This administrator checklist provides the recommended steps for using System Center 2012 Configuration Manager power management in your organization.

Configuring Power Management

Use these steps to help you configure your hierarchy to collect power management information from client computers.

Important
Do not apply power plans to computers in your hierarchy until you have collected and analyzed power data from client computers. If you apply new power management settings to computers without first examining the existing settings, this might lead to an increase in power consumption.

Task Details

Review the power management concepts in the Configuration Manager documentation library.

See Introduction to Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Review the power management prerequisites in the Configuration Manager documentation library.

See Prerequisites for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Review the best practices information for power management.

See Best Practices for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Configure the following collections for power management:

  • Collection for reporting of baseline data.

  • Collection of computers to be excluded from power management.

  • Collection of computers incapable of power management.

  • Collections of computers to which power plans will be applied.

  • Collections of computers that are running Windows Server.

Use the collections listed to help you manage power settings for computers in your hierarchy. You can create multiple collections and apply different power plans to each collection.

Enable power management.

Before you can begin to use power management, you must enable it and configure the required client settings. For more information, see Configuring Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Collect power management information from client computers.

Power management data is reported by clients through Configuration Manager hardware inventory. Depending on the hardware inventory schedule that you have configured, it might take some time to retrieve inventory from all client computers.

Monitoring and Planning Phase

Task Details

Run the report Computer Activity.

The Computer Activity report displays a graph showing monitor, computer, and user activity for a specified collection over a specified time period. This report links to the Computer Activity Details report which displays the sleep and wake capabilities of computers in the specified collection. For more information, see Computer Activity Report and Computer Activity Details Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Energy Consumption or Energy Consumption by Day.

The Energy Consumption and Energy Consumption by Day reports display the total monthly power consumption in kilowatt per hour (kWh) for a specified collection over a specified time period. For more information, see Energy Consumption Report and Energy Consumption by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Environmental Impact or Environmental Impact by Day.

The Environmental Impact and Environmental Impact by Day reports display a graph showing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions saved by a specified collection of computers for a specified period of time. For more information, see Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Energy Cost or Energy Cost by Day.

The Energy Cost and Energy Cost by Day reports display the total power consumption cost for a specified period of time. For more information, see Energy Cost Report and Energy Cost by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Power Capabilities.

The Power Capabilities report displays the power management capabilities of computers in the specified collection. For more information, see Power Capabilities Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Power Settings.

The Power Settings report displays an aggregated list of the current power settings used by computers in a specified collection. For more information, see Power Settings Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager..

Exclude any required collections of computers from power management.

See Configuring Power Management in Configuration Manager.
Important
Ensure that you save the information from power management reports generated during the monitoring and planning phase. You can compare this data to power management information generated during the enforcement and compliance phases to help you evaluate, the power usage, power cost and environmental impact savings from applying a power plan to computers in your hierarchy.

Enforcement Phase

Task Details

Select existing power plans or create new power plans for collections of computers in your organization.

See How to Create and Apply Power Plans in Configuration Manager.

Apply these power plans to computers.

See How to Create and Apply Power Plans in Configuration Manager.

Compliance Phase

Task Details

Run the report Computer Activity.

The Computer Activity report displays a graph showing monitor, computer, and user activity for a specified collection over a specified time period. This report links to the Power Computer Activity Details report which displays the sleep and wake capabilities of computers in the specified collection. For more information, see Computer Activity Report and Computer Activity Details Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Energy Consumption or Energy Consumption by Day.

The Energy Consumption and Energy Consumption by Day reports display the total monthly power consumption in kilowatt per hour (kWh) for a specified collection over a specified time period. For more information, see Energy Consumption Report and Energy Consumption by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Environmental Impact or Environmental Impact by Day.

The Environmental Impact and Environmental Impact by Day reports display a graph showing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions saved by a specified collection of computers for a specified period of time. For more information, see Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Run the report Energy Cost or Energy Cost by Day.

The Energy Cost and Energy Cost by Day reports display the total power consumption cost for a specified period of time. For more information, see Energy Cost Report and Energy Cost by Day Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

Troubleshooting

Use these steps to help you troubleshoot problems with power management.

Task Details

If computers in your hierarchy have not entered sleep or hibernate, run the report Insomnia Report to display possible causes.

The Insomnia Report displays a list of common causes that prevented computers from entering sleep or hibernate and the number of computers affected by each cause for a specified time period. For more information, see Insomnia Report in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

If multiple power plans are applied to one computer, then the least restrictive power plan is applied. Run the report Computers with Multiple Power Plans to see computers with multiple power plans applied.

See Computers with Multiple Power Plans in the topic How to Monitor and Plan for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

See Also