Power Management Reporting

Impero’s Power Management feature logs information regarding computer and user usage. You are able to generate reports from these logs, by first opening the ‘Power Management’ feature from the ‘Admin’ toolbar, and then selecting the ‘Reports’ tab.  

1 - Select the Computer Group and date range for the report you wish to generate.

2 - Enter your organisation's energy cost (£ per KWh) and select whether you use a Single Rate or a Double Rate. If you enter a Double Rate, Impero will generate the report based on the times and costs specified here.

3 - Enter your organisation's power usage per PC, when on and when in standby mode. By default Impero loads an average consumption rate here, which you can modify.

4 - If there are specific reports you need to run regularly, these can be saved and reloaded through the 'Saved Report Definitions'. To save a new report, create the 'Report Criteria' and click on the 'Save' button. You will then be prompted to name your report definition. This report will then always be available through the 'Saved Report Definitions' drop-down list when you come to the Reports tab.

Note: To work out the power usage we have to make an estimate of the power used by the average computer. Various sources tell us that it will range from between 60w and 600w which gives us very little information we can use. For this reason we have chosen 180 watts as the average power consumption for a standard computer setup (monitor and all peripherals included). When you produce reports you can change this value but Impero believe that 180watts is a very fair (maybe slightly lower than average) combined power consumption. Also, we have set the 'cost per KWh of electricity' to 15p (in the UK), as of 31st March 2011 the energy prices in the UK stand at approximately 17p (day rate) per KWh. 

By setting the power consumption and cost of electricity to conservative values you can be sure that the potential savings produced in the usage reports will show the MINIMUM saving (you are likely to achieve much higher savings). 

Once you are happy with the criteria you have set up, click the 'Generate Report' button in order to view your results. This may take a short while to load depending on the criteria you have set. When the report has finished compiling, you will be presented with a new window that displays a summary of the generated report. There is also a 'Detailed Breakdown' tab, a 'Usage Analysis' tab, a 'Compare' tab and a 'User Usage' tab across the top of this window for further detail. 

Summary

A - The range of dates you selected in the 'Report Criteria'. Click on one to break down the report per day.

B - Results of the report regarding power usage and cost.

C - Further graphical results are available to view based on the report you generated. By default, this window will automatically scroll through all the available reports one-by-one. Stop the automatic scrolling by clicking the stop icon, and restart it by clicking the play icon.

D - The 'Cost Overview' view is selected in the drop-down list, which displays the cost of power used. Use the slider bar to show how much you could potentially save by shutting down computers after certain amounts of idle time. Unless you have clicked the stop icon, this view will automatically scroll through the different available reports.

E - You are able to export your report to a PDF document.

The 'Summary' tab shows you a report result panel displaying details of the 'Power Usage', 'Power Cost', 'Computer Usage' and 'Idle Time' for the entire date range that you selected. You can break this down by selecting specific dates from the selected range in the left-hand panel.

The bottom panel displays 'Graphical Results' with a number of options that you can select from a drop-down list. The default selection is 'Cost Overview' which shows you the cost of 'Power Used' and 'Power Use (while Idle)'. You can also see a calculation of how much 'Potential saving' you could make by powering down machines after a certain amount of idle time. You can increase/decrease this idle time by using the slider bar, and see a calculation of how much money you could save by powering down idle machines after that amount of time. You can then go back to Power Management and create a policy to shut down machines after a set amount of idle time in order to start saving money. 

There are a number of other options in the 'Graphical Results' drop-down list which will change what you see in the bottom panel. 

Detailed Breakdown

When you click on the 'Detailed Breakdown' tab, by default, the 'All Dates' range is selected in the left-hand panel. In this view, you can then see a list of the computers in the Computer Group with details about that computer usage over the selected date range. If you click on any of the dates in the left-hand panel, you are then able to see some further reporting tools.

A - Select a date from the date range to see further detail on the right-hand side.

B - View a list of all the computers in that Computer Group and their usage on the selected date. Select computers by clicking the checkbox next to them to view a comparison in the panel below, or click on the 'Select All' icon to the left of the 'Export' button.

C - A graphical comparison of Logon Time and Idle Time from the selected computer(s) in the panel above.

Click on the 'Export' button towards the top of the window to export the table (CSV), or the graphical display (JPG), or both (PDF).

Usage Analysis

Selecting the 'Usage Analysis' tab presents you with two further tabs - 'Idle Analysis' and 'Group Utilisation'.

The 'Idle Analysis' tab allows you to specify a 'Start Date' and an 'End Date'; a 'Time Period Start' and 'Time Period End'; and a 'Minimum Hours Idle', so that you can view idle times of computers during specific times, i.e. business hours. You can then see the cost of these computers being idle during certain hours, as well as a graphical view of power usage over that time period.

The 'Group Utilisation' tab allows you to view machine utilisation in specific Computer Groups. You can specify a Computer Group, a 'Start Date' and 'End Date', and a 'Time Period', to see how many machines from that group were used in that time period.

Compare

Select the 'Compare' tab to compare computer usage between specified dates. On the left-hand side of the window, first select the date for which you wish to view usage information for the computers within the group you are reporting from. Then, select the date that you wish to compare this usage against.

The right-hand side of the window will then update to show a list of all computers that have been used on the two selected dates within the group you are reporting from.

If a computer in the list displays in red, it means that the computer was not logged onto on the comparison date. The other columns in the list will display in either red or green to signify whether it was used more or less on the comparison date.

Click on the 'Export' button in order to export this table of information to CSV format.

User Usage

Select the 'User Usage' tab in order to view user login information on specified dates. On the left-hand side of the window, select the date for which you wish to view login information for the computers within the group you are reporting from.

The right-hand side of the window will then update to show a list of all the users that were logged into computers within the selected group, and the amount of time for which those users were active on those computers.

You can expand any of these user entries by clicking the icon to the left of the username to view more detailed login information, such as which computer the user logged into, the time at which the user session began and ended, and the duration for which the user was active.

Click on the 'Export Summary' button in order to export the user logon information to CSV format. Click the 'Export Details' button in order to export the user login information along with the detailed information to CSV format.