Power Management in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 addresses the need that many organizations have to monitor and reduce the power consumption of their computers. The feature takes advantage of the power management features built into Windows to apply relevant and consistent settings to computers in the organization. Different power settings can be applied to computers during business hours and nonbusiness hours. For example, it might be acceptable to apply a more restrictive power plan to computers during nonbusiness hours. In cases where computers must always remain turned on, you can prevent power management settings from being applied.
Power management in Configuration Manager 2012 includes several reports to help you analyze power consumption and computer power settings in your organization. The reports can also be used to help you troubleshoot problems when using power management.
For a detailed workflow about how to configure and use power management, see Administrator Checklist for Power Management in Configuration Manager 2012.
The Power Management Workflow
The following three phases are involved in using power management in Configuration Manager 2012.
Monitoring and Planning Phase
Power Management uses Configuration Manager 2012 hardware inventory to collect information about computer usage and power settings for computers in the site. A number of reports are provided to let you analyze this data and determine optimal power management settings for computers. During the monitoring and planning phase, you also identify computers that are not capable of power management and computers you want to exclude from power management by creating collections based on data returned from the Power Capabilities report
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| Do not apply power plans to computers in your site 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. |
Enforcement Phase
Power management lets you create power plans that can be applied to collections of computers in your site. These power plans configure Windows power management settings on computers. You can use the power plans supplied with Configuration Manager 2012, or you can configure your own custom power plans. You can use the power data collected during the monitoring and planning phase as a baseline to help you evaluate power savings after you apply a power plan to computers. For more information, see Administrator Checklist for Power Management in Configuration Manager 2012.
Compliance Phase
In the compliance phase, you can run reports that help you to evaluate power usage and power cost savings in your organization. You can also run reports that detail improvements to the environmental impact of computers. Reports are also available to help you to validate that power settings were correctly applied to computers and to help you troubleshoot problems with the power management feature.
What’s New in Configuration Manager 2012
The following are new in power management for Configuration Manager 2012:
- If enabled by an administrative user, users
can exclude devices from power management.
- Virtual machines can now be excluded from
power management.
- Power management settings can be copied from
another collection.