Little Miss Enviro Geek : Power Management

Some personal news...

biwirth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Hello Dear Blog Readers,

(hmmm....that kinda sounds like the beginning of one of those SPAM emails)

I wanted to let you all know I am moving on from Microsoft and shall no longer be blogging here. I'll be moving an archive of these posts to my website http://www.greenitstrategy.com and shall continue blogging there on Green IT.

So what will I be doing now?

Well, I have decided to take some time off, write a book and maybe look into starting my own business. Regardless, you can always catch me through my website and please do feel free to visit me there.

Thank you to everyone who contacted me with their Green IT questions over the past two years and gave me feedback. I really appreciate your support and good luck with your own Green IT initiatives.

Kind Regards,

Bianca AKA Little Miss Enviro Geek

Windows 7 Power Management Webcast

biwirth — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:10:00 GMT

There is a great webcast recording on Windows 7 power management by Stephen Berard - session extract:

"Energy efficiency and green IT are two of the most active current topics in computing. In this webcast, we detail how the Windows 7 operating system helps improve energy efficiency through new power management innovations. We illustrate how IT professionals can improve battery life and power consumption using new Windows diagnostics utilities. We also show how applications can have a dramatic impact on power consumption, and we discuss how developers can optimize applications for energy efficiency."

Click here to check it out.

TechEd: Virtualization for Sustainable Computing

biwirth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:56:00 GMT

Yesterday I presented at TechEd Australia on Virtualization for Sustainable Computing where I took everyone who attended through the six building blocks of building a virtualized environment:

Saving Power
Eliminating Waste
Managing for High Utilisation
Power sizing Hardware
Power sizing Software
Managing for Efficiency

One of the areas I talked about that I haven't mentioned here before was the real-life example of Microsoft IT virtualizing SQL and saving a tonne of rack space, power and money by doing so. Below are two of my slides from the presentation summarising the consolidation Microsoft IT achieved within their environment:

Check out the full whitepaper here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd393309.aspx

Also some of the other resources I used in my presentation:

Harnessing the Power of Virtualization for Dynamic IT - http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2008/01-21virtualization.mspx
Virtualization: Power, Service-Interface Compatibility, and Design - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998259.aspx
Virtualization: Fuelling Green Data Centres - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd347164.aspx
Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for Energy Efficient Computing - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537569.aspx
Planning Your Power Management and Virtualization Strategies - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.gr.powermanagement.aspx?pr=blog

Followup post...@ Hohm in US only...

biwirth — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:24:00 GMT

I received a reply last night from the Hohm team - they confirmed the website is currently only for US based people however if you really wanted to login and check it out, set your browser language setting to US (and Live ID if you login automatically with it).

Oh well - I'll let you all know when international versions become available...

Microsoft Hohm is LIVE!

biwirth — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:04:57 GMT

Yesterday I received the official invitation to join Microsoft Hohm, which I blogged about two weeks ago. So I went to the link today and tried to login.and I couldn't! Apparently I need a 5 digit postcode - so I assuming only US postcodes not Australian ones are eligible. :-(

So I posted an issue and will update you all when I get a response.

cheerio,

LMEG

* Microsoft Exchange: Physical Vs Virtual Power Utilisation *

biwirth — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:37:00 GMT

There is a great whitepaper on TechNet comparing the power utilisation of native and virtual Exchange environments. With the recent announcement that virtualisation is fully supported for Microsoft Exchange, I know many customers that are considering it and some that were desperately awaiting it!

The whitepaper is called "Comparing the Power Utilization of Native and Virtual Exchange Environments" and it outlines a test methodology and power utilisation results for physical versus virtual Exchange environments.

Here is a snapshot of the results in WATTS:

This shows that the reduction of 8 physical servers to 2 physical servers (with a constant 32 processors) resulted in an overall 50% reduction in power consumption equalling around 8,582 kWh/year. This is equivalent to 6.2 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, equalling the carbon sequestered by around 1.4 acres of pine forest or CO2 emissions from 257 propane cylinders from your backyard barbie.

NB: This excludes storage, cooling and processor core consolidation.

There is some great data in this whitepaper - I highly recommend reading it if you are implementing Exchange and tossing up virtual Vs physical; or if you are looking for further power and cost optimisation opportunities.

On a slightly different but related topic, I was recently asked by a customer about using VMotion for HA/DR. If you are considering using VMWare VMotion, this is not yet a supported scenario. From the lips of our Messaging & UC expert here in Oz, Johann Kruse, below is a quick overview of the considerations for this particular area:

"We fully support VMWare as the virtualisation platform, but VMotion is not supported for Exchange Servers. If they do experience issues during a failover or outage, PSS/Premier would not be able to assist.

[As well as SCR] we recommend also using CCR for availability within primary site as it is fully application aware..VMotion is not application-aware, and using it can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange.

There is a whitepaper from the product titled Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx which I recommend.

Here is a comparison of CCR vs VMotion for availability....

	*Virtual machine migration*	*Cluster continuous replication*
Operating system heartbeat detection	Yes	Yes
Exchange server heartbeat detection	No	Yes
Copies of Exchange data	1	2
Requires shared storage	Yes	No
Supports Exchange-aware backup from passive node	No	Yes

Desktop & Server Energy Efficiency Calculators

biwirth — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:09:00 GMT

Microsoft has worked with Alinean to build an online Green Savings calculator for both Desktop and Server Energy Savings. It has a similar look & feel as the Green Virtualisation calculator I blogged about in November.

Instead of taking you through the steps for the calculators, I'd like to give my fellow Aussie IT Pros some specific information to help them customise the calculators to the Australian market. Many of the figures within the calculator are US specific but its pretty easy to change these once you know what the typical Aussie configs should be.

So go ahead and select "Register Now", complete that process, then on the first page customise the questions to your IT environment. For example:

Clicking Next will give you the following page - now here is where we'll customise to Australian standards - select the link - "Click here to review / edit detailed assumptions".

On the page that pops up, go through & change the following metrics:

Metric	Default Measurement	Australian Measurement	Australian Reference
Average work days per year	218	223	Australians typically work 11 months of the year but this figure excludes holidays etc (see below). Obviously customise this if your business is quite different. The total number of days is based on non-leap year i.e. 365 days.
Average non-work days per year (weekends, holidays and vacations)	147	142	Includes: - 104 days of weekends - 10 days personal leave - 20 days annual leave - 8 public holidays (NSW) This varies depending on the year & your state in Australia so check out this LINK for a full list for 2009. I used the NSW public holidays in 2009 for the numbers above, excluding the bank holiday in August because not everyone gets that!
PC User Profile	[your own]	[your own]	This should be very specific to the user profiles in your own environment.
Non-Vista PC Profile & Windows Vista PC Profile	[your own]	[your own]	These figures depend again on your specific environment. You can assess these specific figures using Microsoft Partner software such as Verdiem, which will report on usage profiles.
Power Consumption	-	-	Unless you know specific figures for your machines, its probably best to leave these figures as is.
Current price paid for power per kW-hour	$0.1082	$0.11	Based on the OECD reporting for electricity prices, Australia is slightly more expensive than the US so I'd recommend changing this although it probably won't make a major difference to the savings. If you have your actual averages for power costs (check with facilities management) then enter these here.
Expected growth in power costs (starting in year 2)	6.0%	See additional table below.	This isn't really simple as there are different figures per state and per retailer, and dependent on the amount of electricity used. However IPART (who regulates retail pricing) have provided a 3 year indication of pricing increases for electricity which I summarised in table below.
Average carbon emissions per automobile (metric tons per year)	5.46	4.01	In Australia in 2005, passenger cars contributed 43.7 Mt of carbon emissions and there were 10,896,000 passenger cars.
Average carbon emissions per home (metric tons per year)	9.31	8	In Australia, the average household produces approximately 8 tonnes of carbon through electricity use.

Energy price increases:

1. Locate your electricity provider

2. Find out your total energy use (e.g. 20mWh) from facilities or whoever manages electricity in your business

3. Correlate this to the appropriate 3 year average column (last column)

For example, if my business uses 20mWh per annum and my energy supplier is EnergyAustralia, my 3 year average figure is 7.3. I then enter 7.3% into the field "Expected growth in power costs (starting in year 2)"

Electricity Supplier:				Energy Australia

Total Energy use	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average (to 2009/10 FY)
20mWh	7.2	7.5	7.3	7.3
40mWh	7.3	7.5	7.5	7.4
80mWh	7.3	7.5	7.4	7.4


Electricity Supplier:				Country Energy

	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average
20mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0
40mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0
80mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0


Electricity Supplier:				Integral Energy

	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average
20mWh	7.7	8.1	8.1	8.0
40mWh	7.7	8	8.1	7.9
80mWh	7.7	8	8.1	7.9

Reference: http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Overview%20of%20Final%20report%20and%20determination%20on%20electricity%20retail%20prices%20in%20NSW%20-%201%20July%202007%20to%2030%20June%202010.PDF

Green Grid: US/Canada Data Center Cooling Calculator

biwirth — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:25:00 GMT

The Green Grid has released a quick cooling calculator to help US data centre and facilities managers determine how much "free" cooling is available to data centres using water-side economisers. However when using this calculator, remember nothing in this world is free: water is also a limited resource so there is a need to balance each environmental effect from a 'green' implementation.

For more water related blog posts and stories, checkout: http://www.greenm3.com/water/

And for more free Green Grid resources, check out: http://www.thegreengrid.org/library-and-tools.aspx

TechEd 2009 US announces Green IT Track - first ever!

biwirth — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:01:48 GMT

For my fellow green geeks in the US, Microsoft have announced their first ever Green IT track for TechEd 2009. Nice! There are 9 sessions specifically on Green IT, including:

ARC313 - Understanding environmental compliance, policy and regulation for IT Leaders - I have seen a version of this internally and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to understand a bit more around how environmental management is achieved with technology.
ISB206 - What's Behind the Cloud: Microsoft's Data Center Transformation - Christian is one of the key people working with The Green Grid from Microsoft on Data Centres.
MGT201 - Microsoft System Center for the Datacenter
VIR206 - Virtualization for Sustainable Computing
WSV203 - Saving Power and Reducing Environmental Impact with Windows Server
WSV309 - Enhanced Power Efficiency and Power Management Capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 - this one should be very informative. Stephen Berard is THE man for power management in Microsoft.

To register and to check out the full list and session descriptions, click yourself into HERE.

TechNet Special Online Edition: "Going Green"

biwirth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:57:00 GMT

A quick post today: TechNet Magazine has published a special online-only edition on Green IT. Topics include:

* Green IT Webcasts in April & May *

biwirth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:35:24 GMT

Check out these Green IT Webcasts happening over April and May with some of Microsoft's best Green IT speakers including Christian Belady, Daniel Costello, Dan Reed, Jim Larus, Isaac Roybal, Adam Bogobowicz, and Stephen Berard.

Title	Date	Time	URL
Manager Webcast Series - Green IT	4/29/2009	4:00 PM GMT	http://bit.ly/8bX4N
Transforming the Data Center with Energy Efficiency (Level 200)	5/1/2009	11:00 AM PST	http://bit.ly/12CFzf
Hyper-Green Virtualization: Scaling Enterprise IT for Energy Efficiency (Level 200)	5/5/2009	10:00 AM PST	http://bit.ly/TFwxV
Cloud Computing Futures: Creating Greener Clouds with Microsoft Research (Level 200)	5/6/2009	9:00 AM PST	http://bit.ly/18hsgU
Improving Energy Efficiency w/ Windows 7 Power Management (Level 200)	5/8/2009	10:00 AM PST	http://bit.ly/fplU

Also, one webcast from Microsoft IT already been hosted & the live recording can be found here:

Title	Date	Time	URL
How Microsoft Does IT: Improving the Sustainability and Use of SQL Server at Microsoft (Level 300)	4/21/2009	Completed	http://bit.ly/2Mp0MS

New Windows 7 Power Management Whitepaper

biwirth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:19:00 GMT

There is a new Windows 7 BETA power management whitepaper available. Key points from the whitepaper include:

Improved idle efficiency - Windows 7 reduces resource utilisation when the system is idle and reduces or eliminates background activity on the system.
Timer Coalescing - for background activity that cannot be reduced, Windows 7 has been modified to defer then execute non-critical background activity at once. It also defers non-critical background activity when on battery power.
Trigger start services - when your computer boots it loads a number of system services in the background. In Windows 7 these services will now use 'trigger start' i.e. they require a physical event to occur before the service is started.
Enhancing power processing management (PPM) - driver support for latest PPM technologies.
Device power management - added the following low power enhancements:

Adaptive Display Brightness	dims the display after a period of time
Low Power Audio	support for latest Intel HD Audio low power specification
Bluetooth	"selective suspend" mode added
Networking	Disconnecting the network cable = automatically goes into low power state & vice-versa Improved wireless low power mode configurable with group policy

User Experience - includes enhancements including improved power troubleshooting and improved low battery alerting.
Enterprise Power Management - more granular control integrated, including:

Event Tracing & power request inspection	integrated into powercfg.exe with HTML based reports
Group Policy	more granular control of the new features like Device Power Management (table above) plus you can now use Group Policy Preferences as well as enforcement to provide more choice
New WMI power provider	allows Powershell 2.0 scripting of power data & settings
Power Policies	additional power policies built-in

Diagnostics in-the-box - the Windows Performance Toolkit helps IT Pros diagnose issues associated with power management.

Also as a side note, there are also two new other documents on the Microsoft Environment site:

Microsoft releases Dynamics Environmental Dashboard

biwirth — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

On 9th February Microsoft launched the Dynamics AX Environmental Dashboard. The dashboard enables mid-sized organizations to track their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (out of the box) in an effort to help identify opportunities to cut costs and lessen their environmental impact from within their existing ERP solution. It allows companies to seamlessly capture and measure key environmental indicators as part of their everyday business processes.

The key features include:

Feature	Description
Shared data	Increase visibility and improve collaboration across your organization with the ability to publish Environmental Sustainability Dashboard reports to any employee's Role Centre using Microsoft® SharePoint® Web parts. Motivate employees to act by increasing awareness of your organization's environmental impact, their role in reduction efforts, and how they can help. Access the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard using Enterprise Portal in Microsoft Dynamics AX.*
Custom configurations and reporting	Customize the dashboard to include information relevant to your organization, such as specific vendors, energy conservation programs, or conservation goals. Track direct and indirect energy consumption by month; identify specific contributing factors; and view the energy costs of each, such as electricity and fuel oil or heating costs.
Greenhouse gas inventory	Create and track your own greenhouse gas inventory to understand your environmental impact and how that might affect your business in a carbon market. Capture data consistently over time that is auditable, and reduce your risk of exposure to potential regulations, taxation, or increases in energy costs. View the carbon dioxide equivalent of your emissions-the dashboard automatically calculates the carbon dioxide conversions and presents the information in an easy-to-read graph.
Tracking of Environmental Performance Indicators	Automatically track the four core GRI Environmental Performance Indicators for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, including: EN3-Direct energy consumption that is generated onsite, such as heat and power. EN4-Indirect energy consumption that is generated from another location, such as a utility. EN16-Your total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, which combines EN3 and EN4 and converts them into carbon dioxide equivalents. EN17-Other relevant indirect greenhouse gas emissions, such as those generated from business travel, employee commuting, and waste disposal.
Integration with Microsoft SQL Server® Reporting Services	Capture environmental sustainability data in everyday business processes by viewing data immediately and tracking it over time using the dashboard, which is powered by SQL Server Reporting Services. View detailed, integrated data, such as the quantity of energy purchased from a vendor, the associated costs, and the dates of the service period

With the Business Ready Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics, the dashboard is available at no additional charge to customers using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 (only).

There is a good demo HERE.

I mentioned that out of the box you get two metrics (energy & greenhouse gases) however a Dynamics Developer can add in other metrics they typically need to measure, such as waste, water, hazardouse substances etc.

For more info, checkout: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/environment.mspx

Green IT: New Power & Unified Comms whitepapers

biwirth — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:10:00 GMT

There are a few new whitepapers on power savings & telework that have been released recently (some replacing older whitepapers and some brand new):

Reducing PC Power Consumption and Costs with Windows Vista - targeted at business and technical decision makers, this whitepaper replaces the old 'Windows Energy Conservation' whitepaper (2007). Its a nice succinct paper that gives a good overview of what exactly makes Windows Vista more energy efficient, provides data on Energy Star analysis and covers two specific customer examples and the savings they have made with Windows Vista.

IT Administrator's Guide to Using Windows Vista for Sustainable IT Success - more targeted at the IT Pro, this whitepaper covers a few of the bits from the above whitepaper, then extends out to cover 7 core recommendations including goal setting, education of users and hardware considerations.

Addressing the challenges facing the distributed, 21st Century Business Through Telework - this one is a Wainhouse Research report sponsored by Microsoft and was released in June 2008. Its about 20 pages and covers off the definition of telework, business issues & impacts related to telework, technologies and three different telework scenarios. Overall it has some good background statistics & info that can contribute to your internal business case for telework / telecommuting / remote working programs. In the technologies section they are generic but do have a Microsoft Technologies box outlining what can be used from our perspective - its not particularly specific but just wanted to make a note that OCS R2 was recently released (Feb 09) which provides enhanced telephony features if you are considering this technology. Check out the latest features of OCS R2 or this link for the detailed technical guides.

Telework and the US Federal Government: At the Tipping Point - and finally, for those readers of mine in the US, this whitepaper (by the same research group as the one above) takes a specific look at the US government related issues, impacts and case studies. Although parts of it are obviously very US-government-centric (and repeat elements of the previous whitepaper), it still makes a good reference for other global governments' teleworking strategy development.

HOW TO: Windows Vista Power Management Video

biwirth — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:42:00 GMT

Just a real quick one today: on my personal Green IT website, I have posted a short 1:16 minute video targeted more for end-users and general public, on how to configure their Windows Vista machine to Energy Star-recommended power settings.

I'd expect the IT Pro to set their's through group policies so I'll be posting up a video on this in the near future.

In the meantime if your small business, mum or grandma want to know how to do it, point them to this VIDEO.