Users Guide

Power Monitoring and Power Management 309
Show Graph
Click Show Graph to display graphs illustrating iDRAC6 power consumption
in Watts over the last hour, 24 hours, three days, and one week. Use the
drop-down menu provided above the graph to select the time period.
NOTE: Each data point plotted on the graphs represents the average of readings
over a 5 minute period. As a result, the graphs may not reflect brief fluctuations in
power or current consumption.
Power Budgeting
The Power Budget screen displays the power threshold limits, which cover the
range of AC power consumptions a system under heavy workload will present to
the datacenter.
Before a server powers up, iDRAC6 provides CMC with its power envelope
requirement. The power envelop given by iDRAC to CMC before the system
powers on is higher than the actual power that can be consumed by the blade.
This power envelop is calculated based on the limited hardware inventory
information. It may request a smaller power envelope after the server is
powered up based on the actual power consumed by the server. If the power
consumption increases over time and if the server is consuming power near its
maximum allocation, iDRAC6 may request an increase of the maximum
potential power consumption thus increasing the power envelope. iDRAC6
only increases its maximum potential power consumption request to CMC. It
does not request for a lesser minimum potential power if the consumption
decreases. iDRAC will continue to request for more power if the power
consumption exceeds the power allocated by CMC.
Once the system is powered on and initialized, iDRAC calculates a new
power envelop which is based on the actual blade configuration. The blade
will stay powered on even if the CMC fails to allocate new power request.
CMC reclaims any unused power from lower priority servers and
subsequently allocates the reclaimed power to a higher priority infrastructure
module or a server.
If there is not enough power allocated, the blade server does not power on. If
the blade has been allocated enough power, the iDRAC turns on the system
power.