Regarding Powering off VOIP phones in non office hours

[ncnaveen_arasu]

Hi team,

I work in a organization where we have ten thousands of VOIP phones which draws inline current via LAN port.

Which in turn draws current by POE port of network switch.

in non office hours if we switch off the network switch which is dedicated only for VOIP phones (We have diffrent LAN port for voice and data), is it a good idea and feasible,efficinet to schedule powering off network switch daily.

In general what is the average power consumtion of individual IP phone per hour/day ?

Will it be a good idea to follow this process.

Please suggest your views for the same.

Regards,

Naveen

[Philip D'Ath]

Phones typically draw 7W of power.  Some use as low as 4W, others up towards 15W (usually have video screens in these models).

[ncnaveen_arasu]

Hi Philip

thanks for the reply and useful information.

Is consumption you have said is per hour or per day basis.

Please confirm.

Thanks

Naveen

[Philip D'Ath]

Well, if you are measure "watt hours" (which is how you pay for electricity) then it is per hour.

[Philip D'Ath]

Have you looked at the Cisco energy management technology?

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/energy-management-technology/index.html

[Philip D'Ath]

You should check out Cisco EnergyWise as well.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/solutions/routing-switching/energywise.html

[ncnaveen_arasu]

Hi Philip

Yes i had a look at it and sent  mail for the concenred team for some enquiry.

Regards,

Naveen

[Tagir Temirgaliyev]

you can check power

sh power inline

electricity in some counties it is about 1 doll per 1 kw*hour 

so 1000 phones can consume 15 watt each * 10 hours * 1000 = 150 kwhour = 150 doll per night

you can do it ease with some scripting  for example python or eem 

but you can disconnect power from all access level switches in the night

[ncnaveen_arasu]

Hi Tagir

thanks for the reply.

In that case if we script the switches to power off in non office hours, is there any chance that switch will not come up, or configutation erase issues happens.

As usually we can see these network devices will runs cominuosly tears together in general and shuts down only when change window was there or during scheduled downtime.

So the solution what i proposed will holds worth ?

Thanks

Naveen

[Philip D'Ath]

You could write a script to walk across every switch and collect the output of "show cdp nei".  Use this to identify every port that has a phone plugged in.

Then write a script at night time to walk across those ports shutting them down.  In the morning repeat the script to turn the ports back on.

No switch is ever turned off or rebooted and it should be nice and safe.

[ncnaveen_arasu]

Hi philip

The idea yo usaid was good.. But every night switch will be on unnecessarily which is also a waste right ?

So switching off switches very often will create any issue in labs ?

Thanks

Naveen

[Philip D'Ath]

It depends what costs more.  The odd dead switch and lost productivity, or the power it consumes.

Most failures occur when a device is being turned on or off due to thermal expansion and contraction.  It is like flexing the circuit boards twice a day (off and on).

[Daniele Giordano]

As suggested by Philip D'Ath you can use kron command and schedule a shutdown - no shutdown cicle on your switch:

!example

conf t
kron occurrence phone_off at 20:00 recurring
policy-list phone_off_policy
!
kron policy-list phone_off_policy
cli conf t
cli int rang f1/0/1 - 23
cli shutdown

kron occurrence phone_on at 6:00 recurring
policy-list phone_on_policy
!
kron policy-list phone_on_policy
cli conf t
cli int rang f1/0/1 - 23
cli no shutdown

You can also use a tcl script. Using tcl you can write a more complex and flexible script:

!example

conf t
kron occurrence tcl_phone_on_off in 1 oneshot
policy-list tcl_phone_on_off_policy
!call tcl as a daemon
!
kron policy-list tcl_phone_on_off_policy
cli tclsh flash:/tcl_phone_on_off.tcl
!create a tcl using a notepad and copy it in flash

Regards.