|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v753.1) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <833CC23B-2BCD-42B9-A2D7-4E4C29D00A96@MIT.EDU> Cc: Thomas Smith <tjsmith@MIT.EDU>, Joyce Gomes <jogomes@MIT.EDU>, owls@MIT.EDU, release-team@MIT.EDU, "Michael R. Gettes" <gettes@MIT.EDU> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: William Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:20:30 -0400 To: Chris Lavallee <lavallch@MIT.EDU>, Chuck King <chuckk@MIT.EDU>, John T Guy <jtguy@MIT.EDU> X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: 0.00 Summary: Chris, John: Presuming that we are agreed to refine the existing twice-daily reporting and to get Hotline going with athinfo for remote diagnosing of Athena systems, how about IAP of this year for switching over to power-saving monitors Athena-wide? Detail: The question keeps coming up, "Why does Athena keep its monitors powered up? Wouldn't it be significant energy savings?" The Athena Release team did a back of the envelope calculation and looked up LCD monitor power consumption. Assuming 1000 machines, 10 hours of idle time per machine, and 25 w saved by powering them off, that adds up to about 100 MegaWattHours per year. Actual monitors in the field actually consume more than 25 watts, but the ones we've started buying consume about 20 watts. The normal way the X server runs with Linux powers off video monitors when they've been idle for about half an hour. Athena hacked the configuration to disable that. We disabled it for two reasons: 1. We were afraid users would think the computer was broken. This is no longer an issue. People are used to power-saving monitors. 2. It was easy to stand at the doorway of an Athena General Use Cluster, and determine at a glance which systems were offline. This is the remaining reason why we keep the monitors powered up. I discussed this situation with John Guy. He expressed the concern that, as we continue doing more work with fewer resources, an easy way to identify sick/ healthy systems is important. The Athena release team discussed the principle of making it easy to identify sick and healthy systems that still allows powering off of monitors. There is a twice-daily report that provides a variety status information (up, down, hacked, hung, etc.) status on the Athena systems we take care of. There is also the athinfo program that enables remote query of Athena systems for additional information. I confirmed with John Guy that the twice-daily report is used by Hotline to identify troubled systems. I have recently learned that the Hotline team hasn't been trained in making good use of athinfo. Bottom Line proposal: 1. We agree to lean more heavily on the twice-daily report, and to refine it so it really meets the needs of Hotline. 2. We train Hotline in use of athinfo, and refine it if necessary to offer additional queries of importance to most effectively remote diagnosing systems. 3. We set a date for removing the hack to keep Athena monitors powered up when idle. I believe John Guy is the primary stakeholder and his opinion going forward should be most heavily weighted. I believe Chris Lavallee is the decision maker here. Chris, John: How about IAP of this year for switching over to power- saving monitors Athena-wide? -Bill ---- Important: IS&T IT staff will *NEVER* ask you for your password, nor will MIT send you email requesting your password information. Please continue to ignore any email messages that claim to require you to provide such information. ---- William Cattey Linux Platform Coordinator MIT Information Services & Technology N42-040M, 617-253-0140, wdc@mit.edu http://web.mit.edu/wdc/www/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |