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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?"
Like when someone posts your domain name on slashdot!
You can't take down a server that's already off-line.
you see the Windows logo appear? (sorry, couldn't resist)
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
The best time to shut down the servers is right before you quit your job. Password-protecting the BIOS first adds value too.
I'm glad this was posted to "Ask Slashdot" where your audience is highly seasoned professionals that can give you wise, insightful answers...
In the data center that I manage, I use a few simple rules to determine when I power them down.
1) If the server is on fire
2) If there are no users using the server
or
3) If the power company is saying that I haven't paid my bill and they are sending "Hank" over to cut me off
4) Civil unrest, tornado, earthquake, zombies, etc.
Right in the middle of a user having completed all of the form and about to hit submit button. Boy, I'd like to see the face of that user!
(My datacenter charges about a buck a VA)
A watt?
chris@xanadu:~$ whatis /.
/.: nothing appropriate.
I know of a server in a local restaurant. He often takes a "power nap" just after the lunch-time rush is over. Having conserved some energy, he wakes up refreshed and is can get back into high-power mode for the evening meals.
Hey, if Jurassic Park taught me anything, it's that all you need is a wide-eyed little girl to say "I know this... this is a UNIX system!".
By then some of your users may have been eaten by velociraptors, but your server will come back online eventually and you'll have saved yourself some power!
... is with electronic voting servers, to force paper ballots and more accurate counting.
Hola Señor.
Me gusta lo que dices, y estoy interesado en suscribirse a su boletín informativo.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
I personally think a buck for a Virginia would be a great deal.
On a side note, that seems pretty pricey for a watt - turning on my blow dryer in the morning would cost me $1500 where you live. I'd have to go to work with wet hair everyday.
Ooooh - I could instead use solar energy to dry my hair (stand outside in the sun for a while). Green is good!
First of all, I'm with you, I also don't understand what it is about these mythical accounting processes that takes so damn long to process.
I guess it's like everything else in the software industry:
- software built by programmers for programmers runs quickly
- software built by programmers for non-programmers is incoherent
- software built by non-programmers for non-programmers is slow as molasses
- software built by non-programmers for programmers is never executed!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Mi aerodeslizador està lleno de anguilas!
Mod parent redundant.
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your virtualized instances [...] retreat to a smaller group of servers. The unused servers could shut down for the night.
This is NOT a good idea. We tried this but had the greatest trouble each morning convincing the virtualized instances to come out of their smaller, warmer group of servers into the cold, barely booted-up bigger servers.
You see, virtualized instances are like kittens.
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