ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements
Product Specification forComputer Servers
Draft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012

11 OVERVIEW

234The following test method shall be used for determining compliance with requirements in the ENERGYSTAR Product Specification for Computer Servers, and when acquiring test data for reporting of Full Loadpower on the ENERGY STAR Power and Performance Data Sheet.

52 APPLICABILITY

67

The following test method is applicable to all products eligible for qualification under the ENERGY STAR
Product Specification for Computer Servers.

83 DEFINITIONS

910Unless otherwise specified, all terms used in this document are consistent with the definitions containedin the ENERGY STAR Product Specification for Computer Servers.

114 TEST SETUP

1213A) Input Power: Input power shall be as specified in Table 1 and Table 2. The frequency for input power
shall be as specified in Table 3.

1415Table 1: Input Power Requirements for Products with Nameplate Rated Power Less Than orEqual to 1500 W
Product TypeSupply Voltage

Servers with Ac-Dc
Single-Output Power
Supply Units (PSUs)

230 V acServers with Ac-Dc
Multi-Output PSUs

230 V ac and/or 115 V ac

Optional Testing
Conditions For Ac-Dc
Japanese Market

100 V ac

VoltageTolerance

Maximum Total
HarmonicDistortion+/- 1.0 %2.0 %ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Computer Servers – Draft 3 Test Method (Rev. Aug-2012)

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ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements
Product Specification for
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Draft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012
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Table 2: Input Power Requirements for Products with Nameplate Rated Power Greater Than
1500 W
Product TypeSupply Voltage

Servers with Ac-Dc
Single-Output PSUs

230 V acServers with Ac-Dc
Multi-Output PSUs

230 V ac and/or 115 V ac

Optional TestingConditions For Ac-Dc
Japanese Market

100 V ac

VoltageTolerance

Maximum Total
Harmonic Distortion+/- 4.0 %

5.0 %

18
Note: DOE has removed dc Server Input Power Requirements from Table 1 and Table 2 since dc Server
testing is not currently available with SERT.
In addition, DOE requests stakeholder feedback on incorporating testing for Servers that operate on threephase power, prior to the finalization of Version 2.0, specifically, information on operating voltage andpower range for three phase powered servers.
19Table 3: Input Frequency Requirements for All Products
Supply Voltage

Frequency

100 V ac

50 Hz

115 V ac

60 Hz230 V ac50 Hz or 60 Hz

Frequency
Tolerance±1.0%202122B) Ambient Temperature: Ambient temperature shall be no less than 18 °C and no greater than 28 °C
over the duration of the test.

23C) Relative Humidity: Relative humidity shall be within 15% and 80%.

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ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements
Product Specification forComputer Servers
Draft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012
242526D) Power Meter: The power meter shall report true Root Mean Square (RMS) power and at least two ofthe following measurement units: voltage, current and power factor. Power meters shall possess thefollowing attributes:

2728291) Calibration: The meter shall have been calibrated within a year of the test date, by a standard
traceable to National Institute of Science and Technology (USA) or a counterpart national
metrology institute in other countries.

303132332) Crest Factor: An available current crest factor of 3 or more at its rated range value. For analyzers
that do not specify the current crest factor, the analyzer must be capable of measuring anamperage spike of at least 3 times the maximum amperage measured during any 1 secondsample.

343) Minimum Frequency Response: 3.0 kHz.

354) Minimum Resolution:36a) 0.01 W for measurement values less than 10 W;37b) 0.1 W for measurement values from 10 W to 100 W; and38c) 1.0 W for measurement values greater than 100 W.

39404142435) Logging: The reading rate supported by the meter shall be at least 1 set of measurements persecond, where set is defined as a power measurement, in watts. The data averaging interval ofthe analyzer shall equal the reading interval. Data averaging interval is defined as the time period
over which all samples captured by the high-speed sampling electronics of the analyzer are
averaged to provide the measurement set.

44456) Measurement Accuracy: Measurement uncertainty as introduced by the instrument that measures
the input power to the product under test, including any external shunts.

4647a) Power measurements with a value greater than or equal to 0.5 W shall be made with anuncertainty of less than or equal to 2% at the 95% confidence level.

4849b) Power measurements with a value less than 0.5 W shall be made with an uncertainty of lessthan or equal to 0.01 W at the 95% confidence level.

50E) Temperature Sensor: The temperature sensor shall possess the following attributes:511) Logging: The sensor shall have a minimum reading rate of 4 samples per minute.

5253542) Measurement Accuracy: Temperature must be measured no more than 50mm in front of (upwindof) the main airflow inlet of the UUT and reported by the sensor with an overall accuracy of± 0.5 °C or better.

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Product Specification forComputer ServersDraft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012
55

5 TEST CONDUCT

56

5.1 Active Mode Efficiency Test Configuration

57
58

Power and efficiency must be tested and reported for the computer servers being tested. Testing shall be
conducted as follows:

596061A) As-shipped Condition: Products shall be tested in their “as-shipped” configuration, which includes
both hardware configuration and system settings, unless otherwise specified in this test method.
Where relevant, all software options shall be set to their default condition.

62636465B) Measurement Location: All power measurements shall be taken at a point between the ac powersource and the unit under test (UUT). No Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units may beconnected between the power meter and the UUT. The power meter shall remain in place until all Idle
and full load power data are fully recorded.

6667C) Purposefully directing air flow in the vicinity of the measured equipment in a way that would beinconsistent with normal data center practices is not allowed.

68D) Power Supplies: All power supply units (PSUs) must be connected and operational.

6970717273741) UUTs with Multiple PSUs: All power supplies must be connected to the ac power source andoperational during the test. If necessary, a Power Distribution Unit (PDU) may be used to connect
multiple power supplies to a single source. If a PDU is used, any overhead electrical use from thePDU shall be included in the power measurement of the UUT. When testing blade servers withhalf-populated chassis configurations, the power supplies for the unpopulated power domains canbe disconnected.

7576777879808182E) Power Management and Operating System: The as-shipped operating system or a representative
operating system must be installed. Products that are shipped without operating systems must betested with any compatible operating system installed. For all tests, manufacturers must ensure that
only the power management techniques and/or power saving features which are enabled on
shipment are those enabled on the UUT. Any power management features which require thepresence of an operating system (i.e. those that are not explicitly controlled by the Basic Input Output
System (BIOS) or management controller) must be tested using only those power management
features enabled by the operating system by default.

838485868788F) Storage: Products shall be tested for qualification with at least one Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or one
Solid State Drive (SSD) installed. Products that do not include pre-installed hard drives (HDD or SSD)
must be tested using a configuration that is identical in all respects with the exception of at least one
installed hard drive available for sale with the product. Products that do not support installation ofhard drives (HDD or SDD) and instead rely exclusively on external storage solutions (e.g. storagearea network) shall be tested using external storage solutions.

8990G) Blade and Dual/Multi-Node Servers: A Blade or Dual/Multi-Node Server must have identicalconfigurations for each node or blade including all hardware components and software/power

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ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements
Product Specification forComputer Servers
Draft 3 Test MethodRev. Aug-2012
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management settings. These systems must also be measured in a way to ensure that all power fromall tested nodes/blades is being captured by the power meter during the entire test.

939495H) Blade Chassis: The blade chassis, at a minimum, shall have power, cooling and networking
capabilities for all the blade servers. The chassis shall be populated as specified in section 5.2 C). Allpower measurements for blades shall be made at the input of the chassis.

9697I)

9899100101102103J) I/O and Network Connection: The UUT must have at least one port connected to an Ethernet network
switch. The switch shall be capable of supporting the UUT’s highest and lowest rated network
speeds. The network connection must be live during all tests, and, although the link must be readyand able to transmit packets, no specific traffic is required over the connection during testing. The
UUT shall be set up with minimal I/O add-in cards; for testing, ensure the server offers at least one
Ethernet port (using a single add-in card only if no onboard Ethernet support is offered).

1041051061071) Ethernet Connections: Products shipped with support for Energy Efficient Ethernet (compliantwith IEEE 802.3az) shall be connected only to Energy Efficient Ethernet compliant network
equipment during testing. Appropriate measures shall be taken to enable EEE features on bothends of the network link during all tests.

BIOS and UUT System Settings: All BIOS settings shall remain as-shipped unless otherwise
specified in the test method.

108

5.2 UUT Preparation

109

Computer Server power and efficiency must be determined and reported under the following conditions:110111112113A) Record the UUT manufacturer, model name, and configuration details, including, but not limited to:operating system name and version, processor type and speed, installed power supplies, physicalmemory, hard drive configuration, installed I/O devices, power management features enabled.
Record nameplate power ratings.

1141) When testing a blade server, also record the blade chassis model.

115
116

Note: For qualification, the ENERGY STAR Specification requires that the UUT be tested with all
available processor sockets populated.

117
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B) Install the UUT in a test rack or location. The UUT shall not be physically moved until testing iscomplete.

119120121C) If the UUT is a blade system, the UUT shall be tested for per blade power consumption in the halfchassis configuration with an additional option of testing the UUT in the full chassis configuration. For
blade systems, populate the chassis as follows:
Note: Due to high cost burden and stakeholder feedback, DOE has made full blade chassis testing
optional. As such, DOE has modified the language to specify that per blade power values shall be testedand reported in the half chassis configuration.

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ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements
Product Specification forComputer Servers
Draft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012
1221231) All blade servers installed in the chassis must be identical, sharing the same configuration(homogeneous).

1242) Full Chassis Population (Optional)

125126127a) Populate all available chassis bays. All power supplies and cooling fans shall be connected.
Proceed with all required tests in the test procedure.
3) Half Chassis Population (Required)128a) Populate half of the available chassis bays.

129
130131b) Follow all user manual recommendations for partially populating the chassis, which may
include disconnecting some of the power supplies and cooling fans for the unpopulated
power domains.

132133c) If user manual recommendations are not available or are incomplete, then use the following
guidance:

134

i.

When loading blades, completely populate one power domain of the chassis at a time.

135

ii.

For partially-populated power domains, place the blades from the center outward.

136
137
138

iii. If possible, disconnect the power supplies and cooling fans for the unpopulated power
domain. Do not remove any power supplies or cooling fans used for chassis functions orredundancy for a populated power domain.

139
140

iv. Fill all empty bays with blanking panels or an equivalent airflow restriction for the durationof testing.

141
142
143
144145D) Connect the UUT to a live Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) network switch. The live connection must be
maintained for the duration of testing, except for brief lapses necessary for transitioning between linkspeeds. If a controller system is required to provide workload harness control, data acquisition, orother UUT testing support, the controller system shall be connected to the same network switch as
the UUT and satisfy all other UUT network requirements.

146147E) Connect the power meter to an ac voltage source set to the appropriate voltage and frequency for thetest as specified in Section 4 of this test method.

148F) Plug the UUT into the measurement power outlet on the power meter, using the following guidelines:

1491) No UPS units shall be connected between the power meter and the UUT;

1502) The power meter shall remain connected until all testing is complete;1511523) When testing a blade system, power shall be measured at the input of the blade chassis (i.e., atthe power supplies that convert data center distribution power to chassis distribution power);

1531544) If a controller system is being used, connect the data output interface of the power meter to theappropriate input of the controller system.

155G) Verify that the UUT is configured in its as–shipped configuration.
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Rev. Aug-2012
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157

H) Install manufacturer specified workload software on the UUT. Record the installed workload andconfiguration, including any custom parameters or settings.

158

I)

159

6 TEST PROCEDURES FOR ALL PRODUCTS

160

6.1 Power and Efficiency Testing161A) Power on the UUT, either by switching it on or connecting it to mains power.

162B) If necessary, power on the controller system.

163C) Begin recording elapsed time.

164
165

D) Between 5 and 15 minutes after the completion of initial boot or log in, set the power meter to begin
accumulating power values at an interval of greater than or equal to 1 reading per second.

166
167

1) When testing using a controller system, the controller system may automate data accumulation
and benchmark workload operation provided the measurement interval requirements are met.

168

Record the input voltage and frequency.

E) Idle power measurement can be performed one of two ways:

169

1) Automatic idle measurement: The workload automates the measurement of Idle power.

170
171
172

2) Manual idle measurement: Accumulate Idle power values for 5 minutes before engaging theworkload. The UUT must maintain an Idle state throughout this period and must not enter lower
power states with limited functionality (e.g., server sleep or hibernate states).
Note: DOE received a stakeholder comment that memory scrubbing, a maintenance function on
Computer Servers, is triggered on regular intervals during idle mode operating periods. The initiation of amemory scrubbing cycle results in an increase in the server’s idle mode power consumption as a result ofmoving the server out of idle state into an active state of operation.
DOE is looking for additional feedback from stakeholders on memory scrubbing and any othermaintenance cycles initiated during idle mode operation and their effects on idle mode power
consumption of servers. Specifically, DOE is requesting feedback on the duration, the frequency, anddata showing the difference in power consumption values of these types of maintenance cycles.

173F) Engage workload operation.

174

G) Record the following data at the end of workload operation:

175

1) Average Idle power (arithmetic mean) during the automated Idle state period; or176

2) Average Idle power (arithmetic mean) during the 5 minute test period.

177178179H) Record On Mode power averaged over the workload duration. If the workload is composed ofdifferent worklets stressing different functionalities, then the average power for each worklet shall bereported.

180I)

When testing a Blade System, proceed as follows to derive single blade power:

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Product Specification forComputer ServersDraft 3 Test Method
Rev. Aug-2012
1811) Divide the measured total power by the number of blades installed during the test;

182

2) Record the per-blade power values for each measurement and the measured total power.

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