Start up and shutdown scripts

[Cooper_Trooper]

I recently got employeed as a tech at a secondary school but in the mornings I get contracted to a Junior School. It is quite a big junior school and I look after the whole IT department by myself. Being quite new to this I feel I've been thrown in at the deep end so expect a few threads from me in the near future.

Any ways I got a problem come in today about a staff members computer not switching itself on in the mornings like all the rest. Being busy this saves alot of time for them. On my way back to my office to inverstigate this the IT Manager (He only really signs things I order etc. He doesn't look after any of the infastructure) asked me to check the Shut down script for one of the rooms as he thinks the computers had been on all weekend.

Now like I said being new to all this I have no idea where to even start looking for start up and shut down scripts or how to edit them etc. If some one could just chuck some basics my way I'm sure I could work my way from there.

Thanks

[chazzy2501]

group policy manager, computer config>Windows settings>Scripts startup / shutdown.

Find the GPO associated with your managed computer OU.

If you wish to see what GPOs are being applied to a workstation log into one and use the rsop.msc. This should help diagnosis.

This is of course assuming they have use GPOs to deploy scripts. And are not talking about login logout scripts. Or publsihed scheduled tasks or CSE... good luck.

[strawberry]

They might be on the local pc as a scheduled task, they might run on a server as a remote task, or it might be some custom software. Best to look on the local event viewer then maybe the tasks on the servers

[simpsonj]

Depends on how they've been set up, but the best place to start would be to check the Event Viewer of the PCs that may not have been shut down and see if any events were logged during the weekend.

The way our shutdown works here is each PC has a shutdown command in their scheduled tasks, so it might be worth a look there to see if there is a task due to shutdown the PC.

Start up here is a WOL.exe set to run on a server at a given time (not working at present, but the theory is fine), so a check in the scheduled tasks on your servers might reveal whether this is the method used to boot PCs in the morning. If it is, then it might be that the PC not booting hasn't got its MAC address on the WOL.bat file.

Also, are you running an RM CC3 or CC4 network? If so, the Shutdown script is very easy to modify using the RM Manangement Console.

[Cooper_Trooper]

Found the shutdown scripts on the server all of which seem to be ok.. as far as I can tell.

As for startup scripts I can't find anything. I'm guessing this would mean that each on is done locally on the machine through the BIOs or something.

[Cooper_Trooper]

Thanks Simpson I shall have a further look into those.

No I am on Classmaster. I have seen the ease of RM CC3 and kinda wish we had it here as I know how that works. Getting the hang of this Classmaster though.
Unfortunatly it seems that some stuff on this system is done via Classmaster and other things done via AD. Its hard trying to peice it all together.

[dhicks]

As for startup scripts I can't find anything. I'm guessing this would mean that each on is done locally on the machine through the BIOs or something.

It's more likly that the BIOSes on the PCs are set up to do wake-on-lan (WOL), a feature where the network card will listen out for a specific network packet and turn the PC on if it sees it. You can broadcast a wake-on-lan signal from a program on the network somewhere - the WOL.exe as mentioned above, or several desktop monitoring systems (LanDesk, Impereo, etc) have a wake-up-the-computers feature. I'd find out what network / classroom monitoring software you have and start there. Check and see what's enabled in the BIOS of a workstation - you might be right, and the BIOS might be set to turn the machine on at a set time, or wake-on-LAN might be enabled.

The startup / shutdown scripts in Active Directory aren't anything to do with what you're looking for - they are scripts that run when the computer starts up of shuts down, they don't have anything to do with making it start up on shut down in teh first place.

[penfold]

I haven't used classmaster before, but when I used WOL software I had it set per room so I can isolate each set of computers only powering on the computers required. If you have something similar rather than a network wide broadcast it may be the computers aren't in a group.

You could check that all the computers are listed and check the BIOS on the clients.

[Cooper_Trooper]

Cheers for all your advice guys. I am at the second part of my job now (The secondary school) So will try out your suggestions tomorrow. I think I know where abouts I'm going with all this now.

Big thanks.

[jedmondson]

Last time i used classmaster the PCs where shutdown using the shutdown.exe command running on scheduled tasks on the server.
And the bios where set to wake up at different times so not all pcs where coming on at once.

[Cooper_Trooper]

Seems there is nothing wrong with the shut down process at all. It is indeed run through a shutdown script run through the secheduled tasks on the server which is all still in place and working.

Still waiting to get access to the other machine to check the start up clock in the BIOs.

[Cooper_Trooper]

All sorted. Shutdowns work fine and found how to set a start up time in the BIO's. Thanks guys. All help is much appreciated.