Port schedules and safety

[vilmantasr]

Is it safe to turn off access points every night using Port schedules becouse of energy saving situation in Europe?

[KarstenI]

We do that on a couple of sites and it works as expected. The only drawback is that the dashboard still reports the APs as "failed" although the dashboard could know that it is just based on the port-schedule. But improving this would likely be a feature request.

My next plan ist to test putting the APs into deep sleep mode via the API at night:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/MR_Radio_Turned_Off_(Deep_Sleep)

[EJN]

I'm not against this, but wondering if there will be any savings. If power is coming from POE, will the switch consume less power because a number of ports don't need it, or will the switch continue to draw the same amount of power, and simply have more available for other ports?

[KarstenI · Accepted solution]

Yes, it will save the power. This is my power meter for my server and Lab-Switch. The spike is caused by powering up five APs and an IP-phone which pushes the consumption from 112W to 162W:

BeforeAfter

SW-Lab-c3560cx#show power inline
Available:240.0(w)  Used:127.1(w)  Remaining:112.9(w)

Interface Admin  Oper       Power   Device              Class Max
                            (Watts)
--------- ------ ---------- ------- ------------------- ----- ----
Gi0/1     auto   on         29.9    AIR-AP3802I-E-K9    4     30.0
Gi0/2     auto   off        0.0     n/a                 n/a   30.0
Gi0/3     auto   on         26.6    AIR-AP2802I-E-K9    4     30.0
Gi0/4     auto   on         15.4    AIR-CAP1702I-E-K9   4     30.0
Gi0/5     auto   on         26.6    AIR-AP2802I-E-K9    4     30.0
Gi0/6     auto   on         16.8    AIR-AP2702I-UXK9    4     30.0
Gi0/7     auto   off        0.0     n/a                 n/a   30.0
Gi0/8     auto   on         11.8    IP Phone 9971       4     30.0

[vilmantasr]

If for example swich drawing 100 W for PoE, and we turn off ports it will save power, like video card in idle, but i am not sure if turning off is good for access points.