Switch off access points at night?

[#1]

I see with meraki switches there is a possibility to disable ports between certain hours. So I was thinking, can we save on electricity bill by turning off our Access Points at night?

We have 92 access points that use about 9w of power in standby. So that's 828 w in total, 5 kwh. If we turn them all off between 00:00 and 06:00 that will save us about 150 euro per year.

Is it OK to switch off Meraki access points every night?

[Philip D'Ath · Accepted solution]

We use the port schedule function to turn our Access Points and VoIP phones off. Works fine for us.

[Uberseehandel]

Talking of switching off. It would be really good if one could switch off the lights on the RJ45 connectors, just as we can switch off the status light on the APs. There is little point in switch off the status light if the reflected light from the RJ45 is flashing like a beacon. Once the MR is mounted, the RJ45 is not helpful. If diagnosing problems, then the light can be re-enabled.

I know we can turn off the RJ45 status lights, in fact we can even flash them and cycle the colours, so please can we do this?

Nothing worse than houses and professional offices full of flashing lights, it's like the Bates Motel a cheap motel . . .

[#4]

Thanks!

[rodrigo_27]

I made this setup on switch in order to power off ports to AP and Phones but I cannot scheduled a power off on the trunk port, which in same cases could be good way.

Is there any idea why I cannot power schedule on the trunk port?

[simple818]

@rodrigo_27 by trunk port do you mean the uplink? Typically this port will show up in the dashboard with an up arrow.

[rodrigo_27]

@simple818 Sorry for my wrong mention ( uplink ) used to Switch Cisco ( all as trunks ).

But there is no option to use port schedule in uplink, so for me some case could be good idea.

As below, the port of AP has option, but I cannot use same policies in uplink port.

[simple818]

I don't think you can theoretically schedule an uplink because the device doesn't cache the schedule to turn it back on. The device would go offline and not come back on if you were able to schedule uplinks. I've never tried it but that would seem like Meraki logic.

[Uberseehandel]

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@simple818 wrote:

I don't think you can theoretically schedule an uplink because the device doesn't cache the schedule to turn it back on. The device would go offline and not come back on if you were able to schedule uplinks. I've never tried it but that would seem like Meraki logic.

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When some of the posters on this topic are talking about uplinks/trunks, I believe that they are describing the connection between an AP and the switch. As long as the device is a PoE client, then being turned on and off can be scheduled at the switch port rather than the device itself.

Interestingly, I haven't discovered why some hosts(client devices) respond to the Wake-on-LAN packet and others do not.

[simple818]

Agreed @Uberseehandel but I think @rodrigo_27 was trying to schedule an uplink. Interesting on the WOL observation. I haven't used that much.

[Uberseehandel]

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@simple818 wrote:

Agreed @Uberseehandel but I think @rodrigo_27 was trying to schedule an uplink.

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The link between the AP and the switch could be described as an "uplink", it carries several VLANs and needs RSTP if there is any possibility that a MiFi mesh might be created.

As far as shutting down a device goes, whether one shuts down the switch port (and the power supplied) or turns off the remote device, the effect is the same, but one is controllable by configuration, and the other is not.

[rodrigo_27]

@simple818 and @Uberseehandel I believe understood logic about cache related device when you make power schedule in uplink ( connection between switches ).

It about your last mention when is related AP which is controlled because switch ( uplink or trunk port ) will manage. But according discussion about WOL I am on the same page, and could be good point to verify.

[simple818]

True @Uberseehandel, I guess I only really refer to uplinks as any port that has the up arrow on it in the dashboard. Everything else I just refer to as an access or trunk port.