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Equipment on Timers

GizmoIT

By GizmoIT
in Wired Networks

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GizmoIT

GizmoIT

Posted
Posted (edited)

Our site manager has a bee in his bonnet about IT Equipment being on when not in use. Currently he has requested all of our network infrastructure (switches etc) all to put onto timers! set to come on in the morning and go off in the evening.

Has anyone else encountered this type of thing? I am against the idea as modern switches are not designed to have power constantly powered off and on again on a daily basis. Thoughts?

Edited by GizmoIT
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simpsonj

simpsonj

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No.

 

Any money saved on electricity you would lose on replacing broken switches. As you say, they're not designed to be turned off and on. I would be worried every single morning that something hasn't come back online. It would introduce a risk to IT service that is unnecessary. By all means, look at more power efficient switches, or if there are redundant switches that can be removed.

 

Also, before he asks, turning off servers every day is also not a great idea!

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TechMonkey

TechMonkey

Posted
Posted

I've heard of it being requested. Never heard of it implemented. I would find out what particular concerns he has about it being on. Is it power consumption, fire risk, too many Blinkenlights?

Just hearing this, my concerns would be:

- how will backups be done, especially getting offsite backups offsite

- how will after hour updates be done?

- what times would he want as would this clash with after school events? And would it all be up for those early starters?

- If the timer fails what is the back up plan?

- Is he going to go around at clock change time and set them correctly?

 

Basically an uneducated request that needs killing with objections rather than just being told how stupid it really is.

-

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DavR

DavR

Posted
Posted

All of the above, really. It would interfere with maintenance tasks that run overnight, backups, updates, etc. Equipment is not designed to be continually switched on and off, every shutdown and startup is a risk of failure.

 

Perhaps to placate your site manager, you could offer a scheduled shutdown of all desktop computers overnight, if this is something that isn't happening already. We used to use Shutdownertron for this, way back when, but also you could push out a scheduled task of shutdown /s at 7pm daily by group policy.

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GizmoIT

GizmoIT

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We already shutdown all desktops overnight via Impero, but he doesn't even like standby lights on monitors! It is mainly the data cabinets around the site that is the issue as it "could" be a fire risk. all of our wireless AP's are POE so these would also have their power cycled every day and our Printers/Copiers have a web interface to report supply levels and fault reporting.
nicholab

nicholab

Posted
Posted (edited)
You could turn of POE during the night? Also work out how much power kit uses really? Will they also be turning the Fire alarm off to save power? If it really an issue I take it they are looking to go cloud so as to move usage of power off site? Is there not a site manger online forum where they discuss ideas like this? Edited by nicholab
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DrBeaker

DrBeaker

Posted
Posted
Our site manager has a bee in his bonnet about IT Equipment being on when not in use. Currently he has requested all of our network infrastructure (switches etc) all to put onto timers! set to come on in the morning and go off in the evening.

Has anyone else encountered this type of thing? I am against the idea as modern switches are not designed to have power constantly powered off and on again on a daily basis. Thoughts?

How ridiculous.

 

Demonstrating a key lack of understanding there of what things do.

 

Do they turn off the burglar alarm when the building is empty?

 

Comply and then charge the damage to his department for overtime, damage, downtime etc.

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3s-gtech

3s-gtech

Posted
Posted

Switches off may mean CCTV off. Your insurance/safeguarding/site team would love that!

 

We go to great lengths to ensure that the kit keeps working. Deliberately hobbling it is madness - switches don't cost that much to run but will cost many thousands to replace.

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Oaktech

Oaktech

Posted
Posted
We already shutdown all desktops overnight via Impero, but he doesn't even like standby lights on monitors! It is mainly the data cabinets around the site that is the issue as it "could" be a fire risk. all of our wireless AP's are POE so these would also have their power cycled every day and our Printers/Copiers have a web interface to report supply levels and fault reporting.

 

If it becomes ridiculous, go along with it but get it in writing that his dept will indemnify your dept against all failures, will arrange replacements out of his dept budget and will deal with the end users beating his door down when critical infrastructure inevitably begins to fail.

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DrBeaker

DrBeaker

Posted
Posted
CCTV is on a seperate system (controlled by the site manager) and is on 24/7
Well you don't need it when the school is empty. So turn it off to save power. [emoji23]
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CHiLL

CHiLL

Posted
Posted
Due to the knock on effects that would have to other systems and processes (that others have already outlined), that's a request he should be making to management, not you. It's extremely unlikely that they will take his side.
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Andrew_C

Andrew_C

Posted
Posted

How long does it take for the network to start from cold, and does it reliably? I wonder how many times the Head would tolerate delays to work starting because something hangs half way started.

 

Madness...

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Davit2005

Davit2005

Posted
Posted

At a previous place we had scheduled tasks to shutdown PCs. Every PC was included, projectors were set to go to standby when no signal or something like that.

 

Personally anything in addition is going to cause some grief somewhere down the line or with something.

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simpsonj

simpsonj

Posted
Posted
Apparently its a fire risk and would void our insurance..

 

I would ask to see the Insurance Policy and the exact paragraph that he believes leaving network equipment on would void it.

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