Technical white paper HP Power Advisor A tool for estimating power requirements of HP enterprise solutions Table of contents Abstract 2 Introduction Calculator development Key power parameters Determining power and efficiency needs 2 2 2 Installing the HP Power Advisor 5 Basic functionality Beginning a session Functions and controls 7 7 8 3 Creating configurations Configuring a stand-alone system Configuring a single-node system Configuring a multi-node system Configuring a blade server system 9
Abstract When designing and expanding data centers or even planning rack deployments, you need to be able to accurately estimate your power requirements to ensure the appropriate levels of power and cooling as well as to determine powerrelated operating costs for future budgeting considerations. HP has created the HP Power Advisor utility that provides accurate and meaningful estimates of the power needs for HP ProLiant and Integrity servers.
Device input power The amount of power a device turns into work and dissipates as heat is known as real (or true) power and is measured in watts (W). Since any heat created by electrical equipment must be extracted, knowing the total amount of watts dissipated by systems in a data center helps determine the cooling capacity needed in the facility.
Customers building a system with custom-configured ProLiant DL385 Gen8 servers might choose the 750W power supply to ensure headroom for server needs and use the associated nameplate ratings as a guide for power distribution needs. This approach yields regulatory plate ratings-based figures that will likely be unreasonably high.
Installing the HP Power Advisor The HP Power Advisor utility is available through the HP website. To download and install the utility, proceed as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on the following URL: http://www.hp.com/go/hppoweradvisor. Click on the hyperlink “Download HP Power Advisor v3.0” to get the latest version of HP Power Advisor. You can save the HP Power Advisor zip file to your desktop and install it later or you can go ahead and install it right away by choosing Open and then clicking OK.
12. When running Power Advisor, the Smart Update Process icon ( ) may appear in the Windows task bar, indicating that updates to the application are available. To apply updates, double-click on the icon. 13. In the HP Sizing Tools Profile and Preferences Manager window, select the application needing an update as indicated in the Status column and click Check for Updates.
Basic functionality The Power Advisor uses a logical order of progression to create a virtual configuration, beginning with the selection of equipment input voltage and ending with the options that are available to each server. Beginning a session To begin a session, proceed as follows: 1. Double-click the HP Power Advisor shortcut icon ( ) on your desktop. After a few moments, the Input Voltage selection screen appears as shown below.
Functions and controls The main configuration screen (Figure 2) is where you begin, and ultimately end, a system configuration. Figure 2 shows and describes key areas of the main configuration screen. Figure 2. The Power Advisor main configuration screen provides the starting and ending point for configuring a system. Configuration function buttons: (affects the complete configuration) Save – Saves the current configuration session. Report –Creates a report for the entire configuration.
Creating configurations The Power Advisor provides calculations for current HP ProLiant and Integrity server products. Power Advisor uses a logical order for “building” a system, starting with a rack or enclosure, and ending with each individual server. The order of configuring components in a Power Advisor session differs depending on the type of system to be built.
4. In the left pane, scroll to the desired ProLiant ML server (in this example, the ProLiant ML350e Gen8) and select it. The selected unit appears in the configuration grid area. 5. In the upper right pane area, click Config. The configuration screen for the ProLiant ML350e Gen8 server appears as shown in the next step.
6. The configuration screen for the tower-based system lets you make processor, memory, storage, expansion, and power supply selections. Configure the system using drop-down menus and “select-then-click- Add” routines. As each component is added from the left area, it appears in the appropriate category in the right area. Remove a component by clicking the associated X under Remove (to remove a single component) or XX under Remove All (to remove the entire quantity of a component).
8. At the main configuration screen, you can: a. Select another system for configuration (repeat steps 2 thru 7 for the desired system). b. Duplicate the existing system (select the system then click Duplicate) Or c. Delete the existing system (select the system then click Delete). 9. Select a system and then click Config to re-configure it if necessary. The Configuration Summary and Power Summary areas on the right display data for the highlighted system.
Configuring a single-node system To calculate the power requirements for rack-based single-node servers, proceed as follows: 1. 2. Begin the session as described in the “Beginning a session” section, selecting the appropriate input voltage (208VAC for this example). At the configuration screen, the rack types should appear as the default left pane view. If not, click Racks to view the rack types. Scroll to the desired rack type (such as the 42 U, a common size for data centers) and select it.
4. In the left pane, select the DL/RX tab. 5. In the left pane, scroll to the desired server (in this example, the ProLiant DL385p Gen8) and select it. The selected unit is placed in the rack and highlighted (outlined in bright green) as shown below. 6. In the upper right pane area, click Config. The Configuration ProLiant DL385p Gen8 screen appears.
7. Configuring a single-node server uses the same process and configuration tips as the process described for the tower server in the previous section. Configure as desired and when complete, click Save. The configured server is placed in the rack with its configuration data as shown below. 8. To quickly fill the rack with duplicate servers: a. Click on a server to highlight it, then click Duplicate. b. Enter the number of duplicates that you want to create in the popup dialog box and click OK.
10. At the configuration screen, click on a server to highlight it. The Configuration Summary and the Power Summary areas on the right will display the data for the highlighted server. 11. At the configuration screen, click away from a server but within the rack. The Configuration Summary and the Power Summary areas on the right will display the data for the selected rack. The Configuration Result area at the bottom of the display always shows the totals for the complete configuration session.
Configuring a multi-node system NOTE: We recommend that you become familiar with HP multi-node systems before using HP Power Advisor to configure ProLiant SL and DL systems. To calculate the power requirements for a rack of multi-node servers, proceed as follows: 2. Begin the session as described in the “Beginning a session” section, selecting the appropriate input voltage (208VAC for this example).
4. In the left pane area, scroll to the desired enclosure (for this example, the ProLiant SL6500) and select it. The selected enclosure is placed in the bottom of the rack and highlighted as shown below 5. With the enclosure in the rack outlined, click Config. 6. In the Configuration ProLiant SL6500 screen, select the desired SL server node (for this example, we will use the ProLiant SL250s Gen8) and click Add.
7. 8. In the Select Quantity pop-up menu, select the number of nodes you want and click Go. For this example, we will select four nodes. Next to ProLiant SL250s Gen8 in the Nodes Kit area, click Config. In the Configuration ProLiant SL250s Gen8 window, use the drop-down menus to select and add processor, memory, storage, and expansion components as shown below to configure the first node. Each of the four nodes can be configured individually or given the same configuration as node 1.
9. With the components selected in the previous step, the single default 460W power supply will not support the power requirements of the four-node ProLiant SL6500, and the Power Advisor displays an error message in red as shown below: Click the X next to the HP 460W power supply listing to remove the 460W power supply. 10. From the Power Supply drop-down menu, select the 750W power supply and click Add. 11.
Configuring a blade server system NOTE: We recommend you become familiar with HP c-Class BladeSystem and Superdome architecture before using HP Power Advisor to configure an HP blade-based system. To calculate the power requirements for blade-based servers and enclosures, proceed as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. Begin the session as described in the “Beginning a session” section, selecting the appropriate input voltage (208VAC for this example).
5. With the enclosure in the rack outlined, click Config. 6. The Configure C7000 Enclosure configuration screen appears as shown below, showing a front view of the enclosure. The Configure C7000 Enclosure (front) configuration window offers selection of blade servers and provides the power summary based on component configuration. However, you must configure the blade enclosure components (fans, management, power supply, and interconnects) before you configure and install the server blades with options.
7. At the Configure C7000 Enclosure (rear) window, use the drop-down menus to select fan, power, management, and interconnect options. When complete, adjust the Utilization slider control to the desired level and click Save. 8. In the left pane of the Configuration C7000 Enclosure window, scroll to the desired blade server (in this example, the BL420c Gen8) and select it. The selected server blade appears in the enclosure as shown below.
9. With the blade highlighted, click Config. 10. In the Configuration BL420c Gen8 window, use the drop-down menus to select Processor, Memory, Storage, FlexibleLOM, Daughter, and Mezzanine cards. Power Advisor will indicate if the selected blade supports multiple nodes and allow you to configure nodes individually or all at once. When the blade configuration is complete, click Save. NOTE: You can stop and save a session at any time. Refer to the section Saving and loading sessions.
11. You can start a new blade configuration, duplicate the existing blade, or fill the enclosure with the existing blade. If the blade configuration is to be used for all bays, click the radio button next to Make all bays same as 1, which will fill the enclosure immediately. Once the enclosure configuration is finished, click Save. 12. At the rack configuration window, the Status indicator is red (as shown below), indicating a problem with the power configuration of the enclosure. Click Config.
13. At the Configuration C7000 Enclosure (front) window, click on the highlighted c7000 enclosure and then click Config. The Configuration C7000 Enclosure (rear) appears as shown below, indicating that only two 2400W power supplies are configured and a warning in red that power requirements exceed the power configuration. Add two more 2400W power supplies and click Save. Click Save again to return to the main configuration screen where the Status indicator is now green as shown below.
Saving and loading sessions A Power Advisor configuration session can be saved at any time for later retrieval. Saving a session To save a session: 1. 2. If you are at a component configuration window, click Save to return to the main configuration window. At the main configuration window, click Save. 3. At the Save As popup window, change the Save in (destination) path and enter a relevant name for your session such as “BladeRacksConfig” and click Save. Be sure to always use the .
Session reporting tools The Power Advisor can create reports that provide the data you need for forecasting the total cost of ownership (TCO) for new power requirements as well as generate a bill of materials (BOM) for a particular configuration session. Power report Power Advisor makes it possible to pre-calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a configuration session based on the rate paid per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Bill of Material report The Power Advisor Bill of Material (BOM) report includes data for system components that affect power consumption. Refer to the individual server QuickSpecs for part numbers of optional components that may be required but are not included in the Power Advisor BOM report. NOTE: Generate the BOM report first before exporting to HTML. Tutorial A built-in tutorial function is scheduled to be available in a later version of Power Advisor.
Conclusion The HP Power Advisor is a valuable utility for planning systems based on HP ProLiant and Integrity products. The calculator provides meaningful estimates of power for use in sizing an infrastructure. It is important to note, however, that actual power consumption of an installed system running certain applications may vary.
For more information Visit the URLs listed below if you need additional information. Resource description Web address HP Power Advisor http://www.hp.com/go/hppoweradvisor Power efficiency and power management in HP ProLiant servers - Technology brief http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03161908/ c03161908.pdf HP power and cooling technologies for the data center - Technology brief, 2nd edition http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02018535/ c02018535.
