Allowing clients to limited control on power consumed by the cloud while executing the client's tasks

• US 9,292,060 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Marr, Michael David, Klein, Matthew D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Poudel, Santosh R
• Application Number:
  US13/536,509
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 713/340
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/00 Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00 architectures of general purpose stored program computers G06F15/76
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

Customers in a multi-tenant environment can obtain power consumption information for a set of resources or other computing components used by those customers, including time-accurate accounting for various components of those resources utilized on behalf of the customer. A customer can also have the ability to specify how the resources are to be operated when used for the customer, in order to manage the amount of power consumption. The accounting can be performed even when the resources are shared among multiple users or entities. Various hardware components or agents can be used to provide detailed power consumption information for those components that is associated with a particular customer. The information can be used not only for accounting and monitoring purposes, but also to make dynamic adjustments based on various changes in usage, power consumption, or other such factors.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, comprising:

monitoring usage of a set of computing components in one or more computing resources by each of a plurality of users, each of the computing components in the computing resources of the multi-tenant environment being configured to assist in the processing of a user workload;

determining a percentage of the usage of each of the set of computing components that is attributable to each of the plurality of users over a selected period of time;

determining an amount of power consumption for each of the set of computing components over the selected period of time;

allocating an amount of power consumption for the set of computing components to each of the plurality of users, the amount of power consumption for one of the plurality of users being determined based at least in part upon the percentage of the usage of each of the set of computing components that is attributable to the one of the plurality of users and the amount of power consumption for each of the set of computing components over that selected period of time;

determining at least one adjustment for reducing an amount of power consumption by at least one of the set of computing components for at least one user in the plurality of users; and

using a power console interface to enable at least one of the users to request limited power state control of at least one of the computing components in the multi-tenant environment.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein information about the amount of power consumption attributable to one of the plurality of users is determined for each workload processed for the user using the set of computing components.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein information about the amount of power consumption for the one of the plurality of users includes an amount of environmental impact corresponding to the power consumption.

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

enabling each user to purchase environmental credits to offset at least a portion of the amount of environmental impact attributable to the user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the power consumption information includes a number of Watts used by at least one of the computing components that is attributable to each user.

6. A computer-implemented method for managing power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, comprising:

determining a workload to be performed on behalf of a customer using at least one hardware computing component in the multi-tenant environment;

providing, to the at least one hardware computing component, information associated with the customer along with information for performing the workload, the at least one hardware computing component being configured to assist in the processing of the workload;

obtaining workload processing information from the at least one hardware computing component, the workload processing information enabling a determination of an amount of power consumed by the at least one hardware computing component during the processing of the workload performed on behalf of the customer;

determining at least one adjustment for reducing an amount of power consumption by the at least one hardware computing component when processing subsequent workloads on behalf of the customer; and

using a power console interface to enable the customer to request limited power state control of the at least one hardware computing component in the multi-tenant environment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the workload processing information includes the amount of power consumed by the at least one hardware computing component during the processing of the workload.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the workload processing information includes at least one of a type or a number of operations used during the processing of the workload.

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

enabling the customer to obtain at least a portion of the workload processing consumption information.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the workload processing consumption information is used for determining an amount to charge the customer.

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

providing a software agent to execute on the at least one hardware computing component, wherein obtaining the workload processing consumption information from the at least one hardware computing component includes receiving the power consumption information from the software agent.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the workload processing consumption information is provided by a counter of the hardware computing component, the counter configured to increment with units of power consumption.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein obtaining the workload processing consumption information from the at least one hardware computing component includes reading the power consumption information from a register of the hardware computing component.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the hardware computing component includes at least one of a host machine, a processor, memory, a physical storage device, or a network interface card.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the customer is enabled to access the workload processing consumption information through an API of a Web services layer of the multi-tenant environment.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the at least one hardware computing component is operable to provide workload processing consumption information for each of a plurality of customers, and power consumption information including an amount of power consumption by the at least one hardware computing component that is attributable to each of the plurality of customers.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the workload processing consumption information includes information about an operational state of the at least one hardware computing component during the processing.

18. A hardware device, comprising:

an interface enabling the hardware device to receive workload information regarding a workload to be performed on behalf of a user, and user information associated with the user;

a mechanism for performing the workload on behalf of the user, the mechanism configured to operate in one of at least two operational states;

a counter configured to increment with an amount of power consumed by the hardware device during performing of the workload on behalf of the user;

at least one register configured to store information about the amount of power consumed performing the workload on behalf of the user as determined by the counter and information identifying the user, the at least one register exposed to at least one application configured to obtain the amount of power consumption; and

a power console interface for enabling the user limited power state control of a computing component in a multi-tenant environment,

wherein the hardware device is provided as the computing component in the multi-tenant environment.

19. The hardware device of claim 18, wherein the at least one register is capable of storing information about the amount of power consumption for multiple users, the information about the power consumption being stored with the user information for the associated user.

20. The hardware device of claim 18, wherein the at least one register is configured to be flushed after reading by the application.

21. The hardware device of claim 18, wherein a rate at which the counter is incremented is based at least in part upon the operational state of the hardware device during the performing.

22. The hardware device of claim 18, wherein the counter resets with at least one of each new workload or each new customer.

23. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for determining power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, the instructions when executed by at least one processor of a computing system causing the computing system to:

determine a workload to be performed on behalf of a customer using at least one hardware computing component in the multi-tenant environment;

provide, to the at least one hardware computing component, information associated with the customer along with information for processing the workload, the at least one hardware computing component being configured to assist in the processing of the workload;

obtain workload processing information from the at least one hardware computing component, the workload processing information enabling a determination of an amount of power consumed by the at least one hardware computing component during the processing of the workload performed on behalf of the customer;

determining at least one adjustment for reducing an amount of power consumption by the at least one hardware computing component when processing subsequent workloads on behalf of the customer; and

using a power console interface to enable the customer to request limited power state control of the at least one computing component in the multi-tenant environment.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:

provide a software agent to execute on the at least one hardware computing component, wherein obtaining the power consumption information from the at least one hardware computing component includes receiving the power consumption information from the software agent.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the workload processing information includes the amount of power consumed by the at least one hardware computing component during the processing of the workload.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the workload processing information about at least one of a type or a number of operations used during the processing of the workload.