TECHNIQUES FOR POWER ANALYSIS

• US 20110016342A1
• Filed: 07/20/2010
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Viridity Software, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Guha, Aloke, White, William, Anthony, Michael D., Henriksen, Michael, Matusiak, Adam, Rocca, Christopher, Rowan, Michael T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,116,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3062 where the monitored property is the power consumption power management in a computing system G06F1/3203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3096 wherein the means or processing minimize the use of computing system or of computing system component resources, e.g. non-intrusive monitoring which minimizes the probe effect: sniffing, intercepting, indirectly deriving the monitored data from other directly available data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

Techniques for power analysis for data centers are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for power analysis for a plurality of computing platform components comprising receiving information associated with a component, retrieving, using a computer processor, electronically stored data associated with the component, estimating power usage of the component based at least in part on the stored data, and outputting an indicator of power usage.

Claims

1. A method for power analysis of a plurality of computing platform components comprising:

receiving information associated with a component;

retrieving, using a computer processor, electronically stored data associated with the component;

estimating power usage of the component based at least in part on the stored data; and

outputting an indicator of power usage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the component comprises at least one of:

a computer processor, electronic storage, and a networking component.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

iterating through the process for a plurality of components of a device; and

aggregating power estimates for power usage of components of the device to provide an estimated power usage for the device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the device comprises at least one of:

a server, a network device, a host, and a storage device.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

iterating through the process for a plurality of devices in a zone.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more measurements associated with a component; and

estimating power usage of the component based at least in part on the one or more received measurements.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more measurements comprises at least one of:

a reading from a temperature sensor, a processor chip, a heat sink, a disk controller, a power supply, and a network component.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more measurements comprise at least one of:

CPU utilization, transaction rates, communication rates, configuration information, active processes, and a number of virtual machines.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

estimating a thermal profile of a component based at least in part on one or more of the estimated power usage of the component and one or more received measurements.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising estimating power usage based on the thermal profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the estimated power usage based on the thermal profile comprises using the thermal profile to estimate a cooling cost.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more measurements from at least one of;

a power distribution unit and a computer room air conditioner.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using the one or more received measurements to estimate at least one of;

power usage and a thermal profile.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information associated with a component comprises discovering a component via a network interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein discovering a component via a network interface comprises using at least one of:

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Storage Management Initiative-Specification (SMI-S), Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Secure Shell (SSH), BACNet, and ModBus.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein discovering a component via a network interface comprises discovery performed on a data center from a remote location.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accepting input for an unrecognized component in the event electronically stored data associated with the component is not retrieved.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising

discovering one or more logical elements associated with a component;

and

estimating power usage based at least in part on the one or more discovered logical elements.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more logical elements comprise at least one of:

an operating system component associated with a component, a process associated with a component, a virtual machine associated with a component, and an application associated with a component.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein electronically stored data associated with the component comprises a database of at least one of:

profiles of components, server arrays, computer room air conditioners, power distribution units, and data center physical infrastructure.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing one or more recommendations based on at least one of;

estimated power usage of a component, estimated power usage of a device, estimated power usage of a zone, estimated power usage of a data center, a thermal profile of a zone, and a thermal profile of a zone.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more recommendations comprise at least one of:

eliminating unutilized components, consolidating under-utilized components, upgrading inefficient components, replacing inefficient components, rearranging components within a geographical location to improve a thermal profile, and redistributing a work load across components within a geographical area to improve a thermal profile.

23. The method of claim 9, wherein the thermal profile is estimated using Computational Fluid Dynamics.

24. At least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium for storing a computer program of instructions configured to be readable by at least one processor for instructing the at least one processor to execute a computer process for performing the method as recited in claim 1.

25. An article of manufacture for power analysis of a plurality of computing platform components, the article of manufacture comprising:

at least one non-transitory processor readable medium; and

instructions stored on the at least one medium;

wherein the instructions are configured to be readable from the at least one medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate so as to;

receive information associated with a component;

retrieve electronically stored data associated with the component;

estimate power usage of the component based at least in part on the stored data; and

output an indicator of power usage.

26. A system for power analysis of a plurality of computing platform components comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to a network;

wherein the one or more processors are configured to;

receive information associated with a component;

retrieve electronically stored data associated with the component;

estimate power usage of the component based at least in part on the stored data; and

output an indicator of power usage.