powerman is free UNIX/Linux software that controls (remotely and in parallel) switched power distribution units. It was designed for remote power control of Linux systems in a data center or cluster environment, but has been used in other environments such as embedded management appliances, home automation, and high availability service management.

powerman can be extended to support new devices using an expect-like scripting language. It communicates with devices natively using telnet, raw socket, and serial protocols. It also can drive virtual power control devices via a coprocess interface. The coprocess mechanism has been used to extend powerman to communicate with devices using other protocols such as SNMP, IPMI, Insteon, X-10, and VXI-11.

powerman can control equipment connected using any combination of the above methods and provide unified naming for the equipment and parallel execution of control actions.