Sold by Legrand Data Center Solutions brands as the Raritan PX4 and Server Technology PRO4X, these new intelligent rack power distribution units (PDUs) offer ground-breaking features and innovative technology to provide industry-leading visibility.

Mission-critical facility managers face challenges in obtaining accurate power quality data at the rack level, often requiring additional infrastructure and manual monitoring to help solve these power quality issues when problems arise. Or, as a worst-case scenario, they fumble blindly to identify what went wrong.

Electrical reliability and power quality are critical to running your data center efficiently and avoiding costly downtime. With downtime costs increasing yearly, you want to do everything you can to prevent and minimize such occurrences, especially when the associated costs fall in the six or even seven-figure range. In addition, rising electricity prices, increasing power demand, and the growing importance of reducing your carbon footprint are driving the need for more effective power monitoring across the entire data center power chain.

At Legrand Data Center Solutions, our Raritan and Server Technology brands have launched two all-new intelligent rack PDUs to help facility managers optimize their power usage and capacity, while ensuring maximum uptime. The Raritan PX4 and Server Technology PRO4X rack PDUs go beyond the capabilities of current intelligent PDU solutions to provide unparalleled visibility into data center operations. The result is a solution that meets today's power needs and anticipates tomorrow's rack power distribution challenges.

Power Quality Issues

Although an outage is generally understood to mean something on the network outside the facility, sometimes the data center hardware itself is the cause of the disruption. Data centers use a variety of devices that require clean, reliable power. From fans to pumps to ballasts, all of these devices can distort the available power waveform at your facility. This can lead to sags, transients, and harmonics, making your infrastructure unreliable and inefficient. For example, non-linear switch mode power supplies used in servers, switches, and storage systems can emit harmonics into the power distribution infrastructure. It is essential to monitor mission-critical hardware to ensure it runs efficiently and is free of issues that could disrupt data center operations.

Access to multi-dimensional measurement that weighs sags, swells/surges, total harmonic distortion, and other complications so that actual measurements can be compared to ideal measurements will safeguard uptime and increase operational efficiency. This allows you to identify the true power quality in your facility, down to the branch or device level. Harmonics can reduce equipment reliability, cause downtime, and result in increased energy costs. Harmonic currents can also lead to false tripping of circuit breakers and result in downtime. Resetting a tripped circuit breaker is a tedious and time-consuming process. You need to find the source of the trip, which can be complex with a large network that is connected to many devices; this may require unplugging each device on a circuit and powering them back up individually until another trip occurs, allowing you to then identify the exact cause. It would be far easier and less time-consuming if you could just view a dashboard to see the outlet that tripped the circuit breaker. Our latest Intelligent rack PDUs enable you to do just this, giving you the visibility and power quality data to ensure your systems function optimally.

The Solution

Our Xerus firmware provides insight into advanced power quality metrics with waveform capture and measures total harmonic distortion, voltage and current. It also provides improved circuit breaker forensics. We've set a new industry-leading accuracy of +/- 0.5% and halved variance compared to the industry standard. Our intelligent rack PDUs help with capacity planning, workload optimization and failover planning. They also support proactive and reaction uptime/troubleshooting efforts. The ability to monitor outlet power gives you real-time access to the detailed data you need to improve efficiency and reduce the need for manual changes to be made at the rack.

ThePX4 and PRO4X are easy to deploy and adapt to your IT configurations. A key feature is the Cx outlet, a hybrid outlet that acts as a C13 and C19 combined, allowing you to connect a C14 or C20 plug into the outlet and have multiple PDU configurations in one product, allowing ultimate flexibility and increased efficiency. This innovative design reduces complexity within the selection process and limits the need to purchase a new set of PDUs when equipment changes, resulting in reduced end costs. The 45-degree angled infeed is a new feature that provides a universal connection whether the input power comes from the top or bottom of the cabinet. This one-size-fits-all solution gives installation flexibility, allowing you to position your PDU where needed, adaptable to your changing needs, while also cutting costs.

The new Intelligent rack PDUs also promise increased uptime security with the RamLock mechanical locking mechanism, which reduces the risk of downtime from accidental unplugging. Our iX™ Controller also offers a variety of other uptime support features. These include failover power, which provides redundancy, so power continues to run even if one PDU fails, and linking, which gives data on all expansion units to the primary PDU.

Our enterprise level security is a core focus for the PX4 and PRO4X, ensuring unmatched safeguards for your network and IT assets. We implement the most robust security features so that only the right people have the access and control they need. We use TACACS+, encryption, firewalls, and all other security measures to block malicious attackers.

ThePX4 and PRO4X do not require major upgrades or modifications to integrate with existing systems, seamlessly connecting with the DCIM or BMS solutions already present in your facility, whether developed in-house or by a third party. Collecting and transmitting valuable data gathered at the outlet, rack, and the environment around the PDUs has never been easier.

For further details on all the capabilities of the new PX4 and PRO4X rack PDUs, visit:  https://datacenter.legrandwebfactory.com/de-en/white-space/in-rack-power-management/power-distribution