Managing resource power states in shared environments

• US 9,348,391 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• 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:
  US13/536,482
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 713/321
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

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 managing power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, comprising:

monitoring usage of/computing components on behalf of a customer over a first period of time;

determining an amount of power consumption attributable to the usage on behalf of the customer, the amount of power consumption being based at least in part upon at least one operational state of the one or more computing components during the usage;

providing the customer with information about the amount of power consumption;

enabling the customer to request a change in an operational state of at least one of the one or more computing components for usage on behalf of the customer over a second period of time, including enabling the customer to request to have limited power state control of at least one of the one or more computing components, the change in the operational state affecting the amount of power consumption over the second period of time;

receiving, by a power console interface configured to limit power state control of at least one of the one or more computing components in the multi-tenant environment, a request from the customer to change the operational state of at least one of the one or more computing components to a requested operational state; and

in response to receiving the request from the customer to change the operational state of at least one of the one or more computing components to the requested operational state, updating one or more configuration parameters for usage of the one or more computing components on behalf of the customer when the change in operational state meets at least one allowable change criterion, the updating one or more configuration parameters causing the at least one of the one or more computing components to operate in the requested operational state when used for a subsequent task on behalf of the customer.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one allowable change criterion includes the customer having access to hardware supporting the one or more computing components.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one allowable change criterion includes at least one of the usage on behalf of the customer being able to meet at least one service guarantee with the change in the operational state or the change not adversely affecting another customer utilizing the at least one of the one or more computing components.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the customer is enabled to request a change in an operational state using a Web service request submitted to an application programming interface (API) of a multi-tenant environment.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the customer is enabled to view the information about the amount of power consumption using a service provided by a provider of the multi-tenant environment.

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

receiving a request from a user to adjust an operational state of a computing component in the multi-tenant environment when the computing component is performing a task on behalf of the user, the operational state affecting a rate of power consumption of the computing component;

determining an amount of power consumption for performing a task, on behalf of the user, using the computing component in the operational state;

enabling the user to obtain information regarding the amount of power consumption for performing the task and enabling the user to have limited power state control of the computing component; and

receiving, by a power console interface configured to limit power state control of the computing component in the multi-tenant environment, the request from the user to change the operational state of the computing component.

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

switching the computing component to the operational state before performing the task when the computing component is in a different operational state.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the user has access to hardware for the computing component, the user enabled to adjust the operational state as desired during a period of the access.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the request indicates a priority of one or more processing parameters affecting the rate of power consumption of the computing component, and

wherein a management component of the multi-tenant environment determines the operational state for the computing component based at least in part upon the priority indicated by the customer of the one or more processing parameters.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the one or more processing parameters include at least one of performance, throughput, latency, or power consumption.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the rate of power consumption is controlled to ensure at least one of a maximum instantaneous power consumption rate or an amount of power consumption over a determined period of time.

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

determining whether the request to adjust the operational state of a computing component meets at least one operational criteria; and

adjusting the operational state of the computing component when processing a task for the user customer to an extent allowable under the at least one operational criteria.

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

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the operational state includes at least one of a power state, an operational state, an idle state, a clock speed, or an active state.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining the amount of power consumption for the computing component includes providing context about the user to the computing component for processing and requesting information from the computing component after completion of the processing.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the request is received through an API of a Web services layer of the multi-tenant environment.

17. A computer-implemented method for providing information about power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, comprising:

receiving a first task to be performed on behalf of a first customer using a specified operational state for at least one computing component in the multi-tenant environment;

performing the first task using the at least one computing component;

determining an amount of power consumption attributable to the performing of the first task, the amount of power consumption being based at least in part upon a first operational state of the at least one computing component during the performing of the first task;

enabling the first customer to access information about the amount of power consumption and enabling the first customer to have limited power state control of at least one of the computing components; and

receiving, by a power console interface configured to limit power state control of the at least one computing component in the multi-tenant environment, a request from the first customer to change the first operational state of the at least one computing component.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein determining an amount of power consumption includes contacting the at least one computing component for the amount of power consumption attributable to the first customer.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising, in response to receiving the first task to be performed on behalf of the first customer:

determining a current operational state of the at least one computing component associated with a second customer;

storing information about the current operational state of the at least one computing component associated with the second customer; and

setting the at least one computing component to the first operational state for use in performing the first task when the first operational state is different from the current operational state of the at least one computing component.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein an amount of power consumption for the at least one computing component is different when operating in the first operational state than when operating in the current second operational state.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the stored information stored is capable of being used by the at least one computing component to adjust the first operational state of the at least one computing component when another task for the second customer is to be performed by the at least one computing component.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising:

tracking an amount of power consumption by the at least one computing component attributable to each of the first and second customers, wherein the amount of power consumption includes power consumption experienced during a switch between the current operational state and the first operational state.

23. A system for managing power consumption in a multi-tenant environment, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

receive a request from a user to adjust an operational state of a computing component in the multi-tenant environment when the computing component is performing a task on behalf of the user, the operational state affecting a rate of power consumption of the computing component;

receive a task to be performed on behalf of the user using the computing component;

perform the task using the computing component in the operational state after any adjusting;

determine an amount of power consumption for performing the task using the computing component;

enable the user to obtain information regarding the amount of power consumption for performing the task and enable the user to have limited power state control of the computing component; and

receive, by a power console interface configured to limit power state control of the computing component in the multi-tenant environment, the request from the user to change the operational state of the computing component.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

switch the computing component to the operational state before performing the task when the computing component is in a different operational state.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the computing component includes at least one of a host machine, a virtual instance, a processor, memory, a physical storage device, or a peripheral device, and

wherein the operational state includes at least one of a power state, an operational state, an idle state, a clock speed, or an active state.

26. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for managing 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:

receive a request from a user to use a specified operational state for a computing component in the multi-tenant environment when the computing component is performing a task on behalf of the user, the specified operational state affecting a rate of power consumption of the computing component;

determine a task to be performed on behalf of the user using the computing component;

perform the task using the computing component in the specified operational state;

determine an amount of power consumption for performing the task using the computing component;

enable a user to have limited power state control of the computing component; and

receive, by a power console interface configured to limit power state control of the computing component in the multi-tenant environment, the request from the user to change the specified operational state of the computing component.

27. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one processor to:

enable the user to obtain information regarding the amount of power consumption for performing the task.

28. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the computing component includes at least one of a host machine, a virtual instance, a processor, memory, a physical storage device, or a peripheral device;

and

wherein the specified operational state includes at least one of a power state, an operational state, an idle state, a clock speed, or an active state.