HP ProLiant BL280c HP Power Advisor utility: a tool for estimating power requi - Page 5

HP Power Advisor The HP Power Advisor utility reduces the research and guesswork normally involved in determining power requirements for ProLiant-based systems. Using the HP Power Advisor, an IT administrator can build a complete system, component-by-component and rack-by-rack, assembling a complete infrastructure. NOTE: HP Power Advisor is intended to be a conservative estimator of power. No two applications will consume exactly the same amount of power. Even programs that report the same CPU utilization will have different power consumption characteristics, based on the exact mix and sequence of instructions being executed. The programs used as the measurement reference for the HP Power Advisor are intended to consume more power than typical user applications. Calculator development HP developed the HP Power Advisor using data collected from testing HP ProLiant servers. Each test starts with a system fully configured with the maximum number of processors, memory, hard drives, expansion cards, and power supplies. Proprietary software exercises the processors to the highest possible power level and operates all peripherals while taking voltage and current measurements. Testing continues for all levels of processor support at all speeds, with different memory amounts and hard drive sizes. During development cycles, HP retests revised or updated servers to ensure calculator integrity. Calculator functionality The calculator is a simple drag-and-drop tool. Figure 2 shows the main screen of the HP Power Advisor. A drop-down menu in the center of the screen lists the choices of AC input voltage to be used by the server systems. Figure 2. HP Power Advisor main screen 5