How to determine power draw

[Jack Coats]

There is a difference between 'rated' and 'running' and 'starting' 
draw.  Normally the 'rated' is the maximum.  Motors starting draw a LOT 
more than they do when running (like fans, disk, etc).  If you use a 
'clamp on amp meter', you can read this.  At one time Radio Shack had a 
cheap clamp on amp meter with a RS-232 adapter.  It worked like a champ, 
and wasn't that expensive.  I think it was made by Fluke.

<story warning>
When helping set up a server room once, we had to go back and re-strap 
all the SCSI disk drives (80 or so), so they used the 'startup delay'.  
This means they would wait a few seconds times the SCSI ID, so not all 
drives would start at once.  It saved us needing to add a lot more power 
to the room.
</story warning>

Or, do an inventory of your equipment and go to the mfg web site and 
check the power requirements listed there!

... Hope it helps! ... jack

Jerry Feldman wrote:
> Over the weekend our company rack lost power. We're currently running 
> 6 servers + kvm + switch. Right now I've got the 2 big 6U 4-CPU 
> servers running on separate circuits, and the other units running on 
> another circuit.
>
> Is there a way to find the approximate power draw from the software 
> (RHEL 4).
> I'm just lazy and don't want to get in the back of the rack with a 
> flashlight to read the power supply data.
>
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