Raritan has announced Power IQ 2.0, a new version of its Power IQ Management software aimed at helping data center managers betters understand energy consumption and more efficiently use resources such as space, capacity and energy. Power IQ 2.0 includes new features that let organizations monitor rack temperatures and then send alerts if temperatures exceed certain thresholds and industry guidelines set by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), automate the most efficient shut downs and start ups of servers connected to any rack power distribution units, and more.
The thermal analytics feature is designed to help managers monitor rack temperatures and report whether the data center or lab is within ASHRAE guidelines, which now recommend that the upper temperature limit in a data center be increased by 3.6 degrees in order to save on energy consumption. The tool culls rack temperatures then plots the readings on a chart to show whether an organization is in acceptable ranges.
Power IQ 2.0 also lets managers calculate how much energy could be saved by increasing temperatures a bit more, but within ASHRAE recommendations. By raising temperatures, even slightly, data centers will require less cooling, and in turn, less energy, Raritan says. Research and analysis firm Gartner says up to three percent in energy costs can be saved for every degree of upward change in the baseline temperature. The thermal analytics feature also can send out email alerts if, for example, any rack goes above threshold conditions as well as provide long-term trend charts.
The shut down and start up capability is designed to automate the turning on and off of Linux and Windows servers connected to rack power distribution units (PDU) before turning off power outlets, without any additional software loaded onto the target servers. The shut-downs and start-ups are done using standard operating system scripts and commands. Data center managers can schedule the automatic power cycling of a specific "IT device group" when those resources are not needed, such as turning off systems at 7 p.m. Friday and turning them on at 5 a.m. Monday.
Other new features of Power IQ 2.0 include the ability collect SNMP traps from all support rack PDUs and environmental sensors and then providing an event browser for sorting and filtering that list as well as sending e-mail notifications for specified events, a vendor-agnostic naming tool that lets managers set or edit rack PDU outlet names, system names and contact names and enhanced search capabilities that enable the use of partial IT device name or IP to find PDUs or IT devices.
