I had a Dell poweredge that could do this... It never worked right.
If you don't mind a bit (ok so by a bit I mean a lot) of tomfoolery here is an idea or three.
Do this at your own risk
- Get a light timer. (You know like the one you use to turn on and off your Christmas lights.)
- Change the setting in the BIOS to start up after a power failure.
- Have the OS shutdown the computer at the desired time.
- Set the light timer to cycle the power just before the time you want the server to power up.
Yeah, yeah there are tons of reasons not to do it this way. But it would work, for cheap.
So could you do the same thing only less hokey? Sure.
You are going to need a micro controller, some relays and a small power supply.
- Have the OS power down.
- Tie into the server's power led to an input on the micro controller.
- Write a program that check the status of the computer and the time. If the computer is off and it's time to power up close a relay that you connected to the power button.
Don't want to open up that case? Have another server?
- Get an X10 device. (Secure? Not a chance. Effective? You bet.)
- Write a program to ping the server just before the start up time. If the ping fails cycle the X10 device.
- Set the BIOS to power up after a power failure.
Hey look this guy did something similar. ;)
Good luck with your tomfoolery!