this, the laptops quite often will have an ethernet port as well. In some circumstances this port will be used and the dock isn't used (argh!). In this circumstance, it would be useful to be able to reference and WOL a laptop from either of two recorded MACs

Anyway, its probably a corner case issue right now - not sure how many are suffering. Seems like it would be a growing problem though. The basis of the problem is an inherent design defect (IMHO) with the ability of a powered off laptop to passthrough a MAC to a connected dock. There would be many technical challenges to make this work as it historically has, but, surely surmountable with care and thought at the hardware level (however no manufacturers are doing it)

I can't immediately think of a reasonable solution to this problem, which is why I'm throwing it out there.

I'm sort of thinking, the way the MAC is linked to a PC right now is fine, has historically worked well and makes sense. Keep that and it can, of course, be used for any machines that don't have these USB docks.

Is there any sense in separating the docks in some way? I always know where the docks are. So, a dock with a specific MAC is always going to be placed in Jill's workspace. I don't necessarily know which laptop is in Jills workspace connected to her dock though ... it could be Jill's, or, it could be another random laptop.

Or ... is there a much more simple way forward? Group the docks together using the grouping functionality, start the entire group, wait until the DNS name of the required laptop responds to a ping (current WOL functionality) then turn off all the unrequired laptops?

[Moopere]

Re-reading my post from a couple of years ago its really just a pipe dream. I hate it when new technology (USB docking) provides -LESS- functionality than the older tech it replaces.

Anyway ... I think I've read elsewhere in the forum people with corner case issues feeling like being able to WOL on more than a single MAC would be useful. It won't solve my core issue (above) but for those laptops that use USB docking sometimes and also have an ethernet port which is sometimes utilised there would be value in having the capability to WOL from an arbitrary number of MAC addresses.