Raritan PDU Integration with RF Code

Raritan and RF Code, Inc. have jointly integrated Raritan intelligent rack PDUs with RF Code’s wire-free monitoring solution. The combined wire-free energy management solution is comprised of RF Code active RFID hardware and management software and Raritan’s “RF Code Ready” PX family of rack PDUs that uniquely measure and monitor power usage of individual servers and other IT devices.

Raritan Overview

Raritan is a proven innovator of power management, infrastructure management, KVM and serial solutions for data centers of all sizes. In more than 50,000 locations worldwide, Raritan's award-winning hardware and software solutions -- including intelligent PDUs, energy management software, KVM-over-IP and Serial-over-IP access products -- provide IT and facility directors, managers and administrators with the control they need to increase power management efficiency, improve data center productivity and enhance branch office operations. Based in Somerset, N.J., Raritan has offices worldwide serving 76 countries. For more information, visit Raritan.com. Raritan is an active member of the Green Grid, Climate Savers Computing Initiative, and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design associations. The company has been recognized by the EPA for its contribution to the agency's data center initiative.

Integration Details

The new RF Code R170 PDU Tag for Raritan plugs into a dedicated port on Raritan's latest-generation Dominion PX rack PDUs -- including switched, outlet-level metered and line-level metered PDUs. The sensor tag collects power data from the PDU and then transmits that data to an RF Code reader using a patented radio frequency protocol. Data collected includes RMS current, RMS voltage, active power, apparent power and breaker status. The data is sent to RF Code’s Sensor Manager software -- which not only manages the captured information, but makes additional computations about power usage gleaned from the data it has collected. This provides the customer with a complete picture of power utilization.

The available power information from the joint solution includes:

Main PDU Data:
- PDU Model
- PDU Disconnected
- PDU Serial Number
- PDU Active Power
- PDU Apparent Power
- PDU Total Active Power Used
- PDU Total Apparent Power Used
- PDU Total Power Start Time
PDU Phase Data:
- Phase Active Power
- Phase Amperage
- Phase Apparent Power
- Phase Power Factor
- Phase Total Active Power Used
- Phase Total Apparent Power Used
- Phase Total Power Start Time
- Phase Voltage (L-L)
- Phase Voltage (L-N)
PDU Outlet Data:
- Outlet Active Power
- Outlet Amperage
- Outlet Apparent Power
- Outlet Total Active Power Used
- Outlet Total Apparent Power Used
- Outlet Total Power Start Time
- Outlet Voltage
PDU Breaker Data:
- Breaker Amperage
- Breaker Tripped

Customers can manage and access the power usage data using the following features in RF Code’s Sensor Manager software:

Live table views
Map views
Interactive graphing and reporting
Scheduled graphing and reporting
Alerting and thresholding

The easy-to-deploy wire-free RF Code/Raritan solution enables IT racks to be instrumented quickly for power monitoring at the device level, and eliminates the time and cost associated with wired Ethernet connections that can be expensive. Deploying the joint solution simply involves plugging an RF Code sensor tag into a Raritan PDU. No IP address association, configuration or IP address maintenance is involved. Instead, the RF Code wire-free sensor tag starts directly capturing power monitoring data from the Raritan PDU and then sends that data over the air via the RF Code active RFID infrastructure — from tag to reader to management software.