HP BL260c Technologies in HP ProLiant G5 c-Class Server Blades - Page 16

Power meter An integrated power meter in HP ProLiant c-Class server blades provides analysis of actual server power use. The BladeSystem Onboard Administrator can access the power meter through the ProLiant Onboard Administrator powered by iLO 2 or through external power management software such as HP Insight Power Manager (IPM). IPM also consolidates power data for multiple servers to a central location. IT departments can use this information to charge business units or third parties for the actual energy costs associated with workload processing. The BladeSystem Onboard Administrator provides instant and time-averaged views of the power consumption of individual servers or of all servers within a c-Class BladeSystem enclosure. HP Power Regulator for ProLiant HP Power Regulator for ProLiant provides firmware-based speed stepping for Intel x86 processors. Power Regulator improves server energy efficiency by giving processors full power when they need it and reducing power when they do not. This power management feature allows ProLiant servers with policy-based power management to control processor power states. IT administrators can configure Power Regulator for HP Static High Performance mode, HP Static Low Power mode, or HP Dynamic Power Savings mode. The latter automatically adjusts available power to match processor demand. Additional information on the HP Power Regulator is provided in the paper titled "Power Regulator for ProLiant servers": http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00300430/c00300430.pdf. HP Dynamic Power Capping and HP Power Capping Both HP Dynamic Power Capping and HP Power Capping (basic Power Capping) achieve the same general goal of maintaining server power consumption at or below the cap value set by an administrator. HP Dynamic Power Capping, however, monitors power consumption and responds to changes much more rapidly than basic Power Capping. Basic Power Capping does an excellent job of maintaining average server power utilization at or below a cap value. It can help manage data center cooling requirements by limiting server power consumption in a timely enough manner to prevent excessive heat generation. However, basic Power Capping cannot respond quickly enough to limit sudden increases in server power consumption that could cause an electrical circuit breaker to trip. Dynamic Power Capping operates more than 25 times faster than basic Power Capping, and can bring a server experiencing a sudden increase in workload back under its power cap in less than one-half second. This fast response prevents any surge in power demand that could cause a typical data center circuit breaker to trip. Dynamic Power Capping prevents tripping circuit breakers that have a specified trip time of three seconds or longer at 50 degrees C and 150 percent overload. This basic difference, the ability to keep server power consumption below the power cap in real time, means that Dynamic Power Capping can be an effective tool in planning and managing both electrical provisioning and cooling requirements in the data center. An administrator can electrically provision a PDU or a rack to something less than the full faceplate power rating of all the servers supported because Dynamic Power Capping guards against any unexpected change in power consumption that might cause a circuit breaker to trip. Basic Power Capping is supported on all c-Class BladeSystem server blades with iLO 2 version 1.30 or later and system BIOS 2007.05.01 or later. Support for Dynamic Power Capping requires iLO 2 version 1.70 or later, system BIOS 2008.11.01 or later, and BladeSystem Onboard Administrator firmware version 2.32 or later for HP BladeSystem enclosures. 16