Data Center Management
Solutions
Power Solutions
“Avocent was the only
vendor to address
console access and
power management
as a whole. Avocent
provided a complete,
unified solution
for remote server
management.”
Dan Marx, IT Engineer
SAP
A recent US Environmental Protection Agency study found that data center energy
utilization has doubled during the past eight years, representing more than 1.5%
of all US energy consumption. The trend is expected to continue with energy
doubling yet again by the end of 2011.
We’ve taken more than 20 years of success developing data center optimization
and endpoint control products and created a unique, multi-touch solution
specifically for IT Power Management. This powerful (forgive the pun) offering
gives you the tools you need to monitor energy consumption, costs and trends
across all levels within the data center and out to every remote location.
Typical Data Center Costs . . . . . . . . .2
Steps to Managing Data Center Power . 3
Devices in the Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Ordering Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Every day, IT is faced with operational and business-driven initiatives to provide a
reactive, dynamic environment. To achieve this, IT must:
• Respond to changes in requirements and business directives
• Secure the environment by providing the right users access to the right resources
• Proactively manage the environment
These initiatives all need to be met while monitoring and managing the capital and
operational costs of the data center. According to the Self Benchmarking Guide
for Data Center Energy Performance, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, IT power
equipment is the largest component of data center energy consumption; therefore,
any energy savings on equipment translates to twice that for the entire data center.
Which means any business needs to understand its data center power needs,
requirements and current usage. This is where Avocent can help.
Avocent hardware and software power solutions give companies the ability to
monitor and measure IT energy consumption, costs and trends across all levels within
their data centers and remote locations.
• Plan
- Capacity (using percentage load reports)
- Comparative reports
•Access/Monitor
- Through a consolidated console
- Create alerts based on user-defined thresholds
- Server power trends (amps, volts, Watts, kW, kWh)
• Intelligent Server/Equipment Grouping
•Control/Manage
- Outlets remotely – power control: on/off, reboot, apply time-dependent policy (e.g., power down over the weekend)
- Reports based on audience
typical data center costs
50 racks at 4kW/rack for 1 year (8,760 hours) Annual IT power consumption = 1.75 million kWh
Total IT equipment annual power costs = $ 0.11/kWh ➔ Annual IT power cost = $192K
Cooling and infrastructure doubles that cost ➔ Annual data center power cost = $384K
In order to measure the efficiency of the physical infrastructure equipment or the power
usage effectiveness (PUE), The Green Grid suggests the following measurements:
Total facility power
IT equipment power
= PUE
Note: Total facility power can be measured at the utility entrance to the data center. The IT equipment
can be measured using monitoring tools that aggregate power consumption. If the output of the
uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system is connected strictly to all IT equipment, it could be used as a
proxy for IT equipment power.
Steps to Managing Data
Center Power
1. With the Avocent® Rack Power
Manager software, you can define your
infrastructure by company, data centers
within that company, rows of racks
within each data center, equipment
in each rack and custom intelligent
groups. This hierarchy will give the Rack
Power Manager the necessary details to
compare grouped metrics.
Avocent Rack Power Manager Software Hierarchical Infrastructure Tree
Real-time data gathered by the PDU (in this example, a PM 3000 PDU) at the rack
level (default threshold 50°C at 15kW). This can also be gathered at a row of racks or
machine level.
2. If real-time data is required, a metering
power distribution unit (PDU) is
required at each rack for gathering the
metrics. This will collect the information
needed to manage power and energy
consumption down to the outlet
level. Note: If the Avocent® Power
Management (PM) 3000 PDU is used,
the temperature sensor is included
and an external humidity sensor can
be attached so those metrics are also
available.
Steps to Managing Data
Center Power
3. If power control is needed, the PDU will
also need switching capability.
Power operations that are available when using a PM 3000 switching/metering PDU.
The user has the option to power on/off or power cycle any device connected to the PDU
outlet.
4. The next step is the most important. The
user needs to understand the reason for
gathering the data. For example,
a facilities manager needs to monitor
ambient temperature and power used
for a given rack.
The PM 3000 PDU has an internal sensor that monitors temperature. This
comparative report shows the last three days of values for a given rack.
Steps to Managing Data
Center Power
5. That same facilities manager needs to
monitor overall power consumption.
The Overall Energy report provides a kWh value over a three-day period.
6. If the power consumption exceeds a
predefined peak usage within a quarter,
the director of IT presents these findings
to the executive team.
This is the Overall Energy report for four servers. Power consumption is based on a usage
rate of 0.06 euro per kW/h. The cost for three days of usage is EUR 3.22 and the 1kW
threshold was never reached.
Steps to Managing Data
Center Power
7. The system administrator needs to
periodically watch each rack usage
(voltage, efficiency and consumption).
Voltage levels for
PM 3000 PDU outlets.
Power consumption for PM
3000 PDU outlets.
Cumulative power for PM 3000 PDU outlets.
Steps to Managing Data
Center Power
8. The system administrator must also
daily monitor the PDU power range.
Dashboard view of PDU threshold levels down to the outlet level.
Power Solutions
Data Center Management
Solutions
Avocent Rack
Power Manager
Avocent Rack Power Manager Solution
ORDERING DETAILS
PART
dDESCRIPTION
Software components
RPM-BASE50
Rack Power Manager software base pack - 1 hub, 50 Rack PDUs
RPM-BASE100
Rack Power Manager software base pack - 1 hub, 100 Rack PDUs
RPM-BASE250
Rack Power Manager software base pack - 1 hub, 250 Rack PDUs
RPM-SPOKE
Rack Power Manager spoke add-on license
RPM-WSK
Rack Power Manager Web services API Kit w/ 5 hours Tech Support
Hardware components
ACS 6000
ACS advanced console server serial over IP appliance - Serial connectivity
for PDU
DSR 2035
DSR® KVM over IP switch appliance - Serial connectivity for PDU
PM 3000
PDU available in 16A 3-phase or 32A 1-phase with a power range of 7 to
22kW
For country-specific availability, please contact an Avocent sales representative.
Devices in the rack AG-03
Rack space
server/device name
MODEL
24
Power distribution unit 6
PM3004H-401
22-23
FR-S-PLES-ETV01
IBM® xSeries 3650
20-21
EU-FR-EXBE06
IBM xSeries 3650
19
IBMX3500
IBM 3550
14-18
POMONA
Sun® Fire v490
Note: Legacy DSRIQs are also supported, please contact an Avocent sales
representative for more information.
Emerson is a trademark of Emerson Electric Co. ©2010 Emerson Electric Co.
All rights reserved. Printed in USA. 1111-PWRSOLUTIONS-DS-EN