Establishing a power profile for generating electrical ratings

1. A method of establishing a power profile of power consuming components of computer system configurations for generating electrical ratings, the method comprising:

beginning with a default, limited configuration of a computer system and continuing for a plurality of configurations of the computer system, each configuration including additional power consuming components not included in a previous configuration:

measuring, by a power profiling module for a present configuration, power consumption of the computer system;

calculating, by the power profiling module in dependence upon the measured power consumption for the present configuration, an estimated power rating for the one or more additional power consuming components not included in the previous configuration; and

recording, by the power profiling module in a power profile, estimated power ratings for the one or more additional power consuming components not included in the previous configuration,

wherein the number of configurations of the computer system for which power consumption is measured is less than the number of possible configurations of the computer system and wherein the power profiling module comprising one or more module of automated computing machinery.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating, by a system configuration tool in dependence upon the power profile, electrical ratings for one or more computer systems, including:

receiving, from a user, system configuration parameters defining a configuration of a computer system, the system configuration parameters specifying one or more power consuming components of the computer system;

summing, in dependence upon the power profile of power consuming components, estimated power ratings of the power consuming components of the computer system configured in accordance with the system configuration parameters; and

providing, to the user as the electrical rating for the computer system configured in accordance with the system configuration parameters, the sum of estimated power ratings of the power consuming components.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving system configuration parameters defining a configuration of a computer system further comprises:

receiving the system configuration parameters through a graphical user interface (‘GUI’) provided to the user by the system configuration tool.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving system configuration parameters defining a configuration of a computer system further comprises:

receiving the system configuration parameters in a configuration file.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein measuring power consumption of the computer system for a present configuration further comprises:

measuring the power consumption when the computer system is idle.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein measuring power consumption of the computer system for the present configuration further comprises:

measuring the power consumption when the computer system is executing a maximum load.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

measuring, by the power profiling module for a number of predefined configurations of the computer system, power consumption of the computer system, each predefined configuration comprising one or more power consuming components;

summing, by the power profiling module for each of the predefined configurations, estimated power ratings of the power consuming components of the predefined configuration; and

comparing, by the power profiling module, each sum of estimated power ratings to the measured power consumptions of the predefined configurations.