Within Microsoft Active Directory you can setup a number of power management policies to help control unnecessary energy expenditure and save IT costs.
Did you know that if you set power management policies for your organisation to 'standby' after hours, for every 12 computers you effectively take 1 medium sized car off the road? That is what the Co2 equivalent is. Not only is the energy benefit tangible, so is the cost. And its so very easy!
In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 you have more options for power management configuration than before - Windows Vista allows all power management options to be configurable. In March an independant study conducted by PC Pro Labs (UK), found that switching from Windows XP to Windows Vista can save between £23-46 per system per year - this is roughly equivalent to AU $52 - 105 per year. As such if you are a 1500 seat organisation, you are saving $78,000 - $157,500 per year in energy costs.
So what can I configure...?
With Windows Server 2008 (Beta 3) and Vista Group Policy settings you can:
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Enable Windows Update Power Management to automatically wake up the system to install scheduled updates - essentially this allows you to wake up the system to install those critical patches - even in hibernation mode. TIP: Be a bit careful as this only works if updates are set to 'Automatic'.
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Select an Active Power Plan - This sets the default power plan for your computers and rather than selecting from the 3 default power plans (below) you can customise it. In Windows Vista you have 3 default Power Plans:
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Balanced - Full performance when available but saves power when the computer is inactive.
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Power Saver - Reduces system performance in lieu of power savings.
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High Performance - most performance-efficient but battery doesn't last as long on mobile PCs.
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Select the Power Button Action (On Battery) or (Plugged In) - This setting configures what happens when a user selects the power button. You can choose from:
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Take no action
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Sleep
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Hibernate
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Shut down
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Select the Start Menu Power Button Action (On Battery) or (Plugged In) - similar to the configuration item above with the same options, this is the option for the Start Menu Power Button rather than the physical button.
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Specify a Custom Active Power Plan - If you customise a power plan (as indicated in the second option above), it will have a GUID associated with it - this option lets you configure what the GUID is (TIP: find the GUID using the powercfg utility).
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Turn Off Cache Power Mode - Vista improves startup performance and frequently modified data performance by caching to non-volatile cache i.e. external USB drives, SD-cards, thumb drives (and so on). The default setting is that these "hybrid" drives are spun down to save power - enabling this group policy setting disables the power saving. However this policy only applies if the NV cache feature is on in the first place.
But I haven't deployed Vista yet...
There are few differences in terms of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Windows XP group policies don't allow power configuration with the standard GPOs however if you download the US Energy Star "EZ GPO Software" you can apply some of these settings to Windows XP machines: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_ez_gpo
Key Considerations:
If you have legacy applications that do not run when standby is initiated, and your business needs these applications to run after hours on desktop clients, then you will need to adjust your group policies to exclude that group of computers or users.
Make sure you do a thorough assessment of application standby requirements and effects before you implement power management group policies, otherwise you could inhibit the organisation's standard business processes (translation: you'll get lots of support calls).
References:
- Media Release (Microsoft) - Windows Vista Power Management Features can help UK Companies reduce their carbon footprint:http://www.microsoft.com/uk/press/content/presscentre/releases/2007/03/PR03811.mspx
- Power Consumption and Management: Windows Vista Versus Windows XP: http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/business/PC%20Pro%20Labs%20White%20Paper%20Mar%202007.pdf
- New Categories of Policy Management: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/0077cf9d-b06c-4264-99ff-1beb569dd3d21033.mspx?mfr=true
- Group Policy Settings Reference (Windows 2003 SP1): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7821C32F-DA15-438D-8E48-45915CD2BC14&displaylang=en
- Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Server 2008 Beta 3: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2043b94e-66cd-4b91-9e0f-68363245c495&displaylang=en
- When you configure power options for the active power plan in Windows Vista, the changes are not reflected in the Power Options item in Control Panel: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935799
- Powercfg Command-Line Options: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/1d58b934-f56a-4796-b2df-7be2eb9c03bc1033.mspx?mfr=true
