__/ [ High Plains Thumper ] on Friday 06 October 2006 18:22 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Startup Linux Cluster Company SiCortex Receives $21 Million
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| SiCortex, a startup that makes Linux computer clusters,
>>| announced that it has closed a $21 million round of
>>| funding, led by Chevron Technology Ventures through its
>>| venture capital arm, CTTV Investments LLC. The funding
>>| will go toward expansion of sales and marketing efforts
>>| and continued product development.
>> `----
>>
>> http://au.sys-con.com/read/281354_p.htm
>>
>> That's nothing to sneeze at.
>
> True. Here is an odd bit of information. Wake on LAN
> technology has been around for a while as a green feature for
> PC's, yet until Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration
> Manager) 2007 is deployed, earlier Systems Management Server
> (SMS) 2003 required a third party solution to wake up PC's for
> patches.
>
> http://www.faqshop.com/sms2003/default.htm?http://www.faqshop.
> com/sms2003/sms2k3otherindex.htm
>
> or http://tinyurl.com/gw6kl
>
> | Does SMS 2003 Support Wake-on-LAN?
> |
> | Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
> | SMS does not support Wake-On-LAN out of the box. However
> | SMSWakeUp from 1E is an integrated product that provides
> | this functional> ity:
> |
> | http://www.1e.com/smswakeup
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sms/sms2003/techf
> aq/tfaq13.mspx
>
> or
>
> | Q. Does SMS 2003 support Wake on LAN technology?
> | A. Wake on LAN technology allows a computer to enter a
> | powered-down or sleep state, but enter an active state upon
> | receiving specific network packets. SMS 2003 does not
> | currently include Wake on LAN technology, though there are
> | some third-party applications that provide Wake on LAN
> | within SMS.
>
> I have always wondered why some corporate shops kept their
> PC's powered up 24 hours a day, when there was potential to
> save energy by putting them in sleep mode, to be awaken by the
> server.
>
> 1.7 GHz PC at idle consumes approximately 60 Watts.
>
> A corporate or educational campus with 1,000 PC's:
>
> 60 Watts/PC x 1,000 PC's x 24 hours/day x 365 days/year x .001
> kilo-Watt-hours/Watt-hours = 525,600 kWh.
>
> East Coast US cost of $0.125 per kWh nets annual cost of
> $65,700 or 35,478 GBP required to keep PC's powered up
> annually.
In the summer of 2001 I made an exception and read Bill Bryson's book on
American culture (I rarely read textbooks, if ever). one of the chapters
(taken from his fortnightly newspaper culumn) analysed the issue of
electricity consumption in great depth. It concentrated on PC's and lights.
The 'waste culture' is something that's costing a lot not just in terms of
money. It also harms the environment. And many have a muchly-justified pet
peeve that gets them annoyed when they see this. In fact, here on British
radio and TV there seems to have been this large-scale campaign recently
(many the past month) whose focus is the amount of money one saves by
switching off unneeded lights/lighting sources. I can't recall if PC's were
part of the message.
I always switch off my monitors when the PC's are unattended, but I cannot
shut down everything because I run Web/computational servers on my
workstations. In any event, as a side note, the CS department began making
use of wake-on-LAN a few years ago. It all happened after someone had made
the suggestion and pushed very hard (even campaigned) to make this a
reality. There is nothing to be lost because the machines will take under
half a minute to function nicely (even SSH access from the outside will
achieve this). I don't know if something like hibernation is involved
because I only work on these Fedora clusters from afar, so I don't see this
while facing the physical thing.
Last year the medical school installed lights that have motion sensors so
they switch themselves off if nobody is around and are set alight when
someone walk down the aisle. In this building where I work there are 4 or 5
floors and it's a football stadium-sized building, if not larger. I imagine
that the hard work on replacing all the lights will be worth the investment
very shortly. The savings must be huge.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
7:05pm up 7 days 19:49, 8 users, load average: 0.15, 0.45, 0.55
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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