I did my best to find this on another tread but I couldn't find it ... so sorry if it is a dup.

What i am trying to do is shutdown Multiple windows machines at the same time remotely from a linux box.

*Case in point* I have 20 windows computers in a school computer lab. It is 10:00 at night. To save on cooling cost I want to shut them all down so that the room will cool without AC.

I think i can work out the automation part (i.e. shutting down at 10:00 pm), but is it possible to send a command or run a script from the linux box with out installing 3rd party software on the windows machines? These are all on the same network but might not be on the same subnet (more than one lab).

In some of my research I have come across SNMP... is this a possibility?

Oh by the way ... I'm not running a GUI on the Linux box.

Thanks in advance for your help

sorry about the bump... anything would help even some resource links ... i don't mind learning just point me in the right direction please .... thanks

Why not just go into the Windows scheduled tasks and set them all up to shutdown at 10:00? I know that isn't a linux answer but it would work for your problem.

my scale is much larger than my example.... i am thinking across a school district.... the more I look into this the more complicated it seems to get
Thank you for responding

I have been working on this today at my school, well with exeception towards sending the command from a linux box.

I wanted to shut all the pcs down at 6 when all the students have gone home. at first I downloaded the shutdown utility (off win 2k resource kit) and installed it on the 2k pro machines then just made a simple batch script and used the scheduler to shut them down. The problem was it wasn't powering the computers down, it was sending them to the point where it says 'it is now safe to turn off your computer'

anyway I found this free utility http://www.beyondlogic.org/consultin...n/shutdown.htm

it works splendid. I put it on the w2k server and it allows you to specify a group of computers which is read from a file. So instead of me installing the batch file and scheduling on all workstations I just run the one schedule from the server.

As for your situation i am unsure whether you can run a command from the linux box to issue to the windows but...

maybe you can use this utility on one of your workstations in the same way I use it on the server. You can send user name and passwords within the utility so for example

you have 30 workstations, you install the utility on one of them make a file with all your computer names on then set up the utility to shut computers 2-30 down at 10. then you just make one more task to shut the local computer down.

There is another utility called psshutdown

this gives you all kinds of additional features including using a list of computers in a file.

As for running it on a linux box, perhaps you can use Wine or something like that. Other wise you will have to get your self a windows box for administrative purposes.

You can add a service task to the windows machine to run a task every 5 minutes. The file can be null output. Now when you want it to go down, using samba replace the file with the shutdown command script for windows and on the next run of the task it shutsdown windows. Now on restart you will need to add a service to replace the overwritten file to the orginal null file. Only needs to run once and needs to run before the 5 minute polling script.

Done it before. I have seen similiar ideas here and on the web.

Brian1

Thank you all for your ideas ... I have checked into most of the sites listed ... I am reading up on the Samba idea now... sounds kind of promising I am looking for a way to do this "quietly" because of the amount of machines but this still might be an option.

Just to give a little background I work for a company that helps tie Building Automation Systems (BAS) to a completely web native Maintenance and Operating / Facility Scheduling software, which I will not name the companies because of the No advertising clause. We already have a small Linux box at the school systems and we are always looking for ways to help them save money... This is why I can't use a windows box or install locally on the clients. We are just trying to help them have more options and KISS (keep it simple stupid) ... I have worked with school systems all across the US for about 5 yrs and it amazes me how many do not have full time IT people. Anyway .. that is enough background.

If there are more ideas or suggestions out there let me know ... Thanks again