Power, UPS & PDU monitoring · 6 min read

Alert on rack and circuit power capacity before you hit a limit

Adding one more server to a rack that's already near its circuit's rated capacity is how you trip a breaker at the worst possible time.

What you'll need

  • PDUs reporting load in Linivo across the racks or circuits you want to track
1

Set the circuit's actual rated capacity, not the PDU's max

A PDU rated for 30A doesn't mean the circuit feeding it is; set the alert threshold against the circuit breaker's actual rating, derated to the commonly recommended 80% continuous-load limit.

2

Alert on sustained load, not momentary spikes

Server power draw spikes briefly on boot and under burst load. Use a threshold that requires load to stay elevated for a few minutes before alerting, so a routine reboot cycle doesn't page anyone.

3

Track headroom across a rack row, not just one PDU

If racks share an upstream panel or UPS, a single rack's PDU can look fine while the shared circuit upstream is close to its limit. Group related PDUs so capacity alerts reflect what's actually shared.