ML570 redundant power configuration

[Cheah Tat Yeong]

Hi,

I have just taken over a Compaq Proliant ML570 server (Pentium III Xeon 950Mhz). The server comes with 2 power units, presumably one main and the other one is the backup.

However, when I try to remove the power plug to one of the power units (either the main/backup), the server will inadvertantly crashed. At the reboot screen, it displays an error message saying "1615 - Power Supply Configuration Error"

I suspect this is due to redundant power supply settings not being configured properly. However, I could not find where I could modify the settings.

Can anyone shed some light into this? Thanks

[Ruslan]

Hi!

How many power bays in your server? AFAIK in ML570G2 there are 3 power units with 2+1 redundant scheme

[Cheah Tat Yeong]

Hi,

There are 3 power bays, with only 2 power units installed. Does that mean I can't enable redundant power supply with only 2 power units?

[Ruslan]

Cheah, I explain you redundant scheme - 2 PSU it's minimum configuration without redundant. 2+1 = 3 PSU must be installed to provide redundant.

[Cheah Tat Yeong]

Any idea on the rationale behind the design of 2+1 scheme?

All my more recent servers (DL370, DL570 etc) allow power redundancy with just 2 psu.

Seems to me that the only purpose of having more than 1 psu is to achieve redundancy in power supply.

Would appreciate if there's any Compaq documentation on this 2+1 scheme?

Lastly, is there any workaround solution with just 2 psu?

[Basil Vizgin]

The question is in power needed to feed entire system. And there were no mighty power supplies several years ago.
In ML570G1 two 450W Hot Pluggable Power Supplies + one for redundancy (2+1 way).
In ML570G2 -- two 600-Watt Hot Pluggable Power Supplies (additional third for redundancy).
In ML570G2, where used redundancy in 1+1 way, power supplies are 910W or 1300W, so power of one supply is enough for entire system.

Under certain configurations ML570G2 can operate in 1+1 redundancy model using two power supplies. Configurations include servers with two processors and up to 12 drives or up to four processors and 6 drives installed. This assumes all PCI-X slots are fully populated. This mode will need to be set-up through RBSU.

[Cheah Tat Yeong]

Thanks all.

I guess my only option is to get another power units to achieve the redundancy.

[Oleg Koroz]

here is info

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_122821-002_rev3_us/TPM_122821-002_rev3_us.pdf


Page 69
Only one power supply is
required for each single, six-bay drive cage. The power supply must be located in the primary
bay. A second power supply is considered redundant for a single hard drive cage configuration,
but necessary for a two hard drive cage configuration. When two hard drive cages are used, a
third power supply is supported as an option for redundancy.

In some case with one Cage and few CPU you might want to use 220 V insteat 110 V. With two cage Min 2 PSU

[Basil Vizgin]

Yes, in ML570G1 you can use 1 PS with 1 Drive cage (and, AFAIR, even when you order additional drive cage it comes with PS). Thanks, KAV, for reminding:) Almost forgot oldest models:(

[Cheah Tat Yeong]

Thanks.

My server is using 2 HD cage. So I guess 2 power supply units are the minimum requirement.