Users Guide
Executing power control operations using web interface
To perform power control operations:
1. In iDRAC web interface, go to Configuration > Power Management > Power Control. The Power Control options are
displayed.
2. Select the required power operation:
● Power On System
● Power Off System
● NMI (Non-Masking Interrupt)
● Graceful Shutdown
● Reset System (warm boot)
● Power Cycle System (cold boot)
3. Click Apply. For more information, see the iDRAC Online Help.
Executing power control operations using RACADM
To perform power actions, use the serveraction command.
For more information, see the iDRAC RACADM CLI Guide available at https://www.dell.com/idracmanuals.
Power capping
You can view the power threshold limits that covers the range of AC and DC power consumption that a system under heavy
workload presents to the datacenter. This is a licensed feature.
Power capping in Blade servers
Before a blade server turns on, based on limited hardware inventory, iDRAC provides the power requirements of the blade
server to the chassis manager. If the power consumption increases over time and if the server consumes power to its maximum
allocation, iDRAC requests CMC (for non-MX platforms) or OME Modular (for MX platforms) to increase the maximum potential
power. This results in an increase in the power delivery, however, the power delivery does not reduce if the consumption
decreases.
After the system is powered on and initialized, iDRAC calculates a new power requirement based on the actual hardware
configuration. The system stays powered on even if the CMC (not for MX platforms) or OME Modular (not for MX platforms)
fails to allocate new power request.
CMC or OME Modular reclaims any unused power from lower priority servers and allocates that power to a higher-priority
infrastructure module or a server.
Viewing and configuring power cap policy
When power cap policy is enabled, it enforces a user-defined power limits on the system. If power-capping is not enabled, the
default hardware power-protection policy is used. This power-protection policy is independent of the user-defined policy. The
system performance is dynamically adjusted to maintain power consumption close to the specified threshold.
Actual power consumption depends on the workload. It may momentarily exceed the threshold until performance adjustments
are completed. For example, consider a system that has a minimum and maximum Potential Power Consumption values of 500
W and 700 W respectively. You can specify a Power Budget Threshold to reduce consumption to 525 W. When this power
budget is configured, the performance of the system is dynamically adjusted to maintain power consumption of 525 W or less.
If you set a very low power cap or if the ambient temperature is unusually high, power consumption may temporarily exceed the
power-cap while the system is powering up or being reset.
If the power cap value is set lower than the minimum recommended threshold, iDRAC may not be able maintain the requested
power cap.
You can specify the value in Watts, BTU/hr, or as a percentage of the recommended maximum power limit.
Monitoring and managing power in iDRAC
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