A diagram illustrating an implementation of Intel Power Manager.
Power usage has become a key priority for data center operators, who are assessing the best hardware and software options to track and manage the efficiency of their facilities. Yesterday Intel (INTC) became the latest tech titan to roll out an energy-focused offering, announcing
Intel Data Center Manager [1], a software development kit that helps monitor and manage data center power consumption on servers using the new Intel Xeon 5500 processors. Data Center Manager uses Power Node Manager,
a power management policy engine embedded in Xeon 5500 server chipsets, to collect and analyze energy usage data, set up alerts for power and thermal events, and set policies on power capping and workload management.
Intel tested Data Center Manager last year in a proof-of-concept installation at the Chinese search engine Baidu, which was experiencing power capacity challenges in leased third-party data center space. Baidu’s rack-level power constraints limited it to just 5 2U servers in each 42U rack. By using Data Center Manager to track and cap power usage, Baidu was able to put three additional 2U servers in each rack, for a total of 8 – providing 60 percent more capacity. Intel has a
white paper [2] detailing its work with Baidu.
For more information, see coverage at
CIO.com [3] and a blog post from
Intel’s Jackson He [4] with an in-depth look at the energy management features of the Xeon 5500.
Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.
Article printed from Data Center Knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com
URL to article: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/05/01/intel-launches-data-center-manager-software/
URLs in this post:
[1] Intel Data Center Manager: http://software.intel.com/sites/datacentermanager/
[2] white paper: http://software.intel.com/sites/datacentermanager/intel_node_manager_v2e.pdf
[3] CIO.com: http://www.cio.com/article/491463/Intel_Releases_Power_Management_Tool_for_Data_Centers
[4] Intel’s Jackson He: http://communities.intel.com/community/openportit/server/blog/2009/03/31/datacenter-dynamic-power-management-intelligent-power-management-on-intel-xeon-5500
[5] Rich Miller: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/author/richm/
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