Power Meter; Hp Power Regulator For Proliant; Hp Dynamic Power Capping And Hp Power Capping - HP BL680c - ProLiant - G5 Configuration

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.
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