Sleep, shut down, log out, or restart a computer

You can put a client computer to sleep, shut it down, or restart it. You can also log out a user.

Put a computer to sleep

When a computer is put to sleep, the display sleeps, any hard disks spin down, and the computer goes into a low-power mode.

Unless there’s a Bonjour sleep proxy running on the other network subnets, you can’t wake computers on a different subnet.

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Sleep.

  3. Click Sleep.

For information, see About Wake on Demand and Bonjour Sleep Proxy.

Start up a computer

You can power on computers that support Lights Out Management.

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Power On.

  3. Click Power On.

Wake up a computer

You can wake computers from sleep.

To wake a computer, it must meet these requirements:

  • The computer’s networking hardware must support waking by using a network packet (wakeonlan).

  • The “Wake for network access” option must be selected in Energy Saver preferences.

The label of the “Wake for network access” option may differ, depending on the capabilities of the computer.

You can wake computers connected to the network using Wi-Fi. Send the following UNIX command to see if a Mac supports wireless Wake on Demand:

system_profiler SPAirPortDataType | grep "Wake On Wireless"

To wake computers that aren’t on your local subnet, do the following:

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more sleeping or offline computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Wake.

  3. Click Wake.

For information, see the Apple Support article About Wake on Demand and Bonjour Sleep Proxy.

Log out the current user

Log out a user to return the computer to the login window. Depending on what apps are open on the client computer, unsaved work may stop the logout process.

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Log Out Current User.

  3. Click Log Out.

Restart a computer

You can restart a client computer.

Unless the client supports lights-out management (LOM), you can restart it only if its current status is Available.

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Restart.

  3. Select the type of restart.

  4. Click Restart.

Shut down a computer

You can shut down a client computer.

Unless the client supports lights-out management (LOM), you can shut it down only if its current status is Available.

Important: If you shut down a client that doesn’t support LOM, you can’t start it up using Remote Desktop.

The Shut Down command is useful when used with Energy Saver preferences. You can set your client computers to start up in the morning, and use Remote Desktop to shut them down at night. The next morning, they’ll start up and be ready to administer.

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list. Then select one or more computers.

  2. Choose Manage > Shut Down.

  3. Select the type of shutdown.

  4. Click Shut Down.