The Raritan Blog

Data Center Monitoring

Greg More
June 22, 2011

Raritan recently contracted with the Datacenter Research Group (part of the Datacenter Dynamics organization) to conduct primary research and produce a white paper on monitoring power and environmental conditions in United States data centers.

The key findings are that most owners and operators of data centers engage in monitoring proving the mantra “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” However, the research also pointed out some of the inadequacies of past practices.

• The vast majority of US data centers monitor energy consumption, temperature and humidity, typically on a “continuous” basis.
• Energy efficiency, carbon output and power quality are monitored irregularly and only within the primary/main facility.
• In some cases, reporting is led by what the technology can deliver rather than what the facility requires. Reporting is critical in translating “data” into actions.
• Levels of satisfaction with monitoring and reporting are at best “subdued.” Linking monitoring and reporting to continual improvement processes increases satisfaction levels.
• There are concerns about the ease of integrating different monitoring processes to provide a “whole of portfolio” picture.
• As data centers move towards becoming “dynamic” facilities, monitoring needs to move from simple to multivariate analyses, from simple alerts to establishing control and moving from reaction to prediction.

The 14-page research white paper and two-page summary are available at: White Papers | Resources - Raritan.

For Existing CC-SG Customers It's Easy to Migrate to a Virtual CC

May 24, 2011

My last few blog posts have focused on the benefits of deploying the CommandCenter Secure Gateway as a virtual appliance (VA). Now, with the release of CC-SG 5.1, it’s time to talk about how CC-SG hardware appliance users are shifting over to a “virtual CC”.

First, a quick review… In November 2010, Raritan made CC-SG 5.0.5 available as VA — thereby providing customers with two deployment options: physical (i.e. hardware) or VA. Version 5.0.5 was the vehicle for delivering “Virtual CC” to the market; 5.0.5 firmware does not run on the physical appliance.

Now back to the future. I specifically mentioned release 5.1 above because this is the first version of CC-SG firmware that can run on either the physical or the virtual appliance. Because of this, the two appliance types are interoperable and the CC-SG database of one 5.1 unit can easily be copied over to another 5.1 unit — physical or virtual.  As a result, physical appliance owners now have an easy avenue toward moving to a virtual appliance if desired.

How to Calculate Current on a 3-phase, 208V Rack PDU (Power Strip)

Henry Hsu
March 14, 2011

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Problem Statement

In recent years, extending 3-phase power distribution all the way to server cabinets and racks has become extremely popular in new data center builds—for many good reasons. Principally, for cabinet power capacities above 5kVA, utilizing 3-phase rack power strips can significantly reduce the copper required to supply such dense loads.

But unfortunately, many users (rightly) find it cumbersome to provision and calculate current (amperage) for 3-phase power in the rack—for example, a typical question would be:

Dominion KSX II Firmware Update - Release 2.3

Richard Dominach
February 21, 2011

The Dominion KSX II combo KVM/IP and secure console server has been upgraded to include all KX II Release 2.3 features, except tiering/cascading.  This includes FIPS 140-2 encryption, Smart Card/CAC and other security features, making it ideal for government, military and other security conscious customers.

The KSX II supports 4 or 8 “true serial” connections for remote/branch office deployments, as well as racks requiring both KVM and serial connections.  A “true serial” connection gives secure console access over IP without the use of an expensive dongle.   In addition,  third party SSH clients can be used in addition to Raritan’s Serial Client with features such as logging, cut and paste, and secure chat.

If you have branch offices or racks with serially and KVM controlled devices then the Dominion KSX II can give you anytime/anywhere KVM and serial remote access.

Bandwidth Usage for KX II HD 1080p Resolution?

Richard Dominach
January 7, 2011

A customer recently asked how much bandwidth the Dominion KX II KVM-over-IP access uses, specifically for the full HD (1920x1080) resolution.  This is a common user question.  The answer is as follows.

There is no fixed bandwidth for the KX II products. The bandwidth depends on how much change there is on the video screen at a particular instant. So if there is no change on the screen, then there will be no or very small amount of bandwidth. If the user is playing a movie, then there could be a very large bandwidth. Of course with larger video resolutions, then there will be more bandwidth than with a smaller resolution.

There is a feature in the KVM clients to see the amount of bandwidth being used. This can be used to check the bandwidth.  There are several settings to decrease bandwidth, as well as some helpful tips on managing bandwidth in the KX II User’s Guide called ‘Bandwidth and KVM-over-IP Performance’ that the customer may find useful.

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