LANDesk Power Manager overview

The LANDesk power management tool allows you to monitor power usage on your managed computers from a central location. You can easily create and deploy power management policies and generate reports to evaluate financial and power savings. You control the conditions under which computers and monitors stand by, hibernate, or power down.

Power Manager includes a feature that lets users avoid specific power management actions (such as a hard shut down) using a client-side user interface. The avoided action will take place the next time the policy runs or is updated on that computer.

The power management tool is divided into two panes. The left pane displays power management policies in a tree view. The right pane displays the content and parameters of the power management policy that is selected in the left pane.

Power management tool buttons

The power management tool includes a set of tool buttons that allow you to complete various power management tasks.

Creating a new power management policy

Power management uses policy-based management to send stand by, hibernate, shut down, and turn on instructions to your managed computers. Create power management policies to control specific computers and groups of computers.

The New policy dialog lets you enter a name and a description for a new power management policy. Click OK to accept the name and description.

After you click OK to close the New policy dialog, options and parameters for adding power schemes to the new policy are displayed in the right pane of the power management tool. These options and parameters include:

Power management policy options

Process-sensitive trigger

Use this page to delay the power policy if any of the listed processes are detected. SelectEnable process sensitive trigger to enable this option. The policy will continue if no policies are detected after the number of minutes specified.

The list of processes is created through the Process sensitive trigger list toolbar button. For more information, see Process Sensitive Trigger List below (under Application Management).

Usage monitor

Enforce the power policy if the conditions specified in the dialog are met. Conditions that can be specified are CPU usage and Network traffic. If either or both reach a specified percentage lower than the maximum, the power policy will be enforced. Click Enable usage monitor.

End process

End the processes in the list. Click Enable end process list.

The list of processes is created through the End process list toolbar button. For more information, see End process list below (under Application Management).

Using Hibernate on Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 

Power management can't automatically enable the hibernate function on Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 computers. Users on your managed computers must manually enable the hibernate function through the Control Panel.

  1. In the Control Panel, double-click Power Options.
  2. In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Hibernate tab.
  3. Select the Enable hibernation check box and click OK.

Using the Turn On action (wake on LAN)

Power management uses wake on LAN (WOL) technology to remotely power on a computer to run scheduled tasks. For power management to use WOL functionality, your managed computers must have properly configured network adaptors that support WOL.

Power Management can't set up or configure a network adaptor's WOL functionality for you. If the WOL functionality on a computer's network adaptor is not enabled, a power management policy that includes a "turn on" action in its power scheme will fail on that computer. Power Management currently does not include any way to monitor whether a network adaptor's WOL functionality is enabled.

Viewing Reports

The power management tool allows you to generate and view power, cost savings, and historical reports.

NOTE: Reports require that a group with at least one device or a query is created first; otherwise the report cannot be run.

Historical data

Use this toolbar button to modify client usage info settings.

Custom Wattage Settings

The Power Management tool includes a utility that lets you customize the wattage settings for similar computers for more accurate power management.

To open the Custom wattage settings dialog box, click the Custom wattage settings button () in the Power Management tool.

Default Settings

The default settings displayed in the Custom wattage settings dialog box are based on the type of computer running the Power Management tool.

For example, if you are running a desktop computer, Power Management displays default wattage settings based on the average settings of a typical desktop computer. If Power Management is running on a laptop computer, the default settings are lower because laptops typically use less power.

Custom Settings

You can use pre-configured custom power settings to match the type of equipment you are using. Many power settings for popular desktop and laptop computer manufacturers have been added for your convenience.

For example, if you are monitoring the power usage on a Dell Inspiron 531s desktop computer, select Dell Inc. from the Manufacturer drop-down list and Inspiron 531s from the Model drop-down list. The wattage settings for the computer and its monitor have been added based on the data returned from a LANDesk inventory of an Inspiron 531s computer.

Wattage Settings

When the Default settings check box is selected, these fields display the average power usage of a typical desktop or laptop computer (depending on the type of computer on which the Power Management tool is running). When the Default settings check box is cleared, use these fields to enter power usage settings for specific computer brands and models.

Creating Custom Wattage Settings

If the type of equipment you want to manage does not appear in the pre-configured System Information drop-down lists, you can enter the information you need manually.

Generate the XML file for default usage table


The Replace client usage assumptions with historical data button opens the Default usage table generator dialog box, which allows administrators to select the group or groups of devices from predefined queries and a specific timeframe to generate an XML file. This XML file contains data that populates the Savings report window. If client information is collected, the XML file created at installation is updated with the actual usage information from the client machines. This reflects the power usage in an organization and provides more accurate Savings reports.

All groups that are created from queries are displayed in the Target tree structure and the time frame can be selected from the Time options dialog box.

The Default usage table generator dialog box contains the following options:

Application Management

Identify process-sensitive triggers

Use the Identify process-sensitive triggers toolbar button to observe the process of any program of importance and wait for it to be completed before enforcing the power policies. In some environments programs need to run for an extended period of time. For example, the Management Suite Patch process can be a short or a long process to install the patches. The time frame needed for the managed device to be powered up is unknown when dealing with patch deployment. Other programs can have similar parameters that need to be uninterrupted in an environment.

The Process sensitive trigger list dialog box contains the following options:

Identify processes to terminate at shutdown

Use the Identify processes to terminate at shutdown toolbar button to allow the administrators to stop processes. Some processes cause a machine to not follow the configured power policies parameters. This same process affects a few or many machines following the policy. Power management terminates the processes preventing the machine from going into standby or shutting down.

The End process list dialog box contains the following options:

Identify processes to ignore in exception bugs

Use the Identify processes to ignore in exception bugs toolbar button to designate processes that do not need attention from the power policy. Processes are added to the Import list from Client usage. This list can be large and hard to sort through. Power management has created a way to organize the list of processes for management. The Import button is used to select a process as sensitive or to terminate the list.

The Processes to ignore dialog box contains the following buttons: