Limit Power Consumption

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Applies To: Operations Manager 2007

By using the Power Management Pack with computers that use hardware that qualifies for the “Enhanced Power Management” Additional Qualification logo, you can limit the amount of power that a computer in a power set can use. This functionality can help you manage the number of computers connected to a power distribution unit (PDU) based on actual power needs.

For example, you want to add new devices to your data center without adding additional power capacity. The capacity of the PDU is (X) and the new devices would require 10% of that capacity. You use the Power Management Pack to budget the amount of power the existing devices can use, limiting usage to free up 10% of the capacity. By monitoring the performance of the devices on the limited budget, you can determine whether the devices perform their roles satisfactorily under the more conservative budget.

To limit the power used by computers in a power set, perform the following procedures:

  1. Create a group that contains the computers connected to a particular PDU. For instructions, see How to Create a Group for Power Consumption Monitoring.

  2. Define a power set that uses the group you created in step 1. For instructions, see Using the Power Consumption Template.

  3. Reduce the power budget for the power set you created in step 2.

    1. In the Operations console, in the Monitoring section, expand Power Management, and then click Power Supply.

    2. In the Power Supply list, select the power supplies for which you want to limit the power budget.

      Note

      You must be able to write to the power budget of a power supply. To verify if the power supply is power budget writeable, contact the hardware vendor.

    3. In the Actions pane, click Set Power Budget.

    4. Click Run to run the task by using the default parameters, or click Override to change the task parameters and then click Run.

Use the performance views to monitor the performance of the computers in the power set to evaluate the effects of the limited power consumption. Run the Power Consumption report for the power set to check the aggregate power consumption.