White Paper

10
7. Managing alerts and alarms
Minimizing system downtime has been
the traditional justication for data center
infrastructure monitoring and it continues
to be a powerful benet. The ability to view
immediate notication of a failure—or an
event that could ultimately lead to a failure—
through a centralized system allows for a
faster, more effective response to system
problems.
Equally important, a centralized alarm
management system provides a single
window into data center operations and
can prioritize alarms by criticality, to ensure
the most serious incidents receive priority
attention. Every alarm needs to be gauged
for its impact on operations. For example,
it may be acceptable to defer a repair of
one precision cooling unit if 30 are working
normally, but not if it is one of only two
units.
Taken a step further, data from the
monitoring system can be used to analyze
equipment operating trends and develop
more effective preventive maintenance
programs.
Finally, the visibility into data center
infrastructure provided by a centralized
system can help prevent problems created
by changing operating conditions. For
example, the ability to turn off receptacles
in a rack that is maxed out on power, but
may still have physical space, can prevent
a circuit overload. Alternately, alarms that
indicate a rise in server inlet temperatures
could dictate the need for an additional row
cooling unit before overheating brings down
the servers the business depends on.
8. Monitoring energy efficiency
Energy costs consume a large proportion
of data center operating costs, but many
facilities lack energy monitoring capabilities.
Automating collection and analysis of data
from the UPS and PDU monitoring systems
can help reduce energy consumption while
increasing IT productivity. Energy efciency
monitoring can track total data center
consumption, automatically calculate
and analyze PUE and optimize the use of
alternative energy sources.
Using data from the UPS, the monitoring
system can track UPS power output,
determine when UPS units are running at
peak efciency, and report Level 1 (basic)
PUE. Monitoring at the room or row PDU
provides the ability to more efciently
load power supplies, dynamically manage
cooling and automatically calculate Level 2
(intermediate) PUE. Panel board monitoring
provides visibility into power consumption
by non-IT systems, including lighting and
generators, to ensure efcient use of those
systems. Finally, rack-level monitoring
Figure 2. Centralized monitoring
provides a single view of data center
operations.