When Does Powering Down Servers Make Sense?

snydeq writes "Powering down servers to conserve energy is a controversial practice that, if undertaken wisely, could greatly benefit IT in its quest to rein in energy costs in the datacenter. Though power cycling's long-term effects on server hardware may be mythical, its effects on IT and business operations are certainly real and often detrimental. Yet, development, staging, batch processing, failover — several server environments seem like prime candidates for routine power cycling to reduce datacenter energy consumption. Under what conditions and in what environments does powering down servers seem to make the most economic and operational sense, and what tips do folks have to offer to those considering making use of the practice?"

Comments

You work for citrix?

[Petersko]

"Full disclosure, I work for Citrix. Check out XenServer, which can remotely provision server workloads to virtual and bare metal machines - based on load, you can remotely power up resources as needed. I have seen the future, and it is awesome. And green."

I'd be more trusting of your employer's ability to code something like that if you could provide me with something simpler - like a Citrix client that can handle two monitors with different resolutions correctly, and that doesn't get confused from time to time about where my cursor is.