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NightWatchman Enterprise

The Power Policy dialog

The Power Policy dialog is displayed whenever you Add, Copy or Edit a power policy. The tabs in the Power Policy dialog are:

  • General – lets you set the power scheme and control the NightWatchman client scripts.

  • Scheduled Actions – lets you define scheduled action days, times, actions and logoff combinations for a power policy.

  • Power Down Defaults – lets you define default settings that are used across a variety of NightWatchman Enterprise functions.

  • Alarm Clock – lets you set wake up call options for the power policy.

  • Maintenance Window – lets you set actions and a schedule for any maintenance window requirements for the power policy

  • Process Exceptions – lets you set definitions for particular process names to prevent a NightWatchman shutdown.

  • Sleepless Client Detection – lets you enable NightWatchman functionality that puts client computers into standby mode.

The General tab

The General tab lets you set the power scheme and control the NightWatchman client scripts.

Control

Notes

Power Scheme

Displays a list of the currently defined NightWatchman power schemes. Select one to associate it with the current power policy.

Execute 'PreRun' Script

Controls whether the NightWatchman PreRun script (PreRun.vbson Windows andPreRun.scpton the Mac) is run prior to a scheduled NightWatchman power down on a client computer.

Ignore Script Errors

NightWatchman ignores script errors during a scheduled sequence and will not abort the event.

Execute 'RunAlways' script on power off

Determines whether the NightWatchman RunAlways script is run on NightWatchman power off actions: Poweroff, Logoff and Reboot. On Windows, it is called RunAlways.vbs; on the Mac, it is RunAlways.scpt.

Execute 'RunAlways' script on sleep

Controls whether the NightWatchman RunAlways script (RunAlways.vbson Windows andRunAlways.scpton the Mac) is run on NightWatchman Hibernate and Standby sleep actions.

Execute 'RunOnResume' script on resume

Determines whether the NightWatchman RunOnResume script (RunOnResume.vbson Windows andRunOnResume.scpton the Mac) is run whenever the client resumes from a low-power state. Scripts can be configured to enable the RunOnResume script to return a computer to a similar state to the one it was in prior to running any NightWatchman scripts on entering the low-power state.

Script Timeout (sec)

Timeout (in seconds) for application responses to the NightWatchman shutdown scripts.

Show System Tray Icon

When checked, displays the NightWatchman system tray icon on the client computer. Uncheck it if you do not want users to interact with NightWatchman.

Allow 'Keep Active'

Enables users on the client computer to defer NightWatchman power downs.

Monitor Jobs

Enables detection of pending Configuration Manager jobs on the client computer at the point when NightWatchman powers down.

Pending Job Window (mins)

Duration (in minutes) for detecting pending Configuration Manager jobs on the client computer at the point when NightWatchman powers down.

Monitor Computer Reclaim

Enables Computer Reclaim (formerly Hardware Utilization) monitoring and configures the 1E Agent to retrieve information from computers to determine which ones are in use during the day.

Monitor Power Optimization

Enables power monitoring and configures the 1E Agent to retrieve information from computers to determine which ones are using battery and connect standby features correctly.

Monitor Reboot Optimization

Enabled reboot monitoring and configures the 1E Agent to retrieve information from computers to determine when they are rebooting or should be rebooted

The Scheduled Actions tab

Control

Notes

Day checkboxes

Ticking the day checkbox enables a NightWatchman scheduled action on that day. Each day can have its own Time, Action and Logoff settings.

Time

Time the scheduled action starts for that day.

Action

Action for the event which may be one of:

  • Poweroff – turns the power for the client computer off.

  • Standby – puts the client computer into standby mode.

  • Hibernate – puts the client computer into hibernate mode.

  • Reboot – reboots the client computer.

  • Logoff – logs off the current user of the client computer.

  • Logoff then Standby – logs off the current user of the client computer and if successful then puts the client computer into standby mode.

Logoff

Behavior of NightWatchman when users are logged on to the client computer:

  • Passive – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, no action is taken. If there is no user logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

  • Active – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, a NightWatchman countdown dialog is displayed allowing the user to proceed immediately or delay the shutdown on the computer. If there is no user logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

  • Force – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, a NightWatchman countdown dialog is displayed to the user. The user has no option to delay the shutdown. If there is no user logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

Legacy Agent

Scheduled action time for earlier releases of the 1E Agent that do not support daily shutdown actions. This time is applied on the days checked on the Scheduled Actions tab. Legacy 1E Agents uses the Logoff and Action values set in the power down defaults tab.

The Power Down Defaults tab

Control

Description

Action

The behavior for for once-off and legacy 1E agent events when they start and may be one of:

  • Poweroff – turns the power for the client computer off

  • Hibernate – puts the client computer into a hibernate state

  • Standby – puts the client computer into a standby state

  • Logoff – logs off the current user of the client computer

  • Reboot – reboots the client computer

Logoff

The behavior for maintenance windows, once-off and legacy 1E Agent events when users are logged on to the client computer.

  • Passive – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, no action is taken. If no user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

  • Active – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, a NightWatchman countdown dialog is displayed allowing the user to proceed immediately or delay the shutdown on the computer. If no user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

  • Force – if a user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, a NightWatchman countdown dialog is displayed to the user. The user has no option to delay the shutdown. If no user is logged on to the client computer at the scheduled time, NightWatchman runs the selected Action.

  • Retry Attempts – sets the number of times NightWatchman attempts a shutdown if deferred by the user.

  • Retry Interval (mins) – interval (in minutes) between shutdown attempts

  • User Activity Idle (mins) – duration (in minutes) a user is inactive on the NightWatchman client before a scheduled action. If they have been active on the computer during the specified period prior to a NightWatchman scheduled action, the action is postponed. The deferment is governed by the time set in the Retry Interval field. If the Logoff field is set to Force, the user activity is not monitored and the computer is shutdown regardless.

    Note

    If this value is set to anything other than 0, any local command on the NightWatchman client to run shutdown now will not work.

  • Countdown (secs) – duration (in seconds) the countdown timer is displayed to a user if they are logged on to a computer

  • Message – message displayed on the NightWatchman countdown dialog

The Alarm Clock tab

Control

Description

Enable Alarm Clock

Enables the alarm clock feature and the rest of the controls on the Alarm Clock tab.

Turn On Monitor

Switches on the display and computer when the alarm call occurs.

Day checkboxes

Schedules the days the alarm clocks takes place.

Time fields

The time to wake the client computer for the corresponding day. If a NightWatchman client computer is in a suspend or hibernate state when the alarm clock time is reached, it will wake itself. Wake-On-LAN is triggered for an alarm clock event when the:

  • client computer is powered off

  • client computer is connected to the LAN

  • NightWatchman Console WakeUp integration is enabled

Note

By design, the alarm clock option has no effect on laptop computers. This is to prevent them powering on from suspend at inappropriate times, such as when they are in transit.Wake up time values use an hh:mm format. For hours 0-9, a leading zero must be used.

The Maintenance Window tab

The options for the maintenance window are:

Control

Description

Enable Maintenance Window

Enable the maintenance window feature and the rest of the controls in this tab.

Turn On Monitor

Switches on the display and computer when the maintenance window occurs.

Day checkboxes

Schedule the days the maintenance window takes place. The options for each window are:

  • wakeup at – start time for the maintenance window

  • for minutes – duration (in minutes) for the maintenance window

  • then – event that follows at the end of the maintenance window, which may be one of the following:

    • Do nothing – take no action when the maintenance window expires, leaving the client computer on.

    • Hibernate – puts the computer into hibernate mode when the maintenance window expires

    • Standby – puts the computer into standby mode when the maintenance window expires.

    • Poweroff – powers-off the computer.

Note

By design, the alarm clock option has no effect on laptop computers. This is to prevent them powering on from suspend at inappropriate times, such as when they are in transit.

The Process Exceptions tab

The options for defining process exceptions are:

Control

Description

Process exceptions list

Add the name of a process to this window if you want its presence in the client computer's running processes list to prevent the computer from shutting down when a NightWatchman scheduled action occurs.

The Sleepless Client Detection tab

Control

Description

Sleepless process exception list

List processes you want to prevent from keeping the client computer from going into standby state.

Enable Advanced Sleepless Detection

Enables Advanced Sleepless Detection on client computers with this power policy applied. This option allows the sleepless client detection feature to discover exactly which process, running on the client, is preventing the computer from going to sleep when the power scheme timers expire.

Note

It is possible that some applied Operating System updates may prevent this feature from functioning correctly. Before enabling this feature in a production environment, we recommend you test against specific versions of Windows deployed in your environment.

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