In one embodiment, a fixed chassis power budget is dynamically allocated to a plurality of servers inserted into a multi-server chassis. An inserted server may be inventoried by sequentially identifying server components, categorically-defined component power limits, and actual component power requirements of the inventoried components. A power permission may be granted to the inserted server prior to completion of the inventory, based on power-related information inferred from a chassis and server specification or from the inventoried components.