Thermal Analytics in Raritan Software Helps Data Centers Conserve Energy

Power IQ 2.0 enables data center managers to meet new industry-recommended temperature settings and remotely shut down underutilized servers

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Raritan has introduced a major new release of its Power IQ energy management software that helps data center and lab managers better understand environmental conditions at the rack in order to use power and cooling resources optimally without compromising performance.

Power IQ 2.0 provides thermal analytics for monitoring rack temperatures based on industry guidelines, including ASHRAE's (American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) guidelines that recommend the upper temperature limit in a data center be increased by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit to 80.6 degrees. Power IQ informs users if a data center or lab is within these recommendations and how much energy could be saved by increasing temperature to meet these new recommendations. It alerts users if the temperature exceeds threshold conditions and provides long-term trend charts. The solution also enables graceful shut down of underutilized Windows and Linux servers.

Power IQ 2.0's agentless approach enables shut downs and start ups of servers connected to any rack power distribution units (PDUs). It does not require additional software to be loaded on the target server and leverages standard operation system scripts and commands. Energy can be saved by scheduling automatic power cycling of an "IT device group" when not needed. For example, a Lab manager could save about 25 percent on energy consumption by turning off systems at 7 p.m. on Friday and turning them on at 5 a.m. on Monday.

Other vendor-agnostic v2.0 features include:

  • Power and Environmental Health Monitoring: Power IQ collects SNMP traps from all supported rack PDUs and environmental sensors, provides an event browser for sorting and filtering the event list, and sends e-mail notifications for specified events

  • Vendor-Agnostic Naming: Set or edit rack PDU outlet name, system name, and contact name.

  • Enhanced Search: Enables the use of a partial IT Device Name or IP to find PDUs or IT devices.

For more information, visit www.raritan.com.

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