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Options for remote Wake-on-lan. Or I guess wake on WAN. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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So I want to setup a remote backup location at my parents house although they are very mindful about there electricity usage and environmental impact (and so am I) so I don't want to have to have a pc always on when it doesn't need to be.

Is it possible to setup remote Wake-on-lan so I can schedule my homelab at my place to wake up the server at my parents house and start a backup like once a week, I want to do this in a secure fashion as well so ideally no port forwarding, I currently use cloudflare tunnels for my home network.

Are there any other options or do you have a similar setup at your place?

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[–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

For a reliable and useful remote control solution, you're looking for an IPKVM with ATX power control. To setup the power control, you effectively set up a parallel circuit where your power switch connects to the motherboard, letting the KVM effectively press the power button 'normally'. As a bonus, you can connect to the video and data of the KVM for even more remote control options, like be able to troubleshoot boot issues or load a virtual CD/DVD to upgrade the OS.

For tinkerers, I recommend the PiKVM, either DIY or Preassembled. It's important to know that a RaspberryPi is energy efficient compared to an x86. This guy crunched the numbers

If you're looking for a product instead of a project, I'd recommend JetKVM.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    That is a lot of money for me, especially if all I need it to do is simulate the on button. Surely there is some really cheap arm based device that has an ethernet port and can therefore send WOL signals.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    I'm not sure what to tell ya. A cheap ARM device is the CanaKit 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 starter kit costs $110, but the JetKVM I recommended above including the ATX adapter is also $110

    https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-4GB-Starter-Kit/dp/B07V2B4W63/

    https://www.wisdpi.com/products/jetkvm

    https://www.wisdpi.com/products/atx-extension-board

    The only setup I can imagine that's technically cheaper is an esp32 flashed with firmware, as discussed by another user (you already replied to it): https://lemmy.world/comment/20842145

    But the esp32 (regardless of if you use a wire to simulate a button press, or have the device generate the WoL packet) is gonna be a pain to setup and flash by comparison to the other options.

    If you already have a pi, it just needs to be flashed with Raspbian and install the app etherwake 'sudo apt-get install etherwake' and run it with 'sudo etherwake [target MAC]'.

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