I have a Ubuntu server (16.10) at home and was wondering if there is a way to turn it on remotely when I am away from home?
I set up Wake-On-LAN but that only seems to work when I'm using another computer connected to the same network as my Ubuntu server.
Any ideas on getting WOL working remotely?
First, the fact that your computer is running Ubuntu when powered on is unrelated to Wake-on-LAN (WOL) functionality.
Second, WOL uses Ethernet frames with a particular format.
Third, Ethernet frames are not routed outside of the local network segment. In the case of the Internet, intermediate networks might not even use Ethernet at all.
The consequence of the second and third points is that, in order to send a WOL request to a computer on a network, you need to do so from another system on the local network segment. It is not possible to directly issue WOL requests over the Internet.
Of course, you can do something like what CyberFonic suggests and have a small, low-power system on the local network segment that you can use to issue a WOL request. But in that case, the WOL request is really issued by another system on the local network segment; you just happen to access that system over the Internet.
I'm in a similar situation to you. Using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as a web server.
The server and a Raspberry Pi are both connected to the router via ethernet cable.
The RPi is running continuously. I have installed and configured fail2ban for extra security. The router is configured to allow SSH access from the internet to the RPi. When I want to start my power hungry IBM server. I SSH connect (mosh actually) to the RPi and run the following Python program:
""" Send a WoL packet to the specified MAC address NB: Won't work on OS/X. The AF_PACKET is specific to Linux. Needs to be run with sudo. """ import socket PREAMBLE = bytearray((0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF)) # Need to configure the following for the correct MAC of the target MAC = bytearray((0x00, 0x14, 0x85, 0xa1, 0x43, 0xde)) pkt = PREAMBLE + 16*MAC sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_PACKET, socket.SOCK_RAW) # Configure the correct interface name sock.bind(('enp2s1', 0)) sock.sendall(pkt) sock.close() If you don't have a static IP address, then you probably need to configure dynDNS or something similar and your domain addresses.
apt-get install wakeonlan For WOL you could use port forwarding to another device on your network, various media players have this feature as a web accessible option.
You can also try wake on ring, or an IP powerboard after rigging bios to boot when AC power is applied. There are a number of Android/iOS apps that drive proprietary power points for this.
If it is a major brand server, there may be an out of band option (extra Ethernet port and daughterboard) you can purchase and fit. Higher end KVM over IP may support remote boot. There are a few options.
To clarify this, for a number of years I have been using an IP-Power 9258 powerboards, and these are useful, although I have not always been happy. They can be controlled with curl(1) (from script or a PHP dashboard). To get to it you are going to have to RDP/VNC in to an always-on workstation (lattepanda, say), run a low spec box webserver(Pi) on port 8081 say, or connect via VPN client. If you go this way, you need to be able to deal with or suppress grub hanging (waiting for keyboard) after an "incident". But it has the advantage of being able to cycle the power if everything else has failed. It is very common to go behind NAT to get things done.
