Eaton’s Advanced Monitored family of ePDUs are designed to allow administrators to remotely monitor the power usage of individual outlets or sections over the network. Out-of-the-box web monitoring is built into the ePDU, and SNMP allows integration with third-party management systems. The eAM001 Advanced Monitored ePDU brings 20 C13 outlets and 4 C19 outlets to the StorageReview Enterprise Test Lab with outlet-level monitoring over the network. The eAM001 allows a maximum draw of 5.8kW, providing plenty of power to servers, storage and networking equipment in our 42U Eaton S-Series Rack.
Eaton’s Advanced Monitored family of ePDUs are designed to allow administrators to remotely monitor the power usage of individual outlets or sections over the network. Out-of-the-box web monitoring is built into the ePDU, and SNMP allows integration with third-party management systems. The eAM001 Advanced Monitored ePDU brings 20 C13 outlets and 4 C19 outlets to the StorageReview Enterprise Test Lab with outlet-level monitoring over the network. The eAM001 allows a maximum draw of 5.8kW, providing plenty of power to servers, storage and networking equipment in our 42U Eaton S-Series Rack.
Advanced Monitored ePDUs can also monitor of internal CPU temperature and remote devices and sensors via an independent environmental monitoring probe. Eaton’s Advanced Monitored ePDUs are Cisco EntergyWise compliant and offer an Environmental Monitoring Probe to track internal and external temperatures, humidity and contact closure. This information allows you to operate the ePDU up to 50°C to reduce cooling costs. The EMP measures temperatures between 0°C and 80°C (32°F and 176°F) and relative humidity between 10% and 90% and can be located up to 66 feet away from the ePDU with a CAT5 network cable.
eAM001 Advanced Monitored ePDU Specifications:
- Vertical Mounting Style
- RS232 Serial Interface
- 10/100 Ethernet Interface
- Voltage Monitoring
- Input
- Max kW: 5.8
- Plug: L6-30P NEMA L6-30P
- Voltage: 1-Phase 208-240
- Current: 24A
- Outlet Level Current Monitoring
- Frequency: 47-63
- Output Outlets: C13(20) IEC-320-C13, C19(4) IEC-320-C19
- Circuit Breakers: (2) 20A
- Cable Length (ft): 10
- Dimensions (H x W x D): 68 X 2.2 X 2.6 inches
Eaton’s Advanced Monitored ePDU line offers monitoring of the following at the outlet level:
- Root Mean Square (RMS) current
- Power factor
- Maximum and minimum thresholds for current or voltage
- RMS voltage
- Active power
- Apparent power
Installation
Expanding our enterprise testing environment has meant planning for the infrastructure requirements of StorageReview’s growing collection of enterprise gear. The Eaton eAM001 will play an essential role in this process, but in order to power the ePDU itself we had to start by running a dedicated 30A 240v circuit to the lab for the ePDU. The eAM001 ships with an L6-30P NEMA L6-30P plug.
Eaton Advanced Enclosure Power Distribution Unit (ePDU) models are 0U products designed to be mounted vertically inside standard racks. We are mounting the eAM001 inside our 42U Eaton S-Series rack. Eaton has designed their ePDUs to allow three approaches for mounting in a rack cabinet: mounting clip feet secured by cage nuts, keyholes with mounting buttons directly attached to the ePDU, or keyholes with mounting buttons installed on the clip feet.
The ePDU provides serial and ethernet ports for management connectivity. Both ports provide status indicators: green or orange LED states convey the operating condition of a serial- or ethernet-connected ePDU.
The built-in Network Management Card manages up to eight users and one Administrator, offers assigned access rights (Read Only, Read/Write, Read/Write/Control, No Access), and allows users to be assigned to specific outlet groups. Through the management card users can access an on-board webserver, shown above, or interface through Eaton’s Intelligent Power Manager software to monitor all power usage down to the outlet level.
Design and Build
On the front of the unit, outlet number identifications are color coded to match the outlet section to its circuit breaker. Indicator LEDs represent each outlet, which give IT administrators video feedback on if the outlets have power, or if an error condition is present. Dual circuit breakers control the two sections of the eAM001.
The eAM001’s LCD display provides outlet and section current information, voltage, and kilowatt-hour readings. The dual-color display blinks when a system alarm is detected. A three-button interface allows the user to navigate through the menu structure and process basic commands, although the main interface is through the on-board webserver or management software.
Eaton Intelligent Power Manager
Eaton offers two of its own management software packages for the Advanced Monitored line: Intelligent Power Manager and Power Xpert. Intelligent Power Manager provides monitoring and management capabilities across the network and integration with VMware’s vCenter Server and Microsoft SCVMM. Power Xpert is Eaton’s facility enterprise solution, supporting the complete lineup of Eaton’s products and certain third-party products.
Eaton provides an edition of its Intelligent Power Manager with support for up to ten IP addresses as a free download. The IPM can monitor and manage multiple UPS and ePDU devices across the network via web browser or a vCenter or XenCenter dashboard. Eaton IPM is compatible with ESXi, SCVMM, XenCenter, and KVM technologies. Intelligent Power Manager’s shutdown agent management enables safe shutdown of servers including vCenter clusters. The software can also be configured to trigger vMotion, XenMotion and other migration applications to transparently move virtual machines to an available server on the network, maximizing integrity and availability in the event of power disruption.
The Intelligent Power Manager exposes SNMP devices and their web interfaces for editing and configuration, and allows user-definable tree structure for grouping, access, and management of multiple devices. Mass-upgrade features for Eaton firmware simplifies the administration of firmware updates throughout the network.
Availability
The full line of Eaton Advanced Monitored ePDUs are available now. Eaton offers the eAM001, which we reviewed at an MSRP $824.
