Eco-Warriors R'us - Shutting down equipment

[mrwoberts]

I 'm a tech support guy for a number of schools in Surrey.

One Infant school in particular were 'helpfully' branded recently as having poor energy efficiency. I'm desperate to help them loose this label by drawing up a plan of action to shut down IT equipment overnight / during holidays...

 

Some questions:

1. Can Cachepilot be shutdown remotely (without having to switch it off on the back, or via the web interface); ie. can I shut it down via a shell script?? If so, any suggestions?

 

2. I want to write a shutdown script on their MS Server (2k3), that will detect if anyone is connected to it, or using any of its resources, and if not then shutdown. Any ideas on best way to do this - I do have some ideas, but don't want to reinvent the wheel.

 

Many thanks

[Guest monkeyx]

We use this script and I know that several other schools are using this as well. In theory would not be too much extra work to extend the wmi to check for a logged in user.

 

We found it easier to use GPO to allow an opt out, as leaving machine logged in, was not an excuse for not turning it off. Script also allows for certain machines to be excluded.

[Butuz]

Last (first and only) time I had a holiday shut down the forest root wouldnt boot back up!

 

SMT have never asked for a shut down since!

 

Never shut your servers down - it just gives them the opportunity to misbehave!!!

 

Butuz

[robk]

Shutting down workstations/putting network printers into standby etc makes good eco frendly sense, but attempting to shut down the entire infrastructure is only likely to lead to problems.

 

If you use something like a scheduled task to shut down the workstations, you can then use WOL to turn everything back on from the server ready for registration the following morning.

 

RobK

[powdarrmonkey]

I'd agree, domain controllers in particular don't like gaps of time, it breaks Kerberos amongst other things (result: large hassle). For workstations and minor servers, though, Shutdownertron is your friend.

[FN-GM]

I was once told this:

 

Servers are like old people, you put them to bed one night and every now and then they don't wake up.

[sahmeepee]

I've done some work on this in our school (helpfully feeding my OCD streak). Something like shutdownertron is a good idea for your workstations. I use a script of my own, but it does pretty much the same stuff. Turning off servers is going too far IMHO as people have said above.

 

There are some apps knocking about for controlling the power settings on your desktops, such as EZ GPO:

 

EZ GPO : ENERGY STAR

 

If you make sure Wake On Lan is turned on on the client PCs, having computers switch off a lot shouldn't get in the way of your general network admin tasks (patching/deployment etc).

 

It's worth investing in a power measurement device or two to check what power your devices draw in standby and at full power. I've found CRTs turned off with the mechanical switch on the front which consume more power than a bigger TFT which is switched on! I think this is the model we've got:

 

[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Energy-Monitor-by-Brennenstuhl/dp/B000XSX1PA]Electrical Energy Meter PM230: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo[/ame]

 

They are more accurate if you connect several devices at once with a gang extension.

 

Other things to look at:

 

Make sure that projectors are set to shut down when they don't have a signal. A projector will merrily use as much juice as 5 desktop PCs and doesn't use any less if it's displaying a mostly black screensaver! If your PCs are shutting down on a schedule, the projectors will follow soon after.

 

Check if your aircon units have timers. Most of ours have timers which can be set just to switch off at certain times - no need to set them to switch on automatically. Put up signs reminding the hard of thinking that it's evil and wrong to open doors and windows when they have the aircon on.

 

You can buy power distribution units which can be controlled over IP, but when I last looked they weren't economical for us. If you're being ultra-keen they might be a good idea for you.

 

EDIT: Crikey, do you think the amazon ads are obtrusive enough?

[Sirbendy]

We do some of it here, but in our new building (coming online in septemberish) we're going to pull the stops out.

 

New kit throughout, all identical..so WOL etc is go there.

LAN Projectors, so centralised shutdown possible

Building management system, so electric windows, intelligent lighting, heat regeneration systems, ground source heating, 3 wind turbines, rainwater harvesting etc

Mass virtualisation of servers using ESXi

 

and so on, and so on. Looking forward to being able to shut the building down (literally) by remote if needs be. I'm going to get myself lost in the tech/management side of it, as it'll all run back to the server room behind my office.

 

Another recommendation for the plug-in monitors here - both at work and home. I just had a quarterly power bill for £43..heh. And that was us being lazy, at that.

 

One thing I will miss from here is our "big red switch" system - we had the suites cabled to our design, with 2 ring mains...1 for PCs, 1 for screens. If you want the kids attention, hot the switch and kill the TFTs. Same at night too, it's lovely.

 

Shame it's not been specced in the new one.

[AyatollahPies]

I 'm a tech support guy for a number of schools in Surrey.

One Infant school in particular were 'helpfully' branded recently as having poor energy efficiency. I'm desperate to help them loose this label by drawing up a plan of action to shut down IT equipment overnight / during holidays...

 

Some questions:

1. Can Cachepilot be shutdown remotely (without having to switch it off on the back, or via the web interface); ie. can I shut it down via a shell script?? If so, any suggestions?

 

2. I want to write a shutdown script on their MS Server (2k3), that will detect if anyone is connected to it, or using any of its resources, and if not then shutdown. Any ideas on best way to do this - I do have some ideas, but don't want to reinvent the wheel.

 

Many thanks

 

Don't touch your Cache Pilot. Depending on what you use them for, they can take hours to rejig themselves after being shutdown.

 

It's Laser Printers you want to be paying attention to. Waste leccy like their is no tomorrow. Put them all on socket timers and watch the leccy dial slow down before your very eyes.

[enjay]

As well as automatic shutdowns at night, look at power usage during the day. We bought Visionsoft - Power-Out - Visionsoft's Network PC Power Utility and set it to turn the monitors off after a few minutes, and the hard disks a bit later - it paid for itself within a few months, and the rooms are much cooler now too. Also, ensure that your printers are turned off when not in use, or at least go into sleep mode when they're idling (although this may not be as efficient as you think, our Konica Magicolors still drew over 100W on "energy save"!).

 

Above all that, encourage people to turn the lights off when rooms are empty, as this will likely save far more energy than anything you could do.

[sahmeepee]

Above all that, encourage people to turn the lights off when rooms are empty, as this will likely save far more energy than anything you could do.

 

I thought a normal ceiling tile of lighting (4 fluoros) used about the same power as a PC (roughly 60W). Am I close? That would put their consumption lower than the computers in a suite but on a par. Do any schools switch lights off with motion sensors? I've seen them in corridors, but I would think that a classroom with no movement for 5 minutes means a classroom with no kids in it!

[p858snake]

We do some of it here, but in our new building (coming online in septemberish) we're going to pull the stops out.

 

New kit throughout, all identical..so WOL etc is go there.

LAN Projectors, so centralised shutdown possible

Building management system, so electric windows, intelligent lighting, heat regeneration systems, ground source heating, 3 wind turbines, rainwater harvesting etc

Mass virtualisation of servers using ESXi

 

and so on, and so on. Looking forward to being able to shut the building down (literally) by remote if needs be. I'm going to get myself lost in the tech/management side of it, as it'll all run back to the server room behind my office.

 

Another recommendation for the plug-in monitors here - both at work and home. I just had a quarterly power bill for £43..heh. And that was us being lazy, at that.

 

One thing I will miss from here is our "big red switch" system - we had the suites cabled to our design, with 2 ring mains...1 for PCs, 1 for screens. If you want the kids attention, hot the switch and kill the TFTs. Same at night too, it's lovely.

 

Shame it's not been specced in the new one.

 

AS in no over-ride switches at all or just one, because if theres none, you can easily say that there should be one incase something breakes/catches alight or a students gets shocked by it so you can turn off power remotely.

[TechMonkey]

We have movement sensors in a new section we had put in. The only problem we found was we had to add a manual over ride to turn them off as when a projector was fitted the room was sometimes too bright.

 

Also added to all the toilets. Only downside is you don't hang about (suppose that could be an up side to management!)

 

Beyond that they are cool.

[enjay]

I thought a normal ceiling tile of lighting (4 fluoros) used about the same power as a PC (roughly 60W). Am I close?

 

There or thereabouts (13W for a modern strip light, I think), so turning them all off in empty rooms will make an enormous difference.

 

I would think that a classroom with no movement for 5 minutes means a classroom with no kids in it!

 

Depends how sensitive the sensors are I guess, a class where everyone was sat down probably wouldn't generate that much movement... I've worked one place where they kept going out early or late in the day when there was only a handful of people in the office (great fun to go running through the open plan rooms if you happened to be in early though!)

[enjay]

I just use batch files. They fire up around 4.30 when everyone's gone for the day and power down the IT rooms.

 

What about the lunch hour, or any periods during the day when the PCs aren't in use? Add all those hours up, and it will be a surprisingly big number.

 

Don't get me wrong - what you're doing is a good step in the right direction, however there is much more which can be done. If it isn't practical/possible to shut them down during idle periods in the middle of the day, at least set them to enter some form of low power state during them.

 

On Fridays I generally turn off the monitors for the weekend.

 

That may not actually make any difference at all - we've got some monitors here which come with little transformer/power packs on the power cable, and with these, pressing the power button on the front of the monitor makes no difference, as the transformer is still drawing power.

[Sirbendy]

same here - I used my power meter to check, but a Dell 17" value TFT used about 12 watts when running, and if you "power off" on the button, it STILL used 11 watts..just killed the output. Horrendous design.

 

We also have powerout, but the LEA policies etc seem to interfere with it. Maybe in the new building.

 

Movement sensors..we had. Electricians removed them as "useless"! 2 are now at my parents house, doing duty in the garage lighting system.. Excellent kit. No overrides either - you give teachers an override, they'll use it all the time. Not worth it. Think "idiot" and design accordingly.

 

We've removed the aircon control and put them above the ceiling to stop staff buggering about with it. Lightswitches should be the same. Stuff the poxy keyswitches too...the kids just smash the facias off.

 

Corridors should have the push "vacuum" delay switches or movement sensors IMO..no permanent on option. Loos the same.

 

Can you tell it annoys me? I walk round turning lights off..sigh.

 

Printers and the ilk I think should have a timeswitch built in, like the plugin ones I have at home. Set the "on" hours, walk away. Same with ring mains in the school rooms...if only they could run individually off timers for each room. That'd work nicely.

[Sirbendy]

AS in no over-ride switches at all or just one, because if theres none, you can easily say that there should be one incase something breakes/catches alight or a students gets shocked by it so you can turn off power remotely.

 

Hmm? The Big Red Switch system? Oh yes, every socket is switched as normal, but they all run as it were from the big red discipline switch.

[enjay]

AS in no over-ride switches at all or just one, because if theres none, you can easily say that there should be one incase something breakes/catches alight or a students gets shocked by it so you can turn off power remotely.

 

We had that recently - monitor went "pop" and started smoking so the teacher dumped the power to the room, rather than risk going near it.

 

Make sure the kill switch is clearly labelled though - we had someone accidentally power down the IT Suite because they thought it was the light switch (in her defence, the kill switch is in a stupid place), resulting in the demise of a couple of mainboards.

[TechMonkey]

No overrides either - you give teachers an override, they'll use it all the time. Not worth it. Think "idiot" and design accordingly.

 

Override was only to turn the lights off, so overrides the sensor. The worse they can do is set the lights not to come on and then it is their own fault if they walk into something in the dark

[sahmeepee]

same here - I used my power meter to check, but a Dell 17" value TFT used about 12 watts when running, and if you "power off" on the button, it STILL used 11 watts..just killed the output. Horrendous design.

 

We also have Dell cheapo 17" screens and they draw virtually nothing in standby/off, so it's definitely worth checking with a power meter and acting accordingly.

[mrwoberts]

Ok, I've been crunching some numbers for breakfast and this is what I've come up with - remember, this is a small Infant school, 250 children, 20 desktops, 1 Server, 1 um-Switch...

 

Currently, this equipment runs 24/7/365

Server

Modem/Router

Cachepilot

um-Switch

7 Wireless APs

2 Belkin Bridge

2 Domestic Switches

 

A Reserved est put the total running cost for this equipment, based on 10p kWh (day), 7p (Night),

at £ 300 + VAT

 

Equipment used during school time (11 hours/day)

20 Desktops

8 Projectors

14 Printers

8 Amps

2 Laptop Charging trolleys

1 Hungry Photocopier

 

Again, my estimates put total running cost of this equipment, based on the tariff above, over 195 days, at £ 550 + VAT

 

I'm currently trialing a 'reduced timetable' for the Permanently on equip, hoping to SAVE approx.

£ 220 + VAT; And the on-demand equipement, SAVE another £ 250 + VAT

 

All in all, I think the risk of switching off some of the permanent equipment every night is worth it. Thank you to everyone for feedback - I'm now going to look at Shutdownertron and other scripts to make sure the Server doesn't turn off when it might still be needed.

 

Kind Regards

[john]

In relation to times on the ring mains, these are very much possible, they go in with the MCB / RCD in the Consumer unit. I've got them in newer consumer units for outside lighitng. Digital timers and obv locked in dis-boards means no teacher fiddling!!!

[SimpleSi]

I know my granny used to say "look after the pennies and the pounds willl look after themselves" but schools could save far far far bigger money by controlling the heating systems better than fiddling with the low power ICT equipment/lighting

 

Its like worrying about switching your TV off at the plug at night when you've still got your central heating system running in May

 

Or worrying about MP's claiming a few extra thou in expenses when the world economy is up the creek.

 

If something is left switched on - then it will fail due to overheating, mech failure or some random failure event.

 

Switching it off and on will stress it very much more and lead to much more chance of failure unless its a rotating mechanical device in which case switch it of

 

regards

 

Simon

[enjay]

Equipment used during school time (11 hours/day)

 

Where did you get 11 hours a day from? We have 5 hours of teaching every day, and there's no reason for projectors to be on much longer than that. Some people want their classroom computers on before/after school, but many don't, so by default I set them to turn on at 8am and off at 4pm, and change those specific PCs where there is a need.

[enjay]

I'm currently trialing a 'reduced timetable' for the Permanently on equip

 

I advise caution here as many network switches (especially older and/or cheaper ones) won't like this. They will run happily for years and then not come back on after a power outage - several times here I've had seemingly fine switches die in power cuts.