ANTenna Blog -- How-To

EMC, HP, and Lenovo all unveil management systems for tasks ranging from low to high end of the server arena.

There's had always been a crying need for server management tools. It may be something astrological, but in the last few days three vendors—EMC, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo—have announced new tools addressing various aspects of the management equation. They won't be of equal use to everyone, but hopefully they represent a trend.

With the new EMC Server Configuration Manager, users can discover and maintain detailed configuration data about their servers, automatically. It can run on Windows servers and desktops, and on UNIX and Linux servers. It includes toolkits for providing regulatory compliance data for such environments as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, PCI DSS, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, or the Federal Information Systems Management Act.

With the new EMC Configuration Analytics Manager, users can measure key performance indicators over time, and thus analyze and forecast compliance and IT service levels. EMC has separate versions for networks, servers, and networks and servers combined. The system includes an executive dashboard and a rollup of key performance indicators.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard has announced its HP Dynamic Power Capping management system intended to regulate the allocation of power and cooling resources in the data center by "capping" the power drawn by servers. By establishing how much power is actually needed to run each server, the users can avoid over-provisioning the data center and save money. In a one-megawatt data center, it should cut energy consumption by a quarter and save $300,000 yearly.

It runs on seven types of BladeSystem servers (BL2x220c, BL260c, BL460c G1, BL460c G5, BL465c G5, BL685c, and BL495c) and two different ProLiant SL servers (DL360 G5 and DL380 G5.)

The Lenovo announcement, meanwhile, is not aimed directly at the server world, but embodies an interesting trend that would be welcome to SMB server users. Basically, Lenovo announced that its new ThinkCentre desktop PCs (the M58 and M58p, which include mini-tower configurations) now comes with a Power Manager system that lets administrators remotely monitor and control their power consumption. Administrators can do things like have the machines power-down during the night and on weekends.

The money-saving potential for an enterprise with hundreds of PCs is obvious, but the idea could easily be extended to servers, many of whom might as well be shut down at the end of the day, even if they aren't. (After all, not all servers are Web or e-mail servers. Does the HR database server really need to be running all weekend?)

Visit the bMighty Server How-To Center for practical, hands-on information about how to choose, install, and maintain your company's servers.

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