Agent for managing power among electronic systems

• US 7,581,125 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2005
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ranganathan, Parthasarathy, Flynn, Thomas, Shaver, Charles, Leech, Phillip, Alzien, Khaldoun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bae; Ji H
• Application Number:
  US11/232,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20070067656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/340
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A power management agent for managing power among electronic systems includes a module for predicting a future power consumption level of the electronic systems, a module for determining a power budget threshold for the electronic systems, and a module for determining whether a predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold. The power management agent also includes a module for selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle in response to a determination that the predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold and a module for selecting a throttle level to be applied to the selected one or more of the electronic systems to substantially prevent the future power consumption level from exceeding the power budget threshold.

Claims

1. A power management system comprising a power management agent and one or more electronic systems, wherein said power management agent comprises:

a module for predicting a future power consumption level of the one or more electronic systems;

a module for determining a power budget threshold for the one or more electronic systems;

a module for enabling communications between the power management agent and the one or more electronic systems and enabling communications between the power management agent and at least one other power management agent configured to enforce a power budget, to thereby enable management of power among the one or more electronic systems through the power management agent and the at least one other power management agent;

a module for determining whether a predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold;

a module for selecting at least one of the one or more electronic systems to throttle in response to a determination that the predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold and further in response to the relative priority of tasks running on the one or more electronic systems and a prediction of resource usage among the one or more electronic systems; and

a module for selecting a throttle level to be applied to the selected at least one of the one or more electronic systems to substantially prevent the future power consumption level from exceeding the power budget threshold.

2. The power management agent according to claim 1, further comprising a module for monitoring power consumption levels of the one or more electronic systems.

3. The power management agent according to claim 1, wherein the one or more electronic systems comprise servers.

4. The power management agent according to claim 3, wherein the servers are housed in at least one enclosure.

5. The power management agent according to claim 3, wherein at least two of the servers are positioned in different geographic locations with respect to each other.

6. The power management agent according to claim 1, wherein the one or more electronic systems comprise blade PCs.

7. The power management agent according to claim 1, wherein the module for determining a power budget threshold for the one or more electronic systems is configured to determine the power budget threshold at one or both of design time and run-time.

8. The power management agent according to claim 1, wherein the module for selecting at least one of the one or more electronic systems to throttle is configured to select at least one of the one or more electronic systems according to a round-robin selection scheme.

9. The power management agent according to claim 1, wherein the module for selecting a throttle level is configured to select a throttling level according to a rigidity associated with enforcement of the power budget.

10. A system comprising a plurality of servers and for operating the plurality of servers at a power consumption level below a power budget threshold, the system further comprising:

a power management agent configured to communicate with the plurality of servers, said power management agent being further configured to determine a power budget threshold, to monitor current power consumption levels of the plurality of servers, to predict future violations of the power budget threshold by the plurality of servers, and to make policy-driven recommendations for power throttling of the plurality of servers to thereby maintain power consumption levels of the plurality of servers substantially within the power budget threshold, wherein the power management agent is further configured to select one or more of the plurality of servers for power throttling according to the relative priority of tasks running on the plurality of servers and a prediction of resource usage among the plurality of servers; and

the power management agent comprising a module for enabling communications between the power management agent and the plurality of servers and enabling communications between the power management agent and at least one other power management agent configured to enforce a power budget, to thereby enable management of power among the plurality of servers through the power management agent and the at least one other power management agent.

11. The system. according to claim 10, wherein the power management agent is distributed at a plurality of locations, wherein the plurality of locations comprises at least one of hardware and software.

12. A method for managing power among electronic systems, said method comprising:

determining a power budget threshold;

monitoring current power consumption levels of the electronic systems;

predicting a future violation of the power budget threshold;

selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle;

determining throttling levels for the selected one or more of the electronic systems;

recommending the determined throttling levels to the selected one or more of the electronic systems to thereby substantially prevent operating the electronic systems at a power consumption level that substantially exceeds the power budget threshold, wherein predicting a future violation of the power budget threshold further comprises implementing a prediction algorithm to predict a future violation of the power budget threshold, wherein the prediction algorithm is selected bused upon error limits allowable with mispredictions of possible future violations throttling the selected one or more of the electronic systems in response to the recommending.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein determining a power budget threshold further comprises determining the power budget threshold at least one of at design time and at run-time.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining a power budget threshold further comprises determining a power budget threshold at design time when the targeted benefits of the power budget enforcement are geared towards at least one of reducing provisioning of cooling and power delivery and increasing flexibility in a selection of components for the electronic systems.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining a power budget threshold further comprises determining the power budget threshold based upon a trigger external to the electronic systems.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of enabling communications between a power management agent configured to enforce a power budget of the electronic systems and at least one other power management agent configured to enforce a power budget, to thereby enable management of power among the electronic systems through the power management agent and die at least one other power management.

17. The method according to claim 12, wherein selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle further comprises selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle according to a round-robin allocation scheme.

18. The method according to claim 12, wherein selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle further comprises selecting one or more of the electronic systems to throttle based upon a relative priority of tasks running on the electronic systems.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein determining throttling levels for the selected one or more of the electronic systems further comprises determining throttling levels for the selected one or more of the electronic systems based upon the rigidity associated with enforcement of the power budget.

20. A power management the power management system comprising a power management agent and one or more electronic systems, wherein agent comprising:

means for enabling communications between the agent and the one or more electronic systems;

means for monitoring power consumption levels of the one or more electronic systems;

means for predicting a future power consumption level of the one or more electronic systems;

means for determining a power budget threshold for the one or more electronic systems;

means for enabling communications between the power management agent and the one or more electronic systems and enabling communications between the power management agent and at least one oilier power management agent configured to enforce a power budget, to thereby enable management of power among the one or more electronic systems through the power management agent and the at least one other power management agent;

means for determining whether a predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold;

means for selecting at least one of the one or more electronic systems to throttle in response to a determination that the predicted future power consumption level will exceed the power budget threshold and further in response to the relative priority of tasks running on the one or more electronic systems and a prediction of resource usage among the one or more electronic systems; and

means for selecting a throttle level to be applied to the selected at least one of the one or more electronic systems to substantially prevent the future power consumption level from exceeding the power budget threshold.

21. A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage device and comprising code that, when executed, causes ii computer to perform the following:

determine a power budget threshold;

monitor current power consumption levels of electronic systems;

predict a future violation of the power budget threshold;

enable communication between a power management agent configured to enforce a power budget of the electronic systems and at least one other power management agent configured to enforce a power budget, to thereby enable management of power among the electronic systems through the power management agent and the at least one other power management agent;

select one or more of the electronic systems to throttle according to the relative priority of tasks running on the electronic systems and a prediction of resource usage among the electronic systems;

determine throttling levels for the selected one or more of the electronic systems; and

recommend die determined throttling levels to the selected one or wore of the electronic systems to thereby substantially prevent operating the electronic systems at a power consumption level that substantially exceeds the power budget threshold.