New Feature - Offsite Power Policies

In the upcoming Perth release of eiPower a significant new feature is the ability for the end user to specify a power policy that will be applied when their computer is Offsite. This feature will be available to the user through a UI on the agent after the administrator has configured and enabled the Offsite Detection policy in the SMP console. The agent UI allows the end user to specify the power scheme settings (Monitor off, HDD off Standby, Hibernate times) that will be applied when computer is Offsite. 

When the eiPower agent detects that the computer is OFF-site it will automatically apply this Offsite power scheme and when the agent detects that the computer in ON-site it will automatically apply the standard power policy.

In a previous post (New feature in Tokyo release - New Power Policies) I discussed the different types of power policies that the eiPower agent uses, as well as the priority order in which these apply. With this new feature there is now another type of power policy that the agent uses. The full list of power policy types is shown below with the new policy type is shown in bold.

1. Complete Override Power Policy. This power scheme gets created when the user has set the override. It gets deleted automatically when the override countdown timer reaches zero or the when user turns off the override by clicking the Resume button.
2. Offsite Power Policy. When Offsite detection has been configured by the administrator the eiPower agent allows the user to define an Offsite power policy. This policy gets automatically applied when the computer is Offsite.
3. Application Power Policy. These power schemes get activated when the specified application is running or website is open.
4. Scheduled Power Policy. These power schemes become active when the current time is between the Start and End date.
5. Users Override Default Power Policy. This power scheme gets created when a user chooses to modify the default policy specified by the administrator.
6. Administrators Default Power Policy. This is the default power scheme defined by the administrator.

These types are listed in order of their priority. Hence these policies are applied in the following way.

• If a Complete Override Policy has been set this will take precedent over all other policy types. During this time all other policies are ignored, for example, the Offsite power policy is ignored even if the computer is Offsite and all scheduled power policy End Actions will not execute at their scheduled time 
• If the Complete Override Policy is NOT set and Offsite detection has been configured by the administrator AND the user has specified an Offsite power scheme AND the computer is Offsite, then the Offsite Power Policy will be applied. During this all other lower priority policies are ignored.
• If none of the previous policies are active and any application is running (or web page is open) that has been specified in an Application Power Policy then this policy will be applied. As usual any lower priority policy is ignored while the Application Power policy is active.
• If none of the previous policies are active and the current time is between the Start and End times for a Scheduled Power Policy then this policy will be applied. If specified the computer will be woken at the Start time and the End Action will be executed at the End Time. During this time all lower priority policies are enabled.
• If none of the previous policies are active and the user has specified a Default Override Power Policy then this scheme will be applied.
• If none of the previous policies are active then the Administrators Default Power Policy will be applied. This is the default scheme for the agent.

An additional change to the agent in the Perth release is that all wake-up timers will be disabled when the Complete Override Power Policy is set or when the computer is Offsite. This means that when the computer is Offsite the computer will not be woken for scheduled power policies or for SWD/Patch integration schedules. 

Note. Wakeup timers are disabled whenever the computer is Offsite regardless of if an Offsite power policy has been enabled or not.