Speech:Summer 2015 Power Management


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Information
The Power Management thesis project is all about understanding how much power is being consumed by electronics in a server room environment even when powered off, and determining the best possible solution for reducing or eliminating that waste. This project is broken down into two major phases:

1. Research: (Mostly Summer 2015)

The first phase involves the power consumption, generation, and costs of the UNH Manchester building. To be able to determine if this project will have an impact we must first understand the baseline for how much the IT server room uses in various on/off states for energy and then the financial costs of that energy. Solar panels are attached to the top of the UNH building and must also be inspected to see how much energy they produce and provide to the building. Understanding how much energy the building uses, how much energy is provided by solar, and finally comparing that to the energy consumption rate of the server room will provide valuable insight and comparison points for the impact of this endeavor.

The other half of the research phase will be determining what the best solution to this problem of excess waste can be. Currently the solution is to use a combination of Linux software and FireCracker hardware to control the flow of electricity. A user will be able to log into a main server, input a command that physically connects the server to the power grid and turns it on, use that server for their needs, and then either disconnect it with another command or have it disconnect automatically after a set period of time.

2. Implementation: (Mostly Spring 2016)

The second phase will consist of purchasing the necessary infrastructure based on the results of the prior phase's research, and then implementing it and testing it. This phase will also mostly include the research and coding necessary to allows users to turn servers off and on remotely.

Contributors

 * Eric Hutchins