Remote Power Switches

The RPS offers the following benefits:

• Improve administrative efficiencies with integrated multi-outlet power control, all from a single vendor
• Increase uptime
• Maintain Business Continuity
• Proactively identify and manage problems to improve mean time between failure (MTBF)
• Restore IT assets without dispatching service personnel to remote Data Centers

Complex IT infrastructure server platforms such as Windows 2003, networking and telecom equipment are sometimes prone to entering states that are not recoverable through normal remote administrative commands even at the BIOS level. The last resort activity is a hard reboot, which requires the administrator to physically power cycle the equipment. This is not only an inconvenience to the administrator, especially if it is remotely located or if it happens in the middle of the night, which lengthens the downtime,disrupts business continuity and increases service costs.

The Perle RPS, an intelligent power switch located near the equipment, can remotely power cycle the equipment to restore functionality resulting in decrease risks by reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR).

Integrated Management with Perle IOLAN Console Servers

When used with our IOLAN console servers, Perle Remote Power Switches form an integral part of a total Data Center management solution. Remote power management of equipment takes advantage of the extensive security such as SSH/SSL encryption, RADIUS, TACACS, Kerberos, LDAP, NIS and SecurID authentication schemes provided by IOLAN console servers.
Through a power hot-key tool on the IOLAN, administrators can power cycle equipment while they are still in their serial console session, enabling them to monitor equipment start-up messages as it is restored.

Features - Remote Power Switch

• Independent Control of Power Ports
  Each AC power plug can be independently powered on, off or cycled giving complete control over when and in which sequence equipment is restored.
• Dual AC Power Bus Architecture
  Perle RPS models are the only remote power switches with a dual AC Power bus architecture providing better equipment protection than single power bus systems.
  When used with redundant power systems such as the Dell Poweredge 6850, Perle's Remote Power Switches are able to draw power from separate AC sources ensuring that at least one source of AC power is always up and running thereby maximizing equipment uptime.
  Both power buses are protected by separate breakers. If a breaker does trip, only the associated bus will be turned off, leaving the other bus operational. Single bus power switches that come with single or dual breaker systems will shut down the entire power switch when there is a breaker-tripping event.
• Horizontal Form Factor Models with NEMA or IEC Plug standards
  Perle Remote Power Switches are available in a configuration to meet your data center power needs.Various models are available in horizontal (1U or 2U) form factors as well a choice of North American NEMA or international IEC power plug standards
• Emergency Manual Power Switch
  This gives an IT administrator in the vicinity the ability to power on or off the switch in an emergency. Other vendors require the unplugging of power input cords which would cause potentially dangerous arcing or having run to the main power panel to trip a breaker.

Ping Probe Watchdog

In remote branch locations, it is imperative that IT equipment remain up and running at all times. This could be a local file server, POS, accounting ,CRM or an ERP system. A simple tool exists to test the availability of ethernet based equipment called a PING probe which are standards-based ICMP echo request packets. If a device does not respond in a timely fashion to a PING probe sent to its ethernet port, there is a good chance that the equipment has failed. Resolution and recovery can be made through access by administrators via an Out-of-Band connection to its RS232 or USB console port, or an automated watchdog device can monitor and then take corrective action as soon as a problem occures.

Perle IOLAN’s in conjunction with attached Perle RPS remote power switches can automatically power cycle equipment when the target Ethernet device fails to respond to periodic PING probes from the IOLAN.