Inferred electrical power consumption of computing devices

• US 8,930,736 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2012
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: James, Sean M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stoynov, Stefan
• Application Number:
  US13/409,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20130232369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• 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 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3428 Benchmarking
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The power consumption of a computing device is inferred from the utilization rates of individual components of the computing device and a utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function that was derived by benchmarking that, or an analogous, computing device. The inferred power consumption of a computing device is aggregated to infer the power consumption of various groups and super-groups of computing devices. The historical power consumption of computing devices is inferred based on the utilization rates of individual components of the computing devices at relevant times in the past. Historical power consumption is used to derive a power consumption profile of a computing device and the inferred current power consumption of such a computing device is compared to such a power consumption profile, and to the historical power consumption, to identify deviations therefrom, which can provide proactive detection of potential hardware faults, software glitches, or other errors.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable memory comprising computer-executable instructions for generating a utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function for a computing device, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising:

recording a measured idle power consumption of the computing device while the computing device is idling, the measured idle power consumption having been measured by a power monitor that is external to the computing device and independent of the computing device;

triggering a utilization of a first hardware component of the computing device such that the first hardware component is utilized at a first predefined utilization level;

recording a measured first power consumption of the computing device while the first hardware component of the computing device is being utilized at the first predefined utilization level, an identification of the first hardware component, and the first predefined utilization level;

repeating the triggering and the recording for subsequent predefined utilization levels of the first hardware component that differ from the first predefined utilization level;

generating a first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function from the recorded power consumption of the computing device while the first hardware component was being utilized at the predefined levels and the recorded utilization levels of the first hardware component; and

generating a computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function by aggregating the first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function and the recorded idle power consumption of the computing device.

2. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, comprising further computer-executable instructions for:

triggering a utilization of a second hardware component of the computing device that is different from the first hardware component of the computing device such that the second hardware component is utilized at a first predefined utilization level;

recording a measured second power consumption of the computing device while the second hardware component of the computing device is being utilized at the first predefined utilization level, an identification of the second hardware component, and the first predefined utilization level;

repeating the triggering and the recording for subsequent predefined utilization levels of the second hardware component that differ from the first predefined utilization level; and

generating a second hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function from the recorded power consumption of the computing device while the second hardware component was being utilized at the predefined levels and the recorded utilization levels of the second hardware component;

wherein the generating the computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function further comprises aggregating the second hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function with the first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function and the recorded idle power consumption of the computing device.

3. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the first hardware component is one or more central processing units of the computing device.

4. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the first hardware component is a random access memory of the computing device.

5. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the first hardware component is one or more drives of the computing device.

6. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein the first predefined utilization level is one of:

a reading of data, a writing of data, or a simultaneous reading and writing of data; and

wherein further the subsequent predefined utilization levels are others of;

the reading the data, the writing the data or the simultaneous reading and writing of the data.

7. One or more computer-readable memory comprising computer-executable instructions for inferring a power consumption of a computing device from utilization information indicating a utilization of at least one hardware component of the computing device, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising:

obtaining the utilization information indicating the utilization of the at least one hardware component of the computing device;

identifying a computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function of a tested computing device that is equivalent to the computing device from which the utilization information was obtained;

providing the obtained utilization information as input to the identified computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function;

generating the inferred power consumption of the computing device from an output of the identified computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function corresponding to the input of the obtained utilization information;

comparing the inferred power consumption of the computing device to a historical power consumption of the computing device and to a power profile of the computing device that was derived from the historical power consumption; and

generating a notification if the inferred power consumption of the computing device deviates from either the power profile of the computing device or from the historical power consumption of the computing device.

8. The one or more computer-readable memory of claim 7, wherein the obtained utilization information is a historical utilization information of the computing device indicating a utilization of the computing device in the past.

9. The one or more computer-readable memory of claim 8, comprising further computer-executable instructions for generating a power profile of the computing device from the inferred power consumption of the computing device that is inferred from the historical utilization information.

10. The one or more computer-readable memory of claim 7, comprising further computer-executable instructions for generating an inferred power consumption of a group of computing devices by aggregating an inferred power consumption of each computing device in the group of computing devices.

11. The one or more computer-readable memory of claim 7, wherein the comparing either reveals that the historical power consumption varies cyclically over a period of time while the inferred power consumption has remained consistent for the period of time or reveals that the historical power consumption remains below a threshold while the inferred power consumption has exceeded the threshold.

12. A system comprising:

a first computing device whose power consumption will be inferred from utilization information indicating a level of utilization of one or more components of the first computing device;

a first computer-readable memory that will be communicationally coupled to the first computing device to benchmark the first computing device, the first computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions for;

recording a measured idle power consumption of the first computing device while the first computing device is idling, the measured idle power consumption having been measured by a power monitor that is external to the first computing device and independent of the first computing device;

triggering a utilization of a first hardware component of the first computing device such that the first hardware component is utilized at a first predefined utilization level;

recording a measured first power consumption of the first computing device while the first hardware component of the first computing device is being utilized at the first predefined utilization level, an identification of the first hardware component, and the first predefined utilization level;

repeating the triggering and the recording for subsequent predefined utilization levels of the first hardware component that differ from the first predefined utilization level;

generating a first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function from the recorded power consumption of the computing device while the first hardware component was being utilized at the predefined levels and the recorded utilization levels of the first hardware component; and

generating a first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function by aggregating the first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function and the recorded idle power consumption of the first computing device; and

a power consumption inferring computing device executing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising;

obtaining the utilization information from the first computing device;

identifying the first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function;

providing the obtained utilization information as input to the identified first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function; and

generating the inferred power consumption of the first computing device from an output of the identified first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function corresponding to the input of the obtained utilization information.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a second computing device, equivalent to the first computing device, whose power consumption will be inferred from utilization information indicating a level of utilization of one or more components of the second computing device;

wherein the power consumption inferring computing device executes further computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising;

obtaining the utilization information from the second computing device;

identifying the first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function;

providing the obtained utilization information as input to the identified first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function; and

generating the inferred power consumption of the second computing device from an output of the identified first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function corresponding to the input of the obtained utilization information.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the power consumption inferring computing device executes further computer-executable instructions that, when executed, generate an inferred power consumption of a group of computing devices comprising the first computing device and the second computing device by aggregating the inferred power consumption of the first computing device and the inferred power consumption of the second computing device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the first computer-readable storage medium comprises further computer-executable instructions for:

triggering a utilization of a second hardware component of the first computing device that is different from the first hardware component of the first computing device such that the second hardware component is utilized at a first predefined utilization level;

recording a measured second power consumption of the first computing device while the second hardware component of the first computing device is being utilized at the first predefined utilization level, an identification of the second hardware component, and the first predefined utilization level;

repeating the triggering and the recording for subsequent predefined utilization levels of the second hardware component that differ from the first predefined utilization level; and

generating a second hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function from the recorded power consumption of the first computing device while the second hardware component was being utilized at the predefined levels and the recorded utilization levels of the second hardware component;

wherein the generating the first computing device utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function further comprises aggregating the second hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function with the first hardware component utilization-to-power-consumption transfer function and the recorded idle power consumption of the first computing device.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first hardware component is one or more drives of the first computing device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first predefined utilization level is one of:

a reading of data, a writing of data, or a simultaneous reading and writing of data; and

wherein further the subsequent predefined utilization levels are others of;

the reading the data, the writing the data or the simultaneous reading and writing of the data.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the obtained utilization information is a historical utilization information of the first computing device indicating a utilization of the first computing device in the past.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the power consumption inferring computing device executes further computer-executable instructions that, when executed, generate a power profile of the first computing device from the inferred power consumption of the first computing device that is inferred from the historical utilization information.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the power consumption inferring computing device executes further computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising:

comparing the inferred power consumption of the first computing device to a historical power consumption of the first computing device and to a power profile of the first computing device that was derived from the historical power consumption; and

generating a notification if the inferred power consumption of the first computing device deviates from either the power profile of the first computing device or from the historical power consumption of the first computing device.