Managing Power-Save Settings

Dimmer Switch Technology

Powering drives and cooling drives represent a major cost for data centers. The MegaRAID Dimmer Switch (power save) feature set reduces the power consumption of the devices connected to a MegaRAID controller. This helps to share resources more efficiently and lowers the cost.

Dimmer Switch 1 – Spin down unconfigured disks. This feature is configurable and can be disabled.

Dimmer Switch 2 – Spin down hot spares. This feature is configurable and can be disabled.

The RAID controller includes Dimmer Switch technology that conserves energy by placing certain unused drives into Power-Save mode. In Power-Save mode, the drives use less energy, and the fan and the enclosure require less energy to cool and house the drives, respectively. Also, this technology helps avoid application timeouts caused by spin-up delays and drive wear caused by excessive spin-up/down cycles.

Perform the following steps to manage the power-save settings.

1.	In the Controller dashboard, select More Actions > Manage Power Save Settings.

The Manage Power Save Settings dialog appears.

2.	Select the Unconfigured Drives check box to let the controller enable the unconfigured drives to enter the Power-Save mode.

3.	Select the Hot Spare Drives check box to let the controller enable the Hot spare drives to enter the Power-Save mode.

4.	Select the drive standby time using the drop-down list from the Drive standby time: field.

The Drive Standby time: drop-down list is enabled only if any of the check boxes above it are checked. The drive standby time can be 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.30 hours, or 2 hours through 12 hours.

5.	Click Finish to save the settings.

A confirmation message appears.