Optimize Energy Consumption by Disabling Unused Ports

This topic describes how to optimize energy consumption by identifying and disabling unused ports on network devices.

Network devices are typically provisioned with a large number of ports to ensure scalability and redundancy. However, many of these ports remain unused for extended periods but still continue to consume baseline power.

The Device Port Power Optimization recommendation list ports that show no signs of operational use and are safe to disable. By disabling these ports, you can reduce the device’s baseline energy consumption, lower operational costs, and reduce GHG emissions.

A port is selected for the Device Port Power Optimization recommendation when:

It is administratively enabled (admin-state up) but has no active link (link-state down).
A transceiver is inserted but the port does not carry any traffic.
The operational state is up but the port shows no Tx/Rx activity.

The Device Port Power Optimization recommendation provides actionable guidance, including the list of unused ports, benefits and risks associated with the optimization action, and the relevant configlet-based actions to safely disable ports and reduce idle power consumption. It also highlights the potential energy savings achievable by applying the recommendation.

Note:

The recommendation service runs once per day. Each run uses historical port traffic telemetry and configuration data available at the time. The Recommendation tab displays the most recently generated results for the device.

Changes to port states, traffic patterns, or threshold configurations that occur outside the current run window are reflected in recommendations after the next run.

Use the Per-Port Peak / Off-Peak Traffic Patterns heatmap available on the Device-Level Sustainability Dashboard to view traffic patterns for all ports.

Note:

The Recommendation tab appears empty if no safe or meaningful recommendations or power saving actions were identified based on the latest device telemetry.

To view unused ports and review the recommended actions:

On the Device-Level Sustainability Dashboard, review the Per-Port Peak / Off-Peak Traffic Patterns heatmap to understand the device's port activity trends.

Navigate to the Recommendation tab.

The Device Port Power Optimization recommendation card appears on the top of the page.

The card highlights the recommendation type, the count of ports identified as unused and safe to disable, and the potential energy savings you can achieve by applying this recommendation.

The recommendation identifies ports that are not actively carrying traffic. The potential savings indicate the estimated amount of energy that can be conserved by disabling unused ports that are not actively carrying traffic and by removing installed optical transceivers that are powered on but not in use.

Note:

Recommendations are generated only if unused ports are identified on a device.
To generate energy optimization recommendations for unused ports atleast 24 hours of data is required.

Click the recommendation card to open the detailed recommendation panel.

Figure 1 shows a sample Device Port Power Optimization recommendation card and panel.

Figure 1: Sample Recommendation

The recommendation includes the following fields:

Table 1: Field Description
Field	Description
Recommendation Card	A high-level description of the recommendation type. Indicates the type of recommendation, the number of ports identified for applying the recommendation, and the potential energy savings achievable if the recommendation is applied.
Device Port	Port identified as unused and eligible for disabling. Use the drop-down to select a port and view its specific recommendation.
Description	Summary of why the port is identified as unused and why the action is recommended, referencing energy and traffic data points.
Actions	Provides step-by-step guidance and relevant configlet-based actions required to disable the port without impacting the network traffic. Note: You must use the configlets in Apstra Data Center Director to apply configuration changes to the device. For more information on configlets, see Configlets in the Apstra Data Center Director User Guide. Alternatively, you can click Apply to review the list of unused ports, understand the potential savings achievable by applying the recommended action, and deploy the action directly from the dashboard.
Benefits	Displays quantified advantages, such as estimated power and cost savings and reduced GHG emissions.
Risks	Highlights caveats such as potential dependencies, safety checks, and guardrails to consider before applying the suggested changes.
Timestamp	Indicates when the recommendation was generated and how long it is valid. Note: Recommendations are refreshed daily based on the latest device telemetry.

After reviewing the recommendation, you can either apply the recommended action manually using Apstra configlets or directly apply them with a single click from the Recommendation tab.

To manually apply the recommended action:

Use the configlets in Apstra Data Center Director to apply configuration changes to the device.

Configlets are custom configuration snippets that you can apply on a device through Apstra Data Center Director.
Note:
- Configuration changes made using configlets override Apstra-intended configuration.
- You may not get warnings for incorrect configurations pushed using configlets. Ensure you test and validate configlets in a dedicated validation environment before deploying them to the production environment.
- Passwords and other secret keys are not encrypted in configlets.
To apply the recommendation from the Recommendation tab:

When you apply a recommendation from the Recommendation tab, a system-initiated deployment job is initiated, where in a preconfigured configlet is automatically deployed on the device through Apstra Data Center Director.
- Click Apply.
  
  The Confirm Apply Recommendation dialog box appears.
- Review the following information:
  - Device on which the recommendation will be applied.
  - Ports identified as unused and eligible to disable.
  - Estimated energy reduction that can be achieved by disabling the selected unused ports.
  - Summary of the action that will be performed.
  - Cautionary information describing the implications of disabling the selected ports.
- Select the ports to which you want to apply the recommendation. You can either select individual ports or select all ports to apply the recommendation to all identified ports.
- Click Confirm & Apply.
  
  A job is initiated to deploy the preconfigured configlet on the device through Apstra Data Center Director and you are returned to the Recommendation tab. Once a recommendation has been successfully applied, the Apply button is disabled for the recommendation.
- From the Device Port drop-down list, select a port for which the recommendation was applied.
  
  A banner appears indicating that the deployment is in progress.
- Click the recommendation link in the deployment banner.
  
  The Recommendation Actions table appears, where you can monitor the deployment status and track the progress of the recommendation. You can also review the status and history of previously applied deployment jobs.
  
  Note: The Recommendation Actions table tracks only system-initated depolyment jobs that result from applying recommendations from the Recommendation tab. Configlets deployed manually through Apstra Data Center Director is not tracked in the table.
  
  The Recommendation Actions table is part of the Achieved view in the Energy Savings tab. In addition to tracking recommendation deployment jobs, this view displays the aggregate energy savings achieved through applied recommendations.
  
  You can access the Recommendation Actions table at both site and organization levels. By default, when you click a recommendation link in the deployment banner on the Recommendation tab, you are redirected to the site-level view.
After applying the configuration changes, return to the Sustainability dashboards to validate the results.

Regularly verify device energy consumption, port activity, power savings, and so on.

Note:
Changes to port states, traffic patterns, or threshold configurations may take up to 24 hours to be reflected in the Sustainability dashboards.