---
title: "Our Energy Saving Server Farm"
date: 2013-03-01T06:56:49+00:00
author: "poornerd"
tags: ["esxi", "macmini", "vmware"]
canonical: https://www.poornerd.com/2013/03/01/our-energy-saving-server-farm/
source: Raw Markdown twin of the HTML article; content is the original source.
---
Ok, so 3 VMWare ESXi Servers running 20-30 Virtual Machines only slightly qualifies as a &#8220;Server Farm&#8221;, but we will be saving a ton of electricity (sorry <a href="http://www.swm.de/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.swm.de');" target="_blank">Stadtwerke München</a> ) at <a href="http://www.siteforce.de" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.siteforce.de');" target="_blank">SiteForce</a>.

**[<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-213" alt="IMG_8056" src="https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8056.jpg" width="640" height="480" srcset="https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8056.jpg 640w, https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8056-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />](https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8056.jpg)Our new setup:**

  * <span style="line-height: 13px;">3 Mac Mini Server 2,0 GHz Quad Core with 16 GB each running VMWare ESXi 5.0 which peak at just over <strong>60 Watt</strong> each (max <strong>180 Watt</strong>) &#8211; all the old servers, including mail have been moved to virtual machines, except the Open Directory which is on a QNAP NAS Server</span>
  * 2 QNAP NAS Servers (with iSCSI for VMWare) at about **45 Watt each  **(second one is used for redundancy and backups)
  * Telephone System will be virtualized with <a href="http://www.sipgate.de/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.sipgate.de');" target="_blank">Sipgate</a>
  * 2 low-power, fanless Cisco Switches ( < **40 Watt each**)
  * new Firewall Appliance (**< 50 Watt**)
  * 1 KVM
  * 1 older Mac Mini as a Backup Server
  * NO MORE air conditioning

**[<img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-216" alt="IMG_8057" src="https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8057-200x300.jpg" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8057-200x300.jpg 200w, https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8057.jpg 427w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />](https://www.poornerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_8057.jpg)We are moving from:**

  * **2 x VMWare ESXi Servers** which are Dual Quad Core XEON (2,2 GHz) with 24 GB RAM, and dual power supplies which peak at **650 Watt each (that is 4 power supplies x 650 Watt!!!)**
  * <a href="http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.everymac.com');" target="_blank"><strong>Mac Pro Dual G5</strong></a> &#8211; with Open Directory and our Mail Server (now on a virtual machine) &#8211; with (I am guessing) **450+ Watt **
  * Firewall &#8211; old PC with **400 Watt **
  * 2 x Quantum Snap Server **( 2 x 400+ Watt)**
  * QNAP NAS **(50 Watt)**
  * Air Conditioner **(300-500 Watt)**
  * 2 x 5+ year old rack mount switches** (200 Watt ?)**
  * 2 x old PC&#8217;s as Servers **(2 x 300 Watt?)**
  * Siemens HiCom Telephone System **( 200 Watt?)**

Of course we needed that air conditioning to keep the temp down in the room with all that equipment, and I am sure that some of it is energy efficient and did not always draw full power, but it is safe to say that we had anywhere from **3000-6000 Watt** when you add the KVM and Monitor in the rack!

Aside from a few annoying hums from the QNAP NAS Servers, it could almost sit on the desk next to me.  Now we are talking something along the lines of **300-475 Watt!!!**

That is a HUGE difference.  I realize that this is not a very scientific or accurate calculation, but the savings are obvious.

We have a little less CPU Power, but we were already overpowered for our necessary virtual machines, and if we need more CPU for a project now, we just go cloud.

If you want to know more about our MacMini Server VMWare ESXi setup with iSCSI then stay tuned, I&#8217;ll write that up one of these days, too.