Determining power consumption in IT networks

• US 7,634,671 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2006
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Trenz, Thomas, Frietsch, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Nitin C
• Application Number:
  US11/492,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094527A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/340
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/14 Calling by using pulses

Abstract

A method is provided of determining total electric power consumption of a managed IT network including network devices having a management-addressable address. An autodiscovery tool is run to discover the network devices of the managed IT network. Management requests are directed to the management-addressable addresses of the network devices to obtain the electric power consumption values of the network devices. The electric power consumption values returned by the network devices are centrally collected, and the total electric power consumption of the managed IT network is calculated by adding the electric power consumption values of the network devices.

Claims

1. A method of determining power consumption of a managed information technology (IT) network comprising network devices having a management-addressable address, the method comprising:

running an autodiscovery tool to discover the network devices of the managed IT network;

directing management requests to the management-addressable addresses of the network devices to obtain the electric power consumption values of the network devices;

centrally collecting the electric power consumption values returned by the network devices;

determining whether the collected power consumption value for one of the network devices is beyond a low value or beyond a high value; and

triggering an alarm if the collected power consumption value is beyond the low value or beyond the high value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electric power consumption of each network device is a current electric power consumption measured by a sensor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a total electric power consumption of the managed IT network by adding the electric power consumption values of the network devices, wherein the total electric power consumption is determined at different points of time and a statistical evaluation of the total electric power consumption values associated with the different points of time is performed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the electric power consumption value returned by a network device is a nominal electric power consumption value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the nominal electric power consumption value of a network device is determined by measuring the current electric power consumption of a device at different points of time and calculating an average thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, in a hierarchical Internet registration, a group level including nodes addressable in the hierarchy, wherein non-leaf nodes in the group level represent directories for management information including the collected electric power consumption values, and providing leaf nodes below the group level representing the network devices.

6. A computer system for determining total electric power consumption of a managed information technology (IT) network comprising network devices having a management-addressable address, the computer system being programmed to:

run an autodiscovery tool to discover the network devices of the managed IT network;

direct management requests to the management-addressable addresses of the network devices to obtain the electric power consumption values of the network devices;

centrally collect the electric power consumption values returned by the network devices;

determine whether the collected power consumption value for one of the network devices is beyond a low value or beyond a high value; and

trigger an alarm if the collected power consumption value is beyond the low value or beyond the high value.

11. The computer system of claim 6, further programmed to provide, in a hierarchical Internet registration, a group level including nodes addressable in the hierarchy, wherein non-leaf nodes in the group level represent directories for management information including the collected electric power consumption values, and provide leaf nodes below the group level representing the network devices.

7. A computer program stored on a storage device, and when the computer program is executed on a computer system, the computer system performs a method of managing power consumption of a managed information technology (IT) network comprising network devices having a management-addressable address, the method comprising:

running an autodiscovery tool to discover the network devices of the managed IT network;

directing management requests to the management-addressable addresses of the network devices to obtain the electric power consumption values of the network devices;

centrally collecting the electric power consumption values returned by the network devices;

determining whether the collected power consumption value for one of the network devices is beyond a low value or beyond a high value; and

triggering an alarm if the collected power consumption value is beyond the low value or beyond the high value.

8. The computer program of claim 7, wherein each of the network devices stores at least one power consumption value for the network device, and each network device is addressable in a hierarchy.

9. The computer program of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

providing, in a hierarchical Internet registration, a group level including nodes addressable in the hierarchy, wherein non-leaf nodes in the group level represent directories for management information including the collected electric power consumption values, and providing leaf nodes below the group level representing the network devices.