Power Management in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 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.

For a detailed workflow about how to configure and use power management, see Administrator Checklist for Power Management.

Note
The information in this topic applies only to Configuration Manager 2007 R3.

The following three phases are involved in using power management in Configuration Manager 2007 R3.

Monitoring and Planning Phase

Power Management extends the hardware inventory of Configuration Manager 2007 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

Important
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 2007 R3, 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.

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.

Click any link in the following section for overview information about power management.

In This Section

About Reports for Power Management

Lists the reports that are available to help you manage power management in Configuration Manager 2007 R3.
About Power Management Plan Settings for Power Management

Provides information about the available power settings that you can include in an Configuration Manager 2007 R3 power plan.
Administrator Checklist for Power Management

Provides a checklist of recommended steps to configure and use power management in Configuration Manager 2007 R3.
Best Practices for Power Management in Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Provides best practices information about implementing power management in Configuration Manager 2007 R3.

See Also