ID 440
White Paper
Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and
Thermal Metrics
Abstract
Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers with iDRAC9 4.x Datacenter streams data to help IT
administrators better understand the inner workings of their server environment. This
white paper explains how to use the Telemetry Power and Thermal reports for
monitoring and creating graphs for PowerEdge server power and thermal subsystems.
August 2020
Revisions
2 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
Revisions
Date
Description
August 2020
Initial release
Acknowledgments
Authors: Sankara Gara, Cyril Jose, Sailaja, Sankunny
The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this
publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.
Copyright © 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its
subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. [8/19/2020] [White Paper] [ID 440]
Table of contents
3 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
Table of contents
Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Table of contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 4
1 Telemetry Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Terms and Definitions ......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Power Subsystem Telemetry ....................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 PowerMetrics ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 PowerStatistics ................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 PSUMetrics ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
2.4 Triggers ............................................................................................................................................................... 7
2.5 Workflow Example Power Monitoring ................................................................................................................. 7
3 Thermal Subsystem Telemetry .................................................................................................................................. 10
3.1 ThermalMetrics ................................................................................................................................................. 10
3.2 Temperature Sensors ....................................................................................................................................... 10
3.2.1 CPUSensor ....................................................................................................................................................... 10
3.2.2 MemorySensor ................................................................................................................................................. 10
3.2.3 FCSensor .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
3.2.4 NICSensor ........................................................................................................................................................ 11
3.2.5 StorageSensor .................................................................................................................................................. 11
3.2.6 ThermalSensor ................................................................................................................................................. 11
3.3 Triggers ............................................................................................................................................................. 11
3.4 Workflow Example Thermal Monitoring ............................................................................................................ 12
A Technical support and resources ............................................................................................................................... 16
Executive summary
4 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
Executive summary
Beginning with iDRAC9 v4.00.00.00 firmware and a Datacenter license, IT managers can integrate advanced server
hardware operation telemetry into their existing analytics solutions. Telemetry is provided as granular, timeseries data that
is streamed, or pushed, compared to inefficient, legacy polling, or pulled, methods. The advanced agent-free architecture
in iDRAC9 provides over 180 data metrics that are related to server and peripherals operations. Metrics are precisely
timestamped and internally buffered to allow highly efficient data stream collection and processing with minimal network
loading. This comprehensive telemetry can be fed into analytics tools to predict failure events, optimize server operation,
and enhance cyber resiliency.
The iDRAC9 Telemetry Streaming collects and streams live system data from one or more PowerEdge servers to a
centralized collector. The focus of this paper is the Power and Thermal Telemetry reports, which include metrics,
statistics, and sensor data. It also describes how the reports can be triggered with associated triggers.
Telemetry Power and Thermal Reports
For details about how to configure and get started with Telemetry, see the white paper - “Telemetry Getting
Started.”
Telemetry Overview
5 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
1 Telemetry Overview
1.1 Terms and Definitions
Telemetry: Telemetry is an automated communications process by which measurements and other data are
collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring
.
Telemetry Report: Telemetry (Metric) Report is a DMTF Telemetry specification-compliant JSON document
that consists of Metric names, Metric values, and Timestamps.
SSE: Server-Sent Events allow for a client to open a connection with a web service. The web service can
continuously push data to the client as needed.
Remote Syslog (Rsyslog): Remote Syslog uses the basic syslog protocol along with rich content-based
filtering and flexible configuration options.
1.2 Prerequisites
The Telemetry feature is available on iDRAC9 firmware version 4.00.00.00 or above with Datacenter license
installed.
Power Subsystem Telemetry
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2 Power Subsystem Telemetry
This section describes metrics in the power subsystem telemetry reports and workflows to use the reports to
generate useful insights.
2.1 PowerMetrics
Following metrics are in the PowerMetric report.
Metric
Description
TotalCPUPower
Overall CPU power consumption
TotalMemoryPower
Overall memory power consumption
TotalStoragePower
Overall Storage power consumption
TotalFanPower
Overall Fan power consumption
TotalPciePower
Overall PCIe power consumption
SystemInputPower
Current System Input Power
SystemOutputPower
Current System Output Power
SystemPowerConsumption
Present system power consumption
SystemHeadRoomInstantaneous
The difference between the power budget maximum power
consumption limit and the system current power consumption
2.2 PowerStatistics
Following metrics are in the PowerStatistics report.
Metric
Description
LastDayAvgPower
Last Day Average Power
LastDayMaxPower
Last Day Max Power
LastDayMaxPowerTime
Last Day Max Power Time
LastDayMinPower
Last Day Min Power
LastDayMinPowerTime
Last Day Min Power Time
LastHourAvgPower
Last Hour Average Power
LastHourMaxPower
Last Hour Max Power
LastHourMaxPowerTime
Last Hour Max Power Time
LastHourMinPower
Last Hour Min Power
LastHourMinPowerTime
Last Hour Min Power Tim
LastMinuteAvgPower
Last Minute Average Power
LastMinuteMaxPower
Last Minute Max Power
LastMinuteMaxPowerTime
Last Minute Max Power Time
LastMinuteMinPower
Last Minute Min Power
LastMinuteMinPowerTime
Last Minute Min Power Time
LastWeekAvgPower
Last Week Average Power
LastWeekMaxPower
Last Week Max Power
LastWeekMaxPowerTime
Last Week Max Power Time
LastWeekMinPower
Last Week Min Power
LastWeekMinPowerTime
Last Week Min Power Time
Power Subsystem Telemetry
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2.3 PSUMetrics
Following metrics are in the PSUMetrics report.
Metric
Description
FanSpeed
PSU fan speed in RPM
Temperature
PSU Temperature
2.4 Triggers
Telemetry reports can be configured to stream automatically on the event of selected triggers at the server.
ReportsReports are sent across all active Subscription, SSE, Rsyslog connections.
Report
Trigger
PSUMetrics
VLTCriticalTrigger - active when any of the voltage threshold crossing
LCL events are generated.
PowerMetrics
None
PowerStatistics
None
2.5 Workflow Example Power Monitoring
iDRAC telemetry feature for downstream analytics and visualization by plotting streamed metric values for
gaining useful insights
A time lapse Grafana plot of fan, cpu, and storage power consumption from PowerMetric report
Power Subsystem Telemetry
8 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
A time lapse Grafana plot of last hour, min, max, and average power consumption from the
PowerStatistics report
A time lapse Grafana plot of PSU Fan Speed from PSUMetrics report
Power Subsystem Telemetry
9 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
A time lapse Grafana plot of PSU temperature from PSUMetrics report
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
10 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
3 Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
This section describes metrics in the thermal subsystem telemetry reports and workflows to use the reports to
generate useful insights.
3.1 ThermalMetrics
Following are the metrics in the ThermalMetrics report.
Metric
Description
ComputePower
Compute power that is not wasted
ITUE
The power utilization efficiency is expressed as the ratio of total system
power to compute power.
PowerToCoolRatio
Fan Power over system power ratio (PCTR)
PSUEfficiency
PSU efficiency in percentage
SysAirFlowEfficiency
System airflow efficiency metric (SAFE)
SysAirflowPerFanPower
System airflow per unit of system fan power consumption
SysAirflowPerSysInputPower
System airflow per unit of system input [DC] power consumption
SysAirflowUtilization
Specifies the system airflow utilization (CFM/Max CFM). CFM (cubic
feet per min)
SysNetAirflow
System net airflow
SysRackTempDelta
Temperature difference between exhaust air and inlet air temperature
of the server
TotalPSUHeatDissipation
Heat that is dissipated from the PSU as a result of its inefficiency.
3.2 Temperature Sensors
The following sensor reports include temperature reading.
3.2.1 CPUSensor
The following metric is in the CPUSensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
CPU temperature
3.2.2 MemorySensor
The following metric is in the MemorySensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
DIMM temperature
3.2.3 FCSensor
The following metric is in the FCSensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
FibreChannel ASIC temperature
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
11 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
3.2.4 NICSensor
The following metric is in the NICSensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
NIC ASIC temperature
3.2.5 StorageSensor
The following metric is in the StorageSensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
Temperature information for the storage internal drives (PCIeSSD/NVMe
devices (drives and HHHL cards) SAS/SATA HDD/SSD drives behind PERC,
BOSS M.2 drives, and SATA HDD/SSD behind a SWRAID controller).
3.2.6 ThermalSensor
Following are the metrics in the ThermalSensor report.
Metric
Description
TemperatureReading
System board ambient temperature
3.3 Triggers
Telemetry reports can be configured to stream automatically on the event of selected triggers at the server.
Reports are sent across all active Subscription, SSE, Rsyslog connections.
Report
Trigger
ThermalMetrics
TMPDiskCriticalTrigger, TMPDiskWarnTrigger, TMPCriticalTrigger,
TMPWarnTrigger - active when any of the temperature thresholds crossing
critical or warning LCL events are generated.
ThermalSensor
TMPCriticalTrigger, TMPWarnTrigger - active when any of the temperature
thresholds crossing critical or warning LCL events are generated.
CPUSensor
CPUCriticalTrigger, CPUWarnTrigger, TMPCpuCriticalTrigger,
TMPCpuWarnTrigger - active when any of the CPU thresholds crossing critical
or warning LCL events are generated.
MemorySensor
MEMCriticalTrigger, MEMWarnTrigger - active when any of the memory
thresholds crossing critical or warning LCL events are generated.
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
12 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
3.4 Workflow Example Thermal Monitoring
A time lapse Grafana plot of Compute Power from ThermalMetrics report
A time lapse Grafana plot of Airflows from ThermalMetrics report
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
13 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
A time lapse Grafana plot of PowerToCool from ThermalMetrics report
A time lapse Grafana plot of Exhaust Temperature from ThermalSensor report
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
14 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
A time lapse Grafana plot of Exhaust Temperature from StorageSensor report
A time lapse Grafana plot of Exhaust Temperature from CPUSensor report
Thermal Subsystem Telemetry
15 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
Figure 12. A time lapse Grafana plot of Exhaust Temperature from MemorySensor report
Figure 13. A time lapse Grafana plot of Exhaust Temperature from NICSensor report
Technical support and resources
16 Telemetry Streaming with iDRAC9 - Power and Thermal Metrics | ID 440
A Technical support and resources
iDRAC Telemetry Workflow examples
https://github.com/dell/iDRAC-Telemetry-Scripting/
Open-source iDRAC REST API with Redfish Python and PowerShell examples.
https://github.com/dell/iDRAC-Redfish-Scripting
The iDRAC support home page provides access to product documents, technical white papers, how-to
videos, and more.
www.dell.com/support/idrac
iDRAC User Guide and other manuals
www.dell.com/idracmanuals
Dell Technical Support
www.Dell.com/support
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