power control

[Steven Timm]

We run with the APC units on our cluster.  We use the vertical-mount
strips which are good for 20 amps apiece.  They provide three major
benefits.  One is that you can sequence the power up to have a delay
so that the power draw of all systems coming on at once doesn't
saturate your circuit.  Second is that you can remote reset a node
that is hung and not responding without going into the computer room.
Third is that you get a real-time monitor of how much current your
systems are drawing.

They are somewhat expensive but do have good discounts for educational
institutions and non-profits.

Steve Timm


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Steven C. Timm (630) 840-8525  timm at fnal.gov  http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/
Fermilab Computing Division/Operating Systems Support
Scientific Computing Support Group--Computing Farms Operations

On Fri, 12 Apr 2002, Manel Soria wrote:

> We need a power control unit for our 72 nodes cluster. My first
> idea was to do it ourselves with a digital i/o card and a set of relais, but
> I can't find such a card for Linux.  Actually, I have an ISA card that
> is perfect for this application but for some reason with PCI bus it
> is more difficult. Also, it seems that the "normal" solution is to buy a
> comercial APC system.
>
> Any experiences with in-house made power controls ? Would you
> recomend us to buy the APC product ?
>
> --
> ===============================================
> Dr. Manel Soria
> ETSEIT - Centre Tecnologic de Transferencia de Calor
> C/ Colom 11  08222 Terrassa (Barcelona) SPAIN
> Tf:  +34 93 739 8287 ; Fax: +34 93 739 8101
> E-Mail: manel at labtie.mmt.upc.es
>
>
>