Innovations in
Intelligent Power Management
by 42U
Abstract
Intelligent power solutions allow administrators
to remotely power cycle servers and devices
and troubleshoot problems, reducing server downtime
by providing direct access to power control.
Several important aspects of intelligent power
management products can help promote uptime
and allow for more effective power management.
These features include smart load shedding,
centralized management capability, branch circuit
protection, and three-phase power.
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Power management is a top concern for
data center managers.(1) To efficiently
and effectively manage power, data center managers
are increasingly implementing remote or "intelligent"
power management solutions, which leverage hardware
and/or software to monitor and control server-level
power state and condition. Intelligent power
can be used in environments of varying sizes,
with solutions available for a wide range of
applications-from control of a few outlets in
a small office/home office (SOHO) environment
or standalone kiosk to integrated vertically
mounted solutions for medium to large-sized
datacenters.
Intelligent Power Management
Intelligent power solutions allow administrators
to remotely power cycle servers and devices
and troubleshoot problems, reducing server downtime
by providing direct access to power control.
In a 2005 survey conducted by
Cyclades,
organizations that used intelligent power products
reported an average recovery time of 10-30 minutes
for remotely managed devices, compared to 1-2
hours for devices that were not remotely managed.
(2)
In addition to reducing downtime and shortening
the mean time to repair, intelligent power products
offer several significant benefits including:
providing administrators with the ability to
proactively monitor and protect mission-critical
equipment with onboard or third-party
environmental monitoring devices, eliminating
or reducing late night trips to the datacenter
and reducing third-party service calls for server
reboots, and allowing the implementation of
cost-effective "lights-out" operation at remote
offices and branch locations.
Intelligent Power Control/Remote Reboot
Innovative Features of Intelligent Power
Management
Several important features of intelligent
power management products can help promote uptime
and allow for more effective power management.
These features include:
- Smart load shedding capability
- Centralized management capability
- Branch circuit protection
- Three-phase power
Smart Load Shedding
This feature, which is embedded in firmware
already in many
Server Technology intelligent power products,
allows administrators to automatically "shed",
or perform a graceful shutdown of designated
non-essential devices when certain pre-defined
conditions occur, helping to avoid equipment
damage and downtime when problems arise.
(3) For example, administrators can
specify that non-critical devices are automatically
shed when an intelligent power device is notified
(via SNMP) that a UPS is on battery-power status.
In addition, load shedding can also be set to
take place when probes within 10 feet of an
intelligent power device measure temperatures
that exceed predefined thresholds, or when true
RMS (root-mean-squared) current levels are greater
than set thresholds. In addition, administrators
can configure the system to restore power through
autorecovery to shed devices if adverse conditions
have been reversed (i.e., UPS is on main power
and/or temperature and current load are normal).
(4)
Integrated Management
Integrated management platforms aggregate
access to multiple devices, including power,
making management more efficient and allowing
administrators to access, troubleshoot, and
power cycle devices quickly if problems occur.
Server Technology's
Enterprise View PDU manager provides centralized
access to Sentry CDUs,
Sentry Power Tower products, and Sentry
Commander devices. While Server Technology products
can be centrally managed, each device has its
own IP address for individual access if necessary.
The Enterprise View PDU manager also allows
administrators to leverage their existing investments
by supporting
Netbotz and APC environmental monitoring
equipment, as well as environmental monitoring
appliances by other manufacturers.
Other vendors also offer products for integrated
management. For example, Avocent's DSView3 software
can be used to manage the Avocent Cyclades PM
family, which integrates with Cyclades ACS console
servers and
KVM switches, allowing power control and
console management from the same interface.
Avocent's
DSView3 software can also be used to manage
Sentry remote power management products. Raritan's
remote power control solutions integrate with
Raritan's
Paragon,
IP-Reach,
and
Dominion products and can be managed through
the
CommandCenter Secure Gateway appliance.
Branch Circuit Protection
Branch circuit protection can help prevent
outages and losses, as each branch of grouped
outlets has its own fuse or circuit breaker
to isolate power anomalies and issues. Branch
circuit protected devices typically fall into
two categories, molded case circuit breakers
listed to the UL (Underwriters Laboratories)
489 standard, or fuses listed to the UL 248
standard. (5) Server Technology products
use fuses for branch circuit protection;
APC products use circuit breakers. Server
Technology's
Sentry CDU family offers built-in branch
circuit protection for single-phase 110V, 208V,
and 240V circuits and three-phase 208V circuits.
Three-Phase Power
Recently, because of the rise in the use
of blade servers and high-density computing
clusters, power has become an even greater issue.
Newer equipment often requires significantly
more power for the same footprint, with demands
as high as 40 kW per cabinet. (6)
This high-power trend is expected to continue,
with estimates that blade servers will be the
fastest growing server form factor through 2009.(7)
Due to this increased power demand, most of
today's high-density server environments require,
at a minimum, single-phase 208V power. To help
mitigate this increased demand for power, particularly
for applications that require 24-48 outlets,
many administrators are choosing to implement
208V three-phase power, because compared to
single-phase power, 3-Phase power uses fewer
circuits, provides a more balanced power load,
reduces the overall number of PDUs needed to
power equipment, and significantly increases
available amperage into the server rack. While
three-phase power technology is not exclusive
to remote power management products, many solutions
can accommodate or incorporate it. To meet the
demand of high-density servers, Server Technology
offers several three-phase power options, including
208 V 60A 3 Phase power. For planning purposes,
datacenter managers need to be aware of the
existing circuitry in their datacenters, and
at a minimum, should plan on incorporating 208V
30A single phase circuits or 208 V 30A 3-phase
circuits into IT infrastructure to meet the
current and future power demands of high-density
environments.
Choose the Right Intelligent Power Solution
42U provides
complete datacenter management solutions, including
intelligent power,
KVM over IP, environmental monitoring, server
rack cooling, and
rackmount solutions. A 42U sales engineer
can help you sort through potential intelligent
power management solutions and select the one
most appropriate for your organization's particular
needs and environment, allowing you to take
advantage of all the innovative features that
remote power management offers. The team at
42U specializes in assessing needs, creating
solutions, and supporting clients, to ensure
that IT professionals maximize their use of
current technologies to improve overall business
performance.
References
(1) Millard, Elizabeth, "The Right Power & Cooling
Products", Processor
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?Article=articles/p2905/20p05/20p05.asp
(2) Miller, Sandra Kay Miller " Remote Power
Management These Options Can Save You Energy
& Money," Processor.
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/p2742/07p42/07p42.asp&guid=&searchType=&WordList=&bJumpto=True
(3) "Smart Load Shedding Ensure Uptime,"
Server Technology Whitepaper.
http://www.servertech.com/downloads/White%20papers/load_shed_white_paper_final.pdf
(4) "Smart Load Shedding Ensure Uptime,"
Server Technology Whitepaper.
http://www.servertech.com/downloads/White%20papers/load_shed_white_paper_final.pdf
(5) "Circuit Breaker-Are you Protected?"
Server Technology Whitepaper.
http://www.servertech.com/downloads/White%20Papers/Article%20Are%20you%20protected.pdf
(6) "Blade Server Power Solutions: "Cabinet
Level Power Distribution Solutions for High
Density Cabinets", Server Technology Whitepaper.
http://www.datacentres.com/papers/papers/BladeServerSolution.pdf
(7) "Blade Server Power Solutions: "Cabinet
Level Power Distribution Solutions for High
Density Cabinets", Server Technology Whitepaper,
citing materials from "Data Center User's Group
Conference, The adaptive Data Center: Managing
Dynamic Technologies (2005)."
http://www.datacentres.com/papers/papers/BladeServerSolution.pdf
About 42U
42U focuses on providing Facilities and
Data Center Managers with objective and trusted
independent information on
Data Center Power and
Data Center Cooling best practices along
with
KVM over IP and
Remote Power lights out management to help
them reduce their organization's power consumption.
Our Data Center
Management website has helped millions of
IT professionals globally who search for best
practices and technologies to help them make
their computer environment more efficient.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works
3.0 Unported License.
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