{"id":625,"date":"2009-05-23T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2009-05-23T16:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=625"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:12:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T17:12:14","slug":"energy-star-for-servers-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/energy-star-for-servers-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy Star for Servers Released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cloudpro.co.uk\/iaas\/3815\/rackspace-and-digital-realty-break-ground-on-green-data-centre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-110817\" title=\"Energy Star for Servers Released\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Green-servers-e1572039514406-150x99.jpg?resize=120%2C79&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Energy Star for Servers Released\" width=\"120\" height=\"79\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Green-servers-e1572039514406.jpg?resize=150%2C99&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Green-servers-e1572039514406.jpg?resize=75%2C49&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Green-servers-e1572039514406.jpg?w=531&amp;ssl=1 531w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> released an <a title=\"Energy Star\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Energy_Star\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">Energy Star<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181128073326\/https:\/\/www.energystar.gov\/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">specification for computer servers<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/yosemite.epa.gov\/opa\/admpress.nsf\/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d\/3829e1ce26d173e7852575ba004d9518!OpenDocument\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 15, 2009<\/a>. This new specification covers standalone servers with one to four processor sockets is in part a reaction to estimates that by 2011, IT equipment is expected to account for 3 percent of all U.S. electricity consumption, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110821 size-thumbnail\" title=\"EPA logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/epa_oldlogo.gif?resize=75%2C51&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"EPA logo\" width=\"75\" height=\"51\" \/><\/a>Andrew Fanara of the Energy Star product development team helped spearhead the process of getting a spec for servers told <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100814181035\/http:\/\/searchdatacenter.techtarget.com:80\/news\/article\/0,289142,sid80_gci1357081,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DataCenter News<\/a><\/em>. \u201cEPA believes this new server spec is an important first step to help attract attention to the need and opportunity to cut cost and save energy in federal data center facilities, especially during a time of tight budgets,\u201d Fanara told <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210304063952\/https:\/\/gcn.com\/articles\/2009\/05\/20\/epa-finalizes-energy-star-spec-for-servers.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GCN<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The new specification includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Power supply efficiency requirements which should increase efficiency and reduce waste heat<\/li>\n<li>Power consumption limits for when the server is idle<\/li>\n<li>Single-socket server are limited to 60 watts<\/li>\n<li>2-3 socket servers are limited to 151-221 watts<\/li>\n<li>Allowances for additional installed components<\/li>\n<li>Power and performance data sheet\u00a0 detailing power consumption\u00a0 in a common format<\/li>\n<li>Ability to report energy-related statistics to data center management software.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Vendors Respond to Energy Star for Servers<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hp.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110823 size-full\" title=\"HP logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/hp_oldlogo.gif?resize=50%2C48&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"HP logo\" width=\"50\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a>Major server manufacturers are already submitting their products for Energy Star approval. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hp.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HP<\/a> says that two of its most popular servers, the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110309193708\/http:\/\/h10010.www1.hp.com:80\/wwpc\/us\/en\/sm\/WF05a\/15351-15351-3328412-241644-241475-3884319.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DL360<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110315181422\/http:\/\/h10010.www1.hp.com:80\/wwpc\/us\/en\/sm\/WF05a\/15351-15351-3328412-241644-241475-3884082.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DL380 G6<\/a> are now Energy Star compliant with more servers added to the list soon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibm.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IBM<\/a>&#8216;s next-generation <a href=\"http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/A-peek-at-faster-Power6%2C-Cell-chips\/2100-1006_3-6146309.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Power6 processor<\/a> has power management abilities that let it drop down to a 100-watt level.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:Search&amp;search=ibm+logo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110825\" title=\"IBM logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/IBM_OrginalLogo.png?resize=65%2C62&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"IBM logo\" width=\"65\" height=\"62\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/IBM_OrginalLogo.png?resize=75%2C72&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/IBM_OrginalLogo.png?w=120&amp;ssl=1 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 65px) 100vw, 65px\" \/><\/a>Jay Dietrich, program manager at IBM\u2019s corporate environmental affairs group told <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100103070201\/http:\/\/gcn.com\/articles\/2009\/04\/06\/energy-star-zeros-in-on-green-servers.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GCN<\/a>,\u201cOverall, we think that there has been good progress on the server requirements, and we think EPA has done some good work in getting that specification focused on the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>N<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dell.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110828\" title=\"Dell logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/dell_logo-4.jpg?resize=65%2C65&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Dell logo\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/dell_logo-4.jpg?resize=75%2C75&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/dell_logo-4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/dell_logo-4.jpg?w=224&amp;ssl=1 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 65px) 100vw, 65px\" \/><\/a>ot to be left out, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dell.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dell<\/a> launched an <a href=\"http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/Dell-sells-premium-energy-efficient-servers\/2100-1010_3-6140669.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">energy-efficie<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/Dell-sells-premium-energy-efficient-servers\/2100-1010_3-6140669.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nt server line<\/a> in December. Dell touts it&#8217;s <a title=\"Dell PowerEdge\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dell_PowerEdge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">PowerEdge<\/a> Energy Smart 1950 III and 2950 III servers as the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20151211180824\/http:\/\/www.dell.com:80\/downloads\/global\/products\/pedge\/en\/family_brochure_energy_eff.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dell green <\/a>alternatives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sun.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sun Microsystems<\/a> has touted the energy efficiency of its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sun.com\/processors\/UltraSPARC-T1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UltraSparc T1 &#8220;Niagara&#8221;-based servers<\/a> for a <a href=\"http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/Sun-begins-Sparc-phase-of-server-overhaulibm_logo\/2100-1010_3-5983365.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">while<\/a> . The Niagara CPU typically uses 72 watts of power at 1.4 GHz.<\/p>\n<h3>Criticism of Energy Star for Servers<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100117125429\/http:\/\/www.sun.com:80\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110830 size-thumbnail\" title=\"Sun logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sun_logo.jpg?resize=75%2C34&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sun logo\" width=\"75\" height=\"34\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sun_logo.jpg?resize=75%2C34&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sun_logo.jpg?w=143&amp;ssl=1 143w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 75px) 100vw, 75px\" \/><\/a>The new Energy Star criteria has its critics. The biggest complaint is that a qualifying server need only show energy efficiency when it&#8217;s in idle, powered on but doing no work. This is like comparing the mile per gallon of a Hummer and a Prius sitting at a stop light. Both use a similar amount of fuel idling, not going anywhere. Many argue that the amount of energy spent idling is less important than how many miles per gallon the vehicle gets while driving, doing its work.<\/p>\n<p>However, firms are becoming increasingly aware of this issue and are addressing it. Organizations are deploying virtualization to cut underutilized servers to get as much performance per watt as possible from their hardware. In most IT organizations there are underutilized servers which spend a great deal of time idling, so idle server power consumption is relevant but not the whole story. Servers are not like desktop or laptop computers because they are not meant to be idle. Instead, they are designed to be highly utilized and available. \u201cA heavily utilized server is much more energy effective than a small server running at very low utilization rates,\u201d Albert Esser, vice president of data center infrastructure at Dell told <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100103070201\/http:\/\/gcn.com\/articles\/2009\/04\/06\/energy-star-zeros-in-on-green-servers.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GCN<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Subodh Bapat, a distinguished engineer at Sun explained to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20100814181035\/http:\/\/searchdatacenter.techtarget.com:80\/news\/article\/0,289142,sid80_gci1357081,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Data Center News <\/a><\/em>another drawback to the program: It doesn&#8217;t take into account how many cores per processor a machine has. &#8220;The fact is, when you go from a server that has four processors with two cores each to two processors with four cores each, you save energy. That&#8217;s not recognized by the spec,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If you&#8217;re shipping a server with one processor, it doesn&#8217;t matter if you have one core or two cores or four or eight. You still get the same idle power allowance. There&#8217;s no benefit for the fact that you can do, say, eight times work with a fewer number of watts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a great first step, but it&#8217;s not a complete spec,&#8221; says Bapat. &#8220;It&#8217;s a good start toward finding out which servers are better than others on an energy basis.&#8221; Bapat wasn&#8217;t entirely critical about the Energy Star program for servers. For example, a compliant server must be capable of measuring real-time environmental data . &#8220;Transparency is always a good thing. Energy Star requires the ability to report power consumption data pretty much across the range of utilization and at all times that the server is on. If you want to know how much [power is being consumed], you should be able to ask it and it should tell you. That&#8217;s a very useful feature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>EPA Responds<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.energystar.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110832 size-thumbnail\" title=\"Energy Star logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/energy_star_logo.jpg?resize=73%2C75&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Energy Star logo\" width=\"73\" height=\"75\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/energy_star_logo.jpg?resize=73%2C75&amp;ssl=1 73w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/energy_star_logo.jpg?w=114&amp;ssl=1 114w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 73px) 100vw, 73px\" \/><\/a>The Tier 2 Energy Star specification will cover servers with more than four processor sockets, blade servers and fault-tolerant machines is expected in October 2010. The Tier 2 spec will also define a metric that compares server performance with energy consumption. EPA&#8217;s Fanara speculates that finding the magic numbers,\u00a0 could take a while. The EPA is developing an Energy Star spec for data center facilities and is collecting data from volunteering data centers now. Mr. Fanara said his group also hope to have a framework document for an Energy Star for data storage equipment out in June 2009.<\/p>\n<p>EPA introduced Energy Star in 1992 as a voluntary program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. The Energy Star label can be found on more than 50 kinds of products, new homes and commercial and industrial buildings. Energy Star is the EPA labeling program designed to help consumers pick out energy-efficient products. If a manufacturer qualifies its product, it can place an Energy Star label on it, and the product information can also be displayed on the manufacturer&#8217;s and the Energy Star Website.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>rb-<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I agree with Sun&#8217;s Bapat that the current version of the Energy Star requirements for servers is a good first step. Just like any 1.0 version release, there is still a lot of work to be done.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0<a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a>\u00a0about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at\u00a0<a class=\"broken_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/rb48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EPA has released Energy Star certifications for green servers its a good start but more needs to be done<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3216,216,1234,1576,14,22,168,43,15,2194,3065,1783,1575],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green","tag-3216","tag-dell","tag-energy","tag-epa","tag-green","tag-hardware","tag-hp","tag-ibm","tag-networking","tag-server","tag-sparc","tag-star","tag-sun-microsystems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132522,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/132522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}