How to not be a power

expert, but act like one...

Visibility, Reliability and

Predictability

The Power of IT

• First generation power

thinking

Power presence

Real Power• Just because you have power, doesn’t

mean you’ve got good power. It’s only

the beginning.

• Power is not a binary thing.

Difference between reacting to a

catastrophe and preventing a

catastrophe.

The Power of IT• Second generation power

thinking

Power quality

You monitor cpu, storage…

0 to10

30 to 40

60 to 70

12345

6-10

10-2

0

20-5

0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Events

Per

Year

Voltage (% of

Nominal)

Duration ( cycles)

Average of 50

Sags/Year

Interruptions

Typical PQ Problems

10%

7%

5% 5% 5%

10%

5%

7%

46% Sags

Swells

Spikes, switching Spikes, switching transients transients

Under voltage Under voltage

Over voltage Over voltage

Harmonics Harmonics

Line Noise Line Noise

Frequency Frequency variations variations 2002 EPRI study

of 985 customers in the US

Interruption

Incremental Evolution

To drive additional 9’s into the reliability equation, more

and more detailed visibility will be required with more

and more expertise required.

At ISSUE: You’re not trained in the expertise.

Power Quality

Power Pre

sence

Power Expert

The “IT Cares” Checklist• Do you have power supply failures?

• Do you have certain machines that hang

inexplicably?

• Do you have fans, compressors, motors,

printers or lighting on or near your UPS-

protected (conditioned power) loads?

• Do you know how good your UPS is?

• Is your company concerned about energy

costs?

Best Practices- MetricsPower Metrics

1. Contribution: power required

by Data Center over the total

power required for the facility.

2. Efficiency: power required by

IT equipment over the total

power required for the Data

Center

3. Productivity: power required

for process over the power

required for the IT equipment

PEData Center = PIT equipment

PData Center

PCData Center = PData Center

PFacility

PPData Center = PProcess

PIT equipment

Measuring power

Anybody seen my clipboard?

or

Wanna spend a bunch o’money on a

proprietary communication system to a

bunch o’meters?

But Wait! It gets worse!• Your Morphing Power Footprint….

– …adding servers, storage

– …that fan we put between the rows…

– …that power strip we put across the floor…

– …that laser printer we put in…

– …those dc “wall warts”…

– …that intermittent contact…

– …the circuit loading… power factor…

– …ups performance…

“The Power Struggle”

• First order answer: your UPS

– Uptime, source conditioned power (SCP)

• Second order answer: find a power expert

– That you can trust…

– That can spell ‘rack’ or ‘SNMP’ would be good

too…

– That you can understand…

The Power Expert’s strange

guttural sounds...• TDDI

• THDV

• K Factor, Crest Factor

• Phasors (ok this isn’t

too strange, but for

wrong reasons…)

• Flicker (Perceptibility,

PLT, PST)

• Harmonics

•Voltage, Current THD

• Sags, Swells, dv/dt

• kWh / kW (fwd, rev)

• kVARh / kVAR

• Comtrade wave file format

• Line to Line, Neutral to

Ground Voltage/Current

• Neutral Current, Ground

Current

• Frequency, Symmetric

Voltage (Zero-Sequence,

Pos-Sequence, Neg-

Sequence)

• Power Factor

(Displacement, Apparent)

• Apparent Power, Real

Power, Reactive Power

Insert head explosion here...

IT Decision Makers• Let me tell you what you’re thinking…

Eaton Electrical IT Decision Maker Survey, February 2008

1. Admit you need help. :)

2. Look for integration into your

monitoring network- not the other way

around

– SNMP

– FTP

– NTP (not SNTP)

3. Find technology that is the expert so

you don’t have to be

Steps to Taking Control

– SMTP

– Browser Based

– No proprietary s/w

New Technology Servers• Integrate into your IT systems

• Perform on-board electrical

analysis

• Categorize power events

based upon severity (ITIC

Curve)

• Power factor (kW/kVA) Crest

factor, K, …

• At-a-glance summarizations

• “Power Expert in a box”

What is ITIC?

� Information Technology

Industry Council

� ITIC Curve developed in

collaboration with EPRI's

Power Electronics

Application Center

(PEAC)

� More accurately reflects

the performance of IT

equipment

� ITIC curve is generally

applicable to other

equipment containing

solid-state devices

18

The Server

19

The ITIC CurveArea above black line is the Area above black line is the

Equipment Disruption & Equipment Disruption &

Damage Region!Damage Region!

Transients Transients –– silent killers silent killers

equivalent to equivalent to ““high blood high blood

pressurepressure””

L2, L4 and L8 SwellsL2, L4 and L8 Swells

L2, L4 and L8 SagsL2, L4 and L8 Sags

Events occurring within the ITIC curve are deemed ‘safe’ for server power supplies-

anything outside is harmful. Simply clicking on a button shows you the event.

Degrees of Visibility

• Given you have the technology, it’s now

a question of deployment and objectives

• 3 B’s

– Baseline

– Bookends

– Buses

Conditioned/Unconditioned

21

Both conditioned and

unconditioned power

systems suffer electrical

events.

B

B

B

BB

B

Baseline

Bookends

Buses

B

Checklist• Checklist of things to do

– Utility bill- get a copy CC’d to you

– Get a baseline of your energy

– Obtain your power factor

– Measure your power quality

– Move to bookends

– Move to buses

– Sleep better at night**Your results may vary

Conclusion

• Technology exists:

– To put a power expert in a box

– Integrate into your IT monitoring

environment: in phases as necessary

– Automatically accumulate and categorize

– Move toward being Green in the Data

Center

– Move towards higher/safer QOS

How to not be a power expert

but act like one.