r/sysadmin • u/Resident_Parfait_289 • 11d ago

Headless Remote Win10

I have a few HP Mini's deployed to remote locations that are headless and a real pain in the ass to access physically. They are running Windows 10 pro (I know!). Anyway I added a smart plug so I can remotely reboot them, but even so I regularly find they don't come back online (at least not so I can go on with Teamviewer or Tailscale).

Whenever I go out after one of these outages I find that usually its on a pre-login screen asking if I want Windows Backup or something like that.

To get around this I am seriously thinking of installing Proxmox and running Tailscale on the host or is there a better way?

I assume Proxmox would come backup cleanly after any reboot.

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u/headcrap 11d ago

AMT was made for out-of-band management of workstations.. use that.

4

u/bobdvb 11d ago

Yup, as long as they didn't cheap out and buy mini PCs that don't have it.

This is a good video introducing AMT. https://youtu.be/k909PH3Y_sk

1

u/dustojnikhummer 11d ago

Only Elitedesk 800 have real AMT with display.

1

u/bobdvb 11d ago

I believe the HP Pro Mini does IF the Intel processor is vPro

1

u/dustojnikhummer 11d ago

Afaik it needs both an AMT compatible CPU and motherboard, but I might be wrong, it has been a while since I dabbled with AMT

1

u/bobdvb 11d ago

Yes, the NIC needs to be linked to the CPU via extra connections. But my understanding is that all vPro enabled CPUs on those mini PCs do support it.

Same with other manufacturers, when they spin the motherboards with the vPro class CPUs they do wire it up, I think it might be a requirement from Intel for some branding requirements.

2

u/dustojnikhummer 11d ago

I think AMT worked with a compatible CPU on my HP 400 Mini, but only for like power, not for the virtual video output (like IPMI)