Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/424 of 15 March 2019 laying down ecodesign requirements for servers and data storage products pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013 (Text with EEA relevance.)

1 This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market and putting into service of servers and online data storage products.

2 This Regulation shall not apply to the following products: (a) servers intended for embedded applications; (b) servers classified as small scale servers in terms of Regulation (EU) No 617/2013; (c) servers with more than four processor sockets; (d) server appliances; (e) large servers; (f) fully fault tolerant servers; (g) network servers; (h) small data storage products; (i) large data storage products.

1 For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: (1) ‘server’ means a computing product that provides services and manages networked resources for client devices, such as desktop computers, notebook computers, desktop thin clients, internet protocol telephones, smartphones, tablets, tele-communication, automated systems or other servers, primarily accessed via network connections, and not through direct user input devices, such as a keyboard or a mouse and with the following characteristics: (a) it is designed to support server operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and targeted to run user-installed enterprise applications; (b) it supports error-correcting code and/or buffered memory (including both buffered dual in-line memory modules and buffered on board configurations); (c) all processors have access to shared system memory and are independently visible to a single OS or hypervisor; (2) ‘server with more than four processor sockets’ means a server containing more than four interfaces designed for the installation of a processor. For multi-node servers, this term refers to a server having more than four processor sockets in each server node; (3) ‘embedded application’ means a software application that permanently resides in an industrial or consumer device, typically stored in a non-volatile memory such as read-only memory or flash memory; (4) ‘server appliance’ means a server that is not intended to execute user-supplied software, delivers services through one or more networks, is typically managed through a web or command line interface and is bundled with a pre-installed OS and application software that is used to perform a dedicated function or set of tightly coupled functions; (5) ‘resilient server’ means a server designed with extensive reliability, availability, serviceability and scalability features integrated in the micro architecture of the system, central processing unit (CPU) and chipset; (6) ‘large server’ means a resilient server which is shipped as a pre-integrated/pre-tested system housed in one or more full frame racks and that includes a high connectivity input/output subsystem with a minimum of 32 dedicated input/output slots; (7) ‘multi-node server’ means a server that is designed with two or more independent server nodes that share a single enclosure and one or more power supply units. In a multi-node server, power is distributed to all nodes through shared power supply units. Server nodes in a multi-node server are not designed to be hot-swappable; (8) ‘fully fault tolerant server’ means a server that is designed with complete hardware redundancy (to simultaneously and repetitively run a single workload for continuous availability in mission critical applications), in which every computing component is replicated between two nodes running identical and concurrent workloads (i.e., if one node fails or needs repair, the second node can run the workload alone to avoid downtime); (9) ‘network server’ means a network product which contains the same components as a server in addition to more than 11 network ports with a total line rate throughput of 12 Gb/s or more, the capability to dynamically reconfigure ports and speed and support for a virtualized network environment through a software defined network; (10) ‘data storage product’ means a fully-functional storage system that supplies data storage services to clients and devices attached directly or through a network. Components and subsystems that are an integral part of the data storage product architecture (e.g., to provide internal communications between controllers and disks) are considered to be part of the data storage product. In contrast, components that are normally associated with a storage environment at the data centre level (e.g. devices required for operation of an external storage area network) are not considered to be part of the data storage product. A data storage product may be composed of integrated storage controllers, data storage devices, embedded network elements, software, and other devices; (11) ‘Hard Disk Drive’ (HDD) means a data storage device which reads and writes to one or more rotating magnetic disk platters; (12) ‘Solid State Drive’ (SSD) means a data storage device that reads and writes to non-volatile solid state memory instead of rotating magnetic platters for data storage; (13) ‘data storage device’ means a device providing non-volatile data storage, with the exception of aggregating storage elements such as subsystems of redundant arrays of independent disks, robotic tape libraries, filers, and file servers and storage devices which are not directly accessible by end-user application programs, and are instead employed as a form of internal cache; (14) ‘online data storage product’ means a data storage product designed for online, random-access of data, accessible in a random or sequential pattern, with a maximum time to first data of less than 80 milliseconds; (15) ‘small data storage product’ means a data storage product containing a maximum of three data storage devices; (16) ‘large data storage product’ means a high end or mainframe data storage product that supports more than 400 data storage devices in its maximum configuration and with the following required attributes: no single point of failure, non-disruptive serviceability and integrated storage controller.

2 For the purposes of Annexes II to V, additional definitions are set out in Annex I.

1 The ecodesign requirements for servers and online data storage products are set out in Annex II.

2 From 1 March 2020 servers shall comply with the ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II points 1.1.1, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4.

3 From 1 March 2020 online data storage products shall comply with the ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II points 1.1.1, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4. (a) From 1 March 2021 servers and online data storage products shall comply with the ecodesign requirement set out in Annex II point 1.2.3. (b) From 1 January 2023 servers and online data storage products shall comply with the ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II point 1.1.2. (c) Compliance with ecodesign requirements shall be measured and calculated in accordance with the methods set out in Annex III.

1 The conformity assessment procedure referred to in Article 8(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC shall be the internal design control set out in Annex IV to that Directive or the management system set out in Annex V to that Directive.

2 For the purposes of the conformity assessment pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC, the technical documentation shall contain the information set out in point 3.4 of Annex II to this Regulation.

Member States shall apply the verification procedure set out in Annex IV to this Regulation when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC.

The manufacturer or importer shall not place on the market products that have been designed to be able to detect they are being tested (e.g. by recognizing the test conditions or test cycle), and to react specifically by automatically altering their performance during the test with the objective of reaching a more favourable level for any of the parameters declared by the manufacturer or importer in the technical documentation or included in any of the documentation provided.

The indicative benchmarks for best-performing servers and data storage products available on the market on 7 April 2019 are set out in Annex V.

The Commission shall assess this Regulation and shall present the results of this assessment, including, if appropriate, a draft revision proposal, to the Consultation Forum by March 2022. This assessment shall review the requirements in the light of the technological progress and shall address in particular the appropriateness: (a) to update the specific ecodesign requirements on server active state efficiency; (b) to update the specific ecodesign requirements for servers on idle state power; (c) to update the definitions or the scope of the Regulation; (d) to update the material efficiency requirements for servers and data storage products, including the information requirements on additional critical raw materials (tantalum, gallium, dysprosium and palladium), taking into account the needs of the recyclers; (e) to exempt server appliances, large servers, fully fault tolerant servers and network servers from the scope of the regulation; (f) to exclude resilient servers, High Performance Computing (HPC) servers and servers with integrated APA from the ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II point 2.1 and point 2.2; (g) to set specific ecodesign requirements on the Processor Power Management Function of servers; (h) to set specific ecodesign requirements on the operating condition class; (i) to set specific ecodesign requirements on the efficiency, performance and power demand of data storage products.

‘1 This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market of computers.’;

The ecodesign requirements for computers are set out in Annex II. Compliance of computers with the applicable ecodesign requirements shall be measured in accordance with the methods set out in Annex III.’;

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. However, Article 9 shall apply from 1 March 2020.