Eaton has announced new functionalities for its intelligent enclosure power distribution units (ePDU’s), including support for Cisco EnergyWise power management, the ability for users to define customised outlet groups, a power scheduling function for planned shutdowns, and mass configuration and mass upgrade of ePDU’s. These new functionalities enhance the Intelligent Power® distribution capabilities of Eaton ePDU’s and are available for the recently launched set of Managed, Advanced Monitored and Switched ePDU product ranges via firmware updates.
Cisco EnergyWise technology allows companies to manage, switch and control the power consumption of their infrastructure in an EnergyWise-enabled data centre. With Eaton ePDU integration, customers are provided with further power usage management and in-depth monitoring of power consumption down to the individual server level to control their total cost of ownership.
“The data centres of today are constantly seeking new ways to reduce energy consumption and cut operational costs without compromising reliability. This cannot be achieved without a clear understanding of power consumption levels,” says Stefan Coote, manager of solutions for small and medium data centres at Eaton Power Quality, EMEA.
Eaton’s advanced ePDU’s offer intelligent power distribution and are able to measure consumption of volts, watts, amperes and kilowatt-hours in individual servers with one per cent accuracy (over 2 amperes). Through the addition of Cisco EnergyWise, ePDU’s work as a Cisco endpoint in the EnergyWise network and can be accessed directly from any EnergyWise-enabled management application. They allow Cisco’s management stations to query and collect information on power consumption right from the individual outlet level and aggregate this information over multiple ePDU’s in the network so that it is available at a glance. In addition, the ePDU’s provide control over power usage by enabling the EnergyWise network to securely switch individual outlets on or off.
“The industry-leading monitoring functions of Eaton’s advanced ePDU’s, combined with Cisco EnergyWise power management capabilities, give a comprehensive overview of energy demands and usage in a data centre – be it small, medium or large,” Coote continues. “Providing accurate data on the power consumption of hundreds of ePDU’s in a network in a simple and easy-to-understand way is very important for any data centre.”
A further new addition is the ability of ePDU’s to allow users to define customised outlet groups. This makes it possible to attribute outlet groups so that an individual user, customer or a specific department of a company can more easily track and manage their power usage. Furthermore, power scheduling enables users to plan shutdowns of non-critical equipment, for example over a weekend or for particular nights, allowing further options for energy conservation.
Mass configuration and upgrade of Eaton ePDU’s with Intelligent Power Manager
All Eaton ePDU’s are fully integrated into Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager (IPM) monitoring software, which allows users to manage their power via a single interface and a single IP address. The new mass configuration and mass upgrade functionalities, performed via Intelligent Power Manager, provide further ease of use.
Through mass configuration multiple ePDU units can be simultaneously configured to user-defined settings, including, for example, alarm levels. This provides reduced set-up times for data centres and makes ePDU installation and maintenance easy. The mass upgrade functionality allows data centre managers to carry out future firmware upgrades of network interface cards on multiple ePDU’s at the same time, thus allowing easier access to future functionality enhancements and releases.
Intelligent Power Manager version 1.25, due to be released soon, is required to support both mass configuration and mass upgrade capabilities. It is available for download at no charge (for up to 10 devices) at www.eaton.eu/intelligentpower .
All new functionalities are available via firmware update for Managed, Advanced Monitored and Switched ePDU’s.
To check the suitability of their products, users can visit www.eaton.com/epdu .
More information on other Eaton products and services is available at www.eaton.com/powerquality .