System and method for sequential placement of cooling resources within data center layouts

• US 8,688,413 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Healey, Christopher M., Zhang, Xuanhang
• Primary Examiner(s): Craig, Dwin M
• Application Number:
  US12/982,838
• Publication Number:
  US 20120170205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 703/2
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20745 within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for sequential placement of cooling resources in a data center comprises: defining a weighted, higher-order cooling metric, , representing an overall performance of the cooling resources in the data center; enumerating all possible locations in the data center for placing an additional c cooling resources; and placing the c cooling resources in locations in the data center for which is closest to an optimum value. For a performance metric M_i, the weighted, higher-order cooling performance metric can be defined as

$\hat{M}=\sum _{k=0}^{C-1}\sum _{i=1}^{R}a\left(i,k\right)M_i^{\left(k\right)},$
where R represents a number of racks in the data center, C represents a total number of cooling resources placed in the data center, i represents one of the R racks in the data center, M_i^(k) represents a value of metric M_i when k cooling resources are shut down, and a(i,k) is a weighting function for rack i with the k cooling resources shut down. A system performing the method and computer-readable media having stored thereon instructions causing a processor to perform the method are also provided.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for sequential placement of cooling resources in a data center model, the method comprising:

defining a weighted, higher-order cooling metric, , representing an overall performance of the cooling resources in the data center model, being based on a calculation of at least one performance metric M, wherein k cooling resources having greater impact on M than other cooling resources are omitted from the calculation;

enumerating all possible locations in the data center model for placing an additional c cooling resources; and

placing the c cooling resources in locations in the data center model for which {circumflex over (M)} is closest to an optimum value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining the higher-order cooling metric, , in terms of a cooling index M_i, such that

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating enumerating and placing until a desired stopping condition is met by a resulting placement of cooling resources.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the stopping condition is a desired redundancy level.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

testing whether the desired stopping condition is met by a new resulting placement of cooling resources after removing one cooling resource from the resulting placement of cooling resources.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

identifying that cooling resource which when removed results in a value of closest to an optimum value; and

removing that cooling resource identified.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein M_i is capture index.

8. A system for sequential placement of cooling resources in a data center layout, comprising:

a computer storage system in which is stored a database holding a numerical computer model of the data center layout; and

a computer processor executing a sequence of instructions directing;

defining a weighted, higher-order cooling metric, , representing an overall performance of the cooling resources in the computer model of the data center layout, being based on a calculation of at least one performance metric M, wherein k cooling resources having greater impact on M than other cooling resources are omitted from the calculation;

enumerating all possible locations in the computer model of the data center layout for placing an additional c cooling resources; and

placing the c cooling resources in locations in the computer model of the data center layout for which {circumflex over (M)} is closest to an optimum value.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein defining further comprises:

defining the higher-order cooling metric, , in terms of a cooling index M_i, such that

10. The system of claim 8, the sequence of instructions further comprising:

repeating enumerating and placing until a desired stopping condition is met by a resulting placement of cooling resources.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the stopping condition is a desired redundancy level.

12. The system of claim 10, the sequence of instructions further comprising:

testing whether the desired stopping condition is met by a new resulting placement of cooling resources after removing one cooling resource from the resulting placement of cooling resources.

13. The system of claim 12, the sequence of instructions further comprising:

identifying that cooling resource which when removed results in a value of M closest to an optimum value; and

removing that cooling resource identified.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions for sequentially placing cooling resources in a data center model, the sequences of instructions including instructions that will cause at least one processor to:

define a weighted, higher-order cooling metric, , representing an overall performance of the cooling resources in the data center model, being based on a calculation of at least one performance metric M, wherein k cooling resources having greater impact on M than other cooling resources are omitted from the calculation;

enumerate all possible locations in the data center model for placing an additional c cooling resources; and

place the c cooling resources in locations in the data center model for which is closest to an optimum value.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein defining further comprises:

defining the higher-order cooling metric, , in terms of a cooling index M_i, such that

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, the sequences of instructions further causing the processor to:

repeat enumerating and placing until a desired stopping condition is met by a resulting placement of cooling resources.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the stopping condition is a desired redundancy level.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, the sequences of instructions further causing the processor to test whether the desired stopping condition is met by a new resulting placement of cooling resources after removing one cooling resource from the resulting placement of cooling resources.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, the sequences of instructions further causing the processor to:

identify that cooling resource which when removed results in a value of {circumflex over (M)} closest to an optimum value; and

remove that cooling resource identified.

20. The non-transitory computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein M_i is a capture index metric.