Method for saving power in a system by placing inactive computing devices in optimized configuration corresponding to a specific constraint

• US 8,527,793 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2012
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chan, Hoi Y., Das, Rajarshi, Hanson, James E., Isci, Canturk, Kephart, Jeffrey O., Levine, David W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHIL K
• Application Number:
  US13/603,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20120331318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 364 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/330, 713/340
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Managing readiness states of a plurality of computing devices. A programmed processor unit operates, upon receipt of a request, to: provide one or more computing devices from an inactive pool to an active pool, or accept one or more active computing devices into the inactive pool. The system proactively manages the inactive states of each computing device by: determining the desired number (and identities) of computing devices to be placed in each inactive state of readiness by solving a constraint optimization problem that describes a user-specified trade-off between expected readiness (estimated time to be able to activate computing devices when they are needed next) and conserving energy; generating a plan for changing the current set of inactive states to the desired set; and, executing the plan. Multiple alternative ways of quantifying the desired responsiveness to surges in demand are provided.

Claims

1. A method for managing power consumption in a system including computing devices in both active and one or more inactive states of readiness, the method comprising:

receiving, at a processing unit, a request to one of;

activate or deactivate one or more computing devices from a respective group of inactive or active computing devices, each said inactive or active computing device initially in a pre-determined state of readiness;

activating or deactivating said one or more computing devices, said activating or deactivating resulting in a number of computing devices in one or more states of readiness i;

computing an optimal configuration of said computing devices in said one or more said states of readiness i by minimizing an expected power consumption Σ

_i A_i P_i where i represents all inactive computing device states, A_i represents a number of said computing devices currently in each state i, and, P, represents an average power consumption of computing devices while in said state i; and

,

placing said computing devices in said optimized configuration,

formulating an objective function to be minimized, said objective function representing said expected power consumption Σ

_i A_i P_i subject to a constraint,

wherein, after one of said activating or deactivating one or more computing devices;

computing a resulting activation vector A′

representing said resulting number of computing devices in one or more activation states of readiness i; and

computing an activation vector A″

representing a number of computing devices in said optimized one or more activation states of readiness i;

wherein said objective function is subject to a constraint that R_k≦

R⁰_k for each computing devices k, wherein said R represents a readiness vector, a k^th component R_k representing a minimal amount of time for k computing devices to be restored to an active state given a specific activation vector A and a transition latency matrix T; and

, R⁰ represents a specified readiness vector, a k^th component R⁰_k representing a specified constraint on a maximum time permitted for k inactive servers to be restored to said active state,

wherein a program using said processor unit is configured to perform one or more of said receiving, activating, computing, placing, formulating and said computing said activation vectors A′ and

A″

.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said placing said computing devices in said optimized configuration comprises:

transitioning said computing devices from one inactive state to another to reach a desired power state for each computing device, said transitioning comprising;

generating a plan to minimize a time required to accomplish said transitioning from said activation vector A′

to optimized activation vector A″

according to a transition latency matrix T_ij, representing an expected time required to change an activation state of a computing device from activation state i to activation state j.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said one or more inactive states of readiness includes at least one of:

an idle mode, a standby mode, a hibernate mode, a shutdown-prepared mode, a shutdown-bare mode, and a shutdown-teardown mode.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

specifying a desired demand fluctuation response vector F⁰ such that a k^th component F⁰_k represents a maximum time permitted for a plurality of computing devices to be transitioned in anticipation of a workload intensity increase above a current level; and

converting a requirement expressed in terms of said fluctuation response vector F⁰ to said readiness vector R⁰.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

specifying an upper threshold T_max representing a maximum expected time to activate additional computing devices; and

computing probabilities p_i for i additional computing devices to be needed, where i ranges from 1 to a specified upper threshold, wherein said activation vector A″

is computed by formulating said objective function to minimize an expected power consumption Σ

_i A″

_i P_i given a constraint Σ

_iR_ip_i<

T_max, where Σ

_iR_ip_i is a weighted sum representing the expected time required to make the i computing devices available.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising:

computing said probabilities p_s for “

s”

computing devices by;

specifying c(w) that represents a cumulative workload intensity distribution as a function of a workload intensity “

w”

;

computing a maximal workload intensity level w(s) for which “

s”

servers can attain a pre-determined performance level w(s);

computing a corresponding cumulative distribution value c(w(s)) to denote a probability that an observed cluster-level workload will be less than or equal to w(s); and

computing probability p_s for “

s”

servers to be required according to;

p_s=c(w(s))−

c(w(s−

1));

where cumulative density values c(w(s)) and c(w(s−

1)) correspond respectively to attainable workload intensity for an amount s servers w(s) and the attainable workload intensity for an amount s−

1 servers.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said objective function is subject to a constraint that based on minimizing wear-and-tear on computing resources that result from changing their respective activation state, said constraint comprising one or more of:

specifying a total number of changes in activation state from exceeding a specified value, specifying a total number of changes in activation state within any given time period from exceeding a given upper limit.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, after calculating said desired activation vector A″

,

modifying the desired activation vector into a user-preferred Activation Vector A′

″

; and

, inputting, to a planner device, a sequence of actions for transitioning the computing devices according to said user-preferred Activation Vector A′

″

.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at said processor unit, a request to de-activate one or more active computing devices; and

placing said de-activated computing devices at a specified state of readiness, thereby, resulting in a new activation vector A′

;

solving a constraint optimization problem for computing a best activation vector A″

from said activation state vector A′

;

generating a plan that minimizes a sequence of actions required to switch state of said computing devices from activation state A′

to activation state A″

; and

executing the plan to bring said computing devices to said activation state A″

.