Cassatt Active Response Basic Concepts: Standard Edition

Intended for use with Cassatt Active Response V5.0.

Cassatt Active Response Standard Edition is a policy-based software suite that:

• Maintains service levels for your business applications for normal power operations, and
• Reduces data center power consumption by powering servers off when not in use (and back on when needed) using Active Power Management technology.

In this article I'll describe the components that make up Cassatt Active Response Standard Edition and the concepts you'll need to understand as you work with the Cassatt software.

Power management for normal operations

Your baseline, day-to-day power management environment consists of these important elements:

• Tiers – A tier is an organizing mechanism that Cassatt Active Response uses to apply policies to groups of nodes—sometimes nodes that run the same application, or for any other reason are treated as a unit for management purposes.
• Tier requirements – For Standard Edition, tier requirements are simple: the minimum number of nodes needed for the application, the maximum number of nodes available for the application, and the operational target, which defines the day-to-day operational state.

Once your environment is set up, Cassatt Active Response keeps tiers running at their operational targets, replacing failed nodes if replacements are available, and alerting you of any issues. If you want to make changes to your operational baseline, you can manually intervene.

Active Power Management technology

Active Power Management technology introduces configurable power policies based on schedules or on-demand events:

• Scheduled – you can schedule Cassatt Active Response to execute different power policies to accommodate off-peak hours or specific days when machines are not in use. Schedules can be recurring, or can be configured to execute just once.
• On-demand – Cassatt Active Response can monitor external events and execute policies that decrease power based on availability or cost; for example, power incentive programs like Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) provide rebates to companies that can meet negotiated power reductions. Alternatively, you can invoke a policy manually on an immediate basis.

For example, you might create a power policy for Sundays that reduces the tier targets when machines are not in use. You might create another power policy that reduces power by 50%—to achieve a prenegotiated reduction with a utility company (for example, PG&E).

A power policy can have two components:

• Tier settings – define the service levels for each tier when the policy is invoked: on/off, or running at a specified operational target.
• Schedule (optional) – defines the day(s)/time(s) when the policy is automatically invoked. Each policy can have multiple schedules.

Whether or not you define a schedule for a policy, you can execute policies on the fly in the Cassatt Active Response UI.

Users

Cassatt Active Response provides three levels of access with associated responsibilities: tier managers, administrators, and viewers.

• Tier managers – A key feature of Cassatt Active Response is the ability to assign responsibility for tiers to business owners of the applications. In Cassatt Active Response, this role is called a "tier manager." A tier manager might be a system administrator for a company department or an application specialist who is responsible for application uptime and availability. Tier managers can change operational targets for their assigned tiers, as well as choose—in advance or on the fly—whether or not their tiers should participate in scheduled and on-demand power reduction policies. The tier manager role ensures that business needs can supersede power savings when application service is critical.
• Administrators – Administrators are responsible for setting up tiers and configuring power policies and schedules across all the applications under Cassatt Active Response control. Administrators also handle troubleshooting and other nitty gritty tasks like adding and modifying user privileges. If necessary, administrators can override tier manager choices.
• Viewers – Viewers can see Policy Manager information, but cannot make changes to power policies or schedules.

Components

Cassatt Active Response runs on a single server, called a "control node." The control node hosts three different web-based user interfaces that you'll use for different purposes, as shown in the next illustration. Optional Cassatt software for special uses is available in feature packs.

• Cassatt Active Response Controller – Provides your baseline power management environment. This is where you'll arrange your nodes into tiers and specify tier requirements. Only administrators need access to the Controller.
• Cassatt Active Response Policy Manager – You'll use this UI to configure power reduction policies and their associated schedules, and to activate policies on the fly. Tier managers can change participation in policies for their own tiers, as well as set tier operational target values.
• Cassatt Active Response Report Manager – The reporting UI is designed to give executives and data center personnel a month-by-month view into estimated power savings, with summary charts and detailed listings of what was on and what was off and for how long.
• Utility company feature packs – If your company is participating with a utility company rebate or power reduction program, Cassatt may have software that can accept policy activations directly from your power company. See Feature Packs, or check with support@cassatt.com for more information.

Requirements

Implementing Cassatt Active Response Standard Edition does not require any software configuration or recertification, or hardware refresh or upgrade. All you need is the following:

• A single control node installed with Cassatt Active Response software
• Browser access to the Controller, Policy Manager, and Report Manager: IE 6 or above or Mozilla Firefox 1.2 or above with JavaScript 1.2 enabled
• Flash player: required on the client to see graphical displays in the Report Manager
• Application nodes with supported integrated or external power controllers
• Your site requirements for the number of nodes needed for applications to meet their service level agreements
• Your site requirements for scheduled and on-demand power reductions

High-level implementation steps

The following implementation walks through the high-level steps for setting up Cassatt Active Response.

1. Determine the applications/nodes you want to put under Cassatt Active Response management, determine which nodes can be shut down and when, and plan tiers and policies accordingly.
2. Set up a control node and install the Cassatt Active Response software.
3. In the Controller, configure and activate tiers and introduce your nodes.
4. In the Policy Manager, configure your power reduction policies, set up user accounts, and assign tier ownership.

At this point, you're up and running with Cassatt Active Response—without any disruption to your applications. The nodes are under Cassatt Active Response management, which means Cassatt Active Response is managing power on the nodes, and keeping your tiers at their operational targets.

Where to go next?

If you're ready to start implementing Cassatt Active Response, see the Implementation Task Flow: Standard Edition, which provides the detailed steps and links to each document you'll need along the way.

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