Cisco Cisco UCS C22 M3 Rack Server White Paper

 

 

© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. 

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Another type of capping, dynamic power capping, allows the power management system to allocate the total pool 

of power across groups of multiple systems. This type of power capping is extremely effective in situations where 

multiple blade servers reside within a single chassis and share the power supply. With dynamic power capping, the 

system as a whole can conform to a specific power budget, but power can be steered to the specific nodes that 

have a higher load and require additional power.  

With the release of Cisco UCS C-Series M4, Cisco has extended the concept of power capping in scope and 

features for rack-mount servers. It provides the administrator with critical operational information, such as system 

utilization efficiency, while bridging the gap between static and dynamic power capping in the rack-mount form 

factor. The C-Series M4 generation of servers has advanced embedded systems management services that 

provide accurate server power ratings for efficient budgeting, as well as providing time-of-day-driven capping 

actions to allow the infrastructure to adapt to business needs. The solution is designed around the closed feedback 

loop concept of monitoring, measurement and action (Figure 1). 

Figure 1.    Closed feedback loop of monitoring, measurement and action 

 

 

Power Consumption and Its Impact on Data Center Design 

Over the last decade, data center design priorities have moved from real estate and materials cost impact to 

infrastructure and power costs (Figure 2). The new priorities for designers are: 

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Follow best practices 

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Adopt new technologies 

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Optimize code 

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Engineer the data center