Some information on
how eiPower tracks the power state of computer's and monitor's
The eiPower Saver
Agent records a computer's and monitor's power state by generating a series of
power events. There are 5 different power event types that the eiPower agent
can generate with each type corresponds to a different power state combination of
the computer and monitor. The meaning of these 5 event types are listed below.
Power On (Id : 5)
This event means that
both the computer and monitor(s) are powered On.
Power Off (Id : 4)
This event means that
the computer is powered Off and the monitor is Off (or in Standby depending on
the type of monitor)
Hibernate (Id : 3)
This event means that
the computer is in Hibernate and the monitor is Off (or in Standby depending on
the type of monitor)
Standby (Id : 2)
This event means that
the computer is in Standby and the monitor is in Standby
Monitor (Id : 0)
This event means that
the computer is powered ON and the monitor is in Standby.
Note : There is no Id : 1 event.
The following table
shows a summary of the power states :
Event Type
|
Event Id
|
Computer State
|
Monitor State
|
Power On
|
5
|
On
|
On
|
Power Off
|
4
|
Off
|
Off (or Standby)
|
Hibernate
|
3
|
Hibernate
|
Off (or Standby)
|
Standby
|
2
|
Standby (Sleep)
|
Standby
|
Monitor
|
0
|
On
|
Standby
|
Only these 5 types are necessary as they cover all the meaningful power states of the computer/monitor. Other states not in this list are not possible (or are transient) and hence have no event type. For example, it is not necessary to have an event to represent when the computer is Off and the monitor is On, because when the computer turns off any attached monitors will automatically go into a low power state.
The eiPower agent
generates a power event each time there is a change to the power state, Offsite
state (if enabled) or Battery state of the computer or monitor. The new power event
represents the new power state of the computer/monitor.
Each power event sent
from the eiPower agent has the following attributes :
Attribute
Name
|
Description
|
_ResourceGuid
|
Guid of the computer sending the event
|
Type
|
Id of one of the event types described above
|
Start
|
Date/time when this power event started
|
Time
|
Date/time when the power event ended
|
Duration
|
Duration in seconds of this power event (this just
the difference between the Start and End dates measured in seconds.
|
Offsite
|
If Offsite detection is enabled this indicates whether or not the
computer was Offsite at this time
|
Running On Battery
|
Indicates whether or not the computer was running on
battery at this time
|
eiPower Saver events are stored in the Evt_ei_PowerEvents table.
The agent stores the list
of power events locally and then send them to the SMP server at least once every
24 hours.
In normal operation
the eiPower agent will generate a continuous set of power events without any
gaps or overlaps. That is, the agent will send power events where the Start
date (Start attribute) of each event will be equal to the End date (Time
attribute) of the previous power event. This ensures that we know the power
state of the computer and monitor at all times and can perform our energy
usage, cost and CO2 emissions accurately.
When there are power
events where the event's end date is not equal to the start date of the
previous event we say that we have a gap in the data or unknown period. These
gaps will occur if the eiPower agent service is shutdown or if there is a
problem on the server (such as a licensing error) and the event data is not
being loaded into the CMDB. Gaps will not occur when the computer is allowed to
shutdown normal, however they may occur if the computer shuts down unexpectedly.
Computer Power Events log
To view the Power
events generated by a computer you can right click on the computer and select eiPower
Saver > Power Events Report. This report shows the list of power
events generated by the selected computer over a specified time period.
The Power Events Report will look like the following :
From this report you
can see the changes in the power state of the computer and monitor over time. From
looking at a single event it is only possible to determine what the computer's
and monitor's power state is between the event's start and end times. In order
to see the changes in the computer's and monitor's power states it is necessary to compare each event
with its previous event.
From the events show above
we can deduce the following power state transitions have occurred :
- Computer and monitor are both initially Off
- Computer and monitor are turned On
- Computer and monitor remain On.
Note; not all events represent a transition in state - in some situations events are generated when no power state transition has occurred - this is normal. - Computer and Monitor went into Standby
- Computer woke up but Monitor remained in Standby.
This condition typically occurs when the computer wakes due to a schedule wakeup - rather than a user waking the computer up. - Monitor wakes up
- Computer and Monitor go into standby
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