System to improve operation of a data center with heterogeneous computing clouds

• US 8,856,321 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iyengar, Madhusudan K., Kamath, Vinod, Kursun, Eren, Schmidt, Roger R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dailey, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIDHALM, ANGELA M
• Application Number:
  US13/077,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20120254400A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709217-219, 709223-224, 709/226, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system to improve operation of a data center with heterogeneous computing clouds may include monitoring components to track data center climate controls and individual heterogeneous computing clouds'"'"' operating parameters within the data center. The system may also include a controller that regulates the individual heterogeneous computing clouds and data center climate controls based upon data generated by the monitoring components to improve the operating performance of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds as well as the operating performance of the data center. The system may further include spilling computing clouds to receive excess workload of an individual heterogeneous computing cloud without violating individual heterogeneous computing clouds contracts.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a data center;

monitoring components to track individual heterogeneous computing clouds'"'"' operating parameters within the data center, the data center operating parameters, and data center climate controls;

a dedicated controller per individual heterogeneous computing cloud that regulates the individual heterogeneous computing clouds and data center climate controls based upon data generated by the monitoring components to improve operating performance of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds as well as operating performance of the data center; and

spilling computing clouds to receive workload of an individual heterogeneous computing cloud without violating individual heterogeneous computing clouds contracts when a temperature threshold of the hardware is expected to be exceeded by activating computing cloud hardware from bottom up of racks.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least some of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds include dedicated hardware that is assigned to one client only.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the individual heterogeneous computing clouds with dedicated hardware exhibit at least one of particular composite application profiles and particular temperature profiles that differ from other individual heterogeneous computing clouds in the same data center.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the spilling computing clouds activate when a threshold based upon at least one of resource demand, and wear-out characteristics of the hardware is expected to be exceeded.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller models at least one of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds and the data center to determine at least one of spilling computing cloud activation thresholds and data center state thresholds.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller regulates sharing of spilling computing clouds resources between individual heterogeneous computing clouds.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein at least some of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds include hardware variations from the other individual heterogeneous computing clouds.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the hardware variations are based upon customization for particular client needs.

9. A method comprising:

tracking individual heterogeneous computing clouds'"'"' operating parameters within a data center, the data center operating parameters, and data center climate controls; and

regulating the individual heterogeneous computing clouds and data center climate controls, via a controller, based upon data generated by monitoring components to improve operating performance of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds as well as operating performance of the data center;

spilling computing clouds workload of an individual heterogeneous computing cloud without violating individual heterogeneous computing clouds contracts when a temperature threshold of the hardware is expected to be exceeded; and

activating computing cloud hardware belonging to the spilling computing clouds from bottom up of racks.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising assigning at least some of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds dedicated hardware that is assigned to one client only, and the individual heterogeneous computing clouds with dedicated hardware exhibit at least one of particular application profiles and particular temperature profiles that differ from other individual heterogeneous computing clouds in the same data center.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the controller regulates sharing of spilling computing clouds resources between other individual heterogeneous computing clouds.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising activating the spilling computing cloud when a threshold based upon at least one of resource demand, and wear-out characteristics of individual heterogeneous computing cloud is expected to be exceeded.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining at least one of spilling computing cloud activation thresholds and data center state thresholds.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising including hardware variations based upon customization for particular client needs for at least some of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds that differ from the other individual heterogeneous computing clouds.

15. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer usable medium comprising:

computer readable program codes coupled to the non-transitory computer usable medium to improve operation of a data center with heterogeneous computing clouds, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to;

track individual heterogeneous computing clouds'"'"' operating parameters within a data center, the data center operating parameters, and data center climate controls;

regulate the individual heterogeneous computing clouds and data center climate controls, via a controller, based upon data generated by monitoring components to improve operating performance of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds as well as operating performance of the data center;

send to spilling computing clouds excess workload of an individual heterogeneous computing cloud without violating individual heterogeneous computing clouds contracts when a temperature threshold of the hardware is expected to be exceeded; and

activate computing cloud hardware belonging to the spilling computing clouds from bottom up of racks.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising program code configured to:

assign at least some of the individual heterogeneous computing clouds dedicated hardware that is assigned to one client only, and the individual heterogeneous computing clouds with dedicated hardware exhibit at least one of particular application profiles and particular temperature profiles that differ from other individual heterogeneous computing clouds in the same data center.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the controller regulates sharing of spilling computing clouds resources between other individual heterogeneous computing clouds.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising program code configured to:

activate the spilling computing cloud when a threshold based upon at least one of resource demand, and wear-out characteristics of individual heterogeneous computing cloud is expected to be exceeded.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising program code configured to:

determine at least one of spilling computing cloud activation thresholds and data center state thresholds.