Specifications
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Intel® Cloud Builders Guide: Dell* OpenManage* Power Center
Things to Consider
Architectural Considerations
1. Scalability
A single installation of Dell
OpenManage Power Center can
support up to 2,000 nodes. For
larger implementations, multiple
instantiations would be required.
2. Management Traffic Separation
Many customers feel a need to
separate their management data
from their production data. The
Dell iDRAC allows you to put your
management data onto a separate
network port. The reader should
consider options to share the same
network or use a separate network,
and IP space, for the iDRAC data.
3. Power Management
Usage of power management should
be considered only after careful
analysis of the workload performance
under various conditions and
evaluated both before and after
power capping has been used.
As mentioned previously, there
are many usage models that can
benefit from power monitoring and
management. At the same time,
there can be scenarios where power
management may not be the optimal
solution. For example, if a highly
sensitive production application is
very CPU intensive and the host
machine is already over-subscribed
for power, adding a power cap below
that maximum power consumption
level could inadvertently affect the
performance of the system and
return less than expected results
from the application.
4. Power Capping Capability in Dell
OpenManage Power Center
Dell PowerEdge servers with iDRAC7
come from the factory with the
iDRAC7 Express license unless
otherwise specified when ordering
your Dell server. The Express license
gives you monitoring-only capabilities
for power and temperature. You
cannot implement policies on the
server platform until you upgrade
to the Enterprise license model.
For more details on acquiring an
Enterprise iDRAC7 license, visit
http://support.dell.com/support/
edocs/software/smdrac3/idrac/.
Glossary
Intel® Node Manager: Intel® Node
Manager is a server based technology
that resides on Intel® Xeon® processor
5500/5600/E3/E5 series-based
platforms. It provides power and
temperature monitoring and policy based
power management capabilities on an
individual server. These capabilities
are exposed over IPMI through the
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)
for out-of-band access. The newer Intel
Xeon processor E5 family platforms
give more granular power monitoring by
providing visibility at the platform power
level, as well as CPU and memory power
domains. A PMBus* 1.1 or 1.2 power
supply is required for the appropriate
instrumentation readings for power on all
Intel Node Manager platforms.
Intel® Data Center Manager (Intel®
DCM): Intel® DCM is an SDK developed
by Intel to assist third party application
developers to create software that can
manage Intel® Node Manager platforms in
scaled deployment. Users benet from
this application by monitoring groups
of servers, and managing the power to
increase rack density, reduce TCO, and
operational expenses.
Dell* OpenManage* Power Center
(OpenManage Power Center): Dell
PowerEdge servers have Intel® Node
Manager embedded into their platform,
and have utilized the knowledge from
Intel® DCM to develop Dell OpenManage
Power Center to control the enterprise
data center. Dell OpenManage Power
Center can discover, monitor, and control
PowerEdge platforms and other devices
in the data center to assist customers
in asset control, power monitoring, and
power and thermal issue management.
This is all done without any need for
software on the servers, by utilizing the
iDRAC6/iDRAC7 controller interface on
the Dell PowerEdge platform.
References
• Intel® Node Manager: http://www.intel.
com/technology/nodemanager
• Dell* OpenManage* Power Center:
http://www.dell.com/PowerCenter
• Intelligent Platform Management
Interface (IPMI): http://www.intel.com/
design/servers/ipmi/
• PMBus*: http://pmbus.org/specs.html
• Advanced Configuration & Power
Interface (ACPI): http://www.acpi.info
• Ultra U12-41380 Infrared Thermometer:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/
applications/searchtools/item-details.
asp?EdpNo=7047546
• Yokogawa WT210 DIGITAL POWER
METER: http://tmi.yokogawa.com/
products/digital-power-analyzers/
digital-power-analyzers/wt210wt230-
digital-power-meters/#tm-wt210_01.
htm
For more information on Dell and
Intel® Cloud Builders, visit: http://www.
intelcloudbuilders.com/dell