Power Management Quick Start

Get measurable power savings in four steps: review your baseline, deploy a power profile, remediate non-compliant endpoints, and enable Wake-on-LAN for off-hours management.

Note: This quick start is intended for administrators and operators who have BigFix Power Management already installed and subscribed. If you have not yet completed installation, see the Power Management Setup Guide before continuing.

Step 1 — Check Your Baseline with the Power Consumption Summary Dashboard

Navigation: Dashboards > Power Consumption Summary

Before making any changes, understand your current state. Open the Power Consumption Summary dashboard to view aggregate power usage, the PM Efficiency Rating, and how your endpoints break down across power states: Active, Idle, Standby, and Powered Off.

A high proportion of Idle time is the clearest signal for savings opportunity. Idle computers consume full power while doing nothing. The PM Efficiency Rating — calculated as Standby Time divided by (Standby Time + Idle Time) — gives you a single metric for how well your deployment is performing. A low rating means significant room for improvement.

Step 2 — Deploy a Power Profile

Navigation: Reduce Power Consumption > Manage Power Profiles

Use the Manage Power Profiles wizard to create and deploy your first power profile. For most deployments, starting with Enable System Standby is recommended — it delivers the highest impact with the lowest disruption to end users. Set an idle timeout appropriate for your organization; 30 minutes is a common starting point. Most computers wake from standby within 10 seconds of user activity.

You can create a single profile that applies uniformly, or a multiple-profile policy with different settings by time of day and day of week — for example, a more aggressive standby threshold outside office hours.

Tip: Use the Model Power Savings report before deploying to simulate projected savings for different profiles against your last two weeks of actual power state data. This lets you build a business case and set realistic targets before committing to a deployment-wide change.

Step 3 — Fix PC Insomnia on Non-Compliant Endpoints

Navigation: Dashboards > Power Management Health Checks > Reduce Power Consumption > Manage PC Insomnia

After deploying a power profile, some endpoints may still fail to enter standby as expected. This is typically caused by PC Insomnia — a condition where applications prevent a computer from sleeping even after the idle timeout has elapsed.

Use the Power Management Health Checks dashboard to identify non-compliant endpoints. Then deploy the Manage PC Insomnia Fixlets to force those computers into standby or hibernation, recovering the savings your power profile intended.

  • Forcing into standby allows for faster wake times.
  • Forcing into hibernation results in slightly longer wake times but delivers greater power savings.
Note: The Force Hibernate in PC Insomnia Conditions task does not run more than once in a 15-minute interval, and is not applicable on computers designated as Last Man Standing.

Step 4 — Enable Wake-on-LAN for Off-Hours Management

Navigation: Configuration > Manage Wake-on-LAN Forwarders > Schedule Wake-on-LAN

With endpoints now entering standby or powering off, you need a reliable way to wake them for scheduled maintenance, patching, or backups outside office hours.

Designate Wake-on-LAN Forwarders so that WoL packets can reach computers across subnets, then use the Schedule Wake-on-LAN Wizard to define wake-up windows. The WoL Medic component checks every five minutes and wakes systems according to your scheduled policy — no special router configuration required.

For large or multi-subnet networks, configure Last Man Standing (LMS) to ensure at least one computer per subnet remains powered on at all times, available to act as a WoL Forwarder for its peers. Select computers that are likely to be running continuously, such as servers.

Note: Ensure that REST API is configured correctly on your BigFix server before relying on Wake-on-LAN scheduling. If REST API is not set up, the WoL Medic Utility will not function properly. REST API is supported by BigFix server version 9.0 and later.

Optional: View Reports and Share Results

Navigation: Tools > Launch Web Reports > Systems Lifecycle

Use Web Reports to access management-level summaries of power savings, CO2 reductions, and cost impact across your deployment. These reports are useful for sustainability initiatives, executive dashboards, and demonstrating ROI to stakeholders.

For trend analysis over time, enable Historical Power Tracking via the BES Server Plugin Service (see the Power Management Setup Guide). The Power Consumption Over Time report then becomes available, charting average power consumption against a baseline from your start date.