Patent Application
20160073543
A data center is a facility used to house computer networks, computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It may include redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (for example, air conditioning, fire suppression, etc.) and security devices. Data center design, construction, and operation may be in accordance with standard documents from accredited professional groups.
A data center can occupy one room of a building, one or more floors, or an entire building. The equipment in a data center may be in the form of servers mounted in rack cabinets. Each rack mounted server includes one or more power supplies. A data center may also include blade systems. A blade system includes one or more blade servers that are mounted in an enclosure that includes several slots, one slot for each blade server. In this manner, the enclosure, or chassis, can hold multiple blade servers that are mounted on a single board. The chassis may obtain power from one or more power supplies that are associated with the chassis as a whole.
Certain examples are described in the following detailed description and in reference to the drawings, in which:
As discussed above, one or more blade servers may be contained in the chassis of a blade system. Power, cooling, networking, and access to peripheral devices are typically provided to the blade servers through the chassis. The chassis may also house power supplies, cooling devices, electrical power connections, data interconnections, and peripheral 110 devices that communicate with the blade servers. During operation, each blade server consumes power from the one or more power supplies to the chassis.
Power consumption within a data center may be managed following various strategies. The limits on power consumption within a data center may be referred to as power capping. Typically, power capping strategies concentrate on power usage at the chassis level for rack mount servers, blade servers, and both one- and multi-node chassis blade systems. A cap refers to a type of limit, such that a power cap is a limit on power and a power consumption cap is a limit on power consumption. A node refers to a group of one or more blade servers within a blade system. In some examples, each node is a cartridge within the chassis. Group capping may be performed, however, group capping applies to rack and chassis level granularity, not blade server level granularity.
Examples described herein relate generally to techniques for zoneable power regulation within a chassis enclosure. More specifically, systems and methods described herein relate to regulating power consumption at various levels of granularity within a chassis enclosure. Furthermore, each blade server may be grouped into a node or a zone, and the chassis power may be regulated on a per-blade level, per-node level, or a per-zone level. As a result, a power cap may be set for each blade server, node, or zone within the blade system.
In particular, the system may include a power subsystem 106 that supplies power to the system 100. The power system 106 may be used to supply power to each of the blade servers 102. In some examples, the power system 106 is a single power supply. Additionally, in some examples, the power system 106 is a redundant set of power supplies, wherein one or more backup power supplies are used to ensure a continuous supply of power to the system 100. The system is also cooled by a cooling subsystem 108. The cooling subsystem 108 may include fans operated by one or more controllers. The cooling subsystem 108 may also be a liquid cooled system.
One or more peripherals 110 may be included in the system 100. The peripherals 110 include any component that can be used in conjunction with the blade servers 102. For example, the peripherals 110 include storage devices such as a hard drive, storage area network (SAN), and input/output (I/O) devices. In some examples, each blade server 102 may include an on-board memory device that stores instructions that are executable by the processor of each blade device. The on-board memory device can include random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, or any other suitable memory systems.
In some examples, an I/O device may include a keyboard and a pointing device, wherein the pointing device may include a touchpad or a touchscreen, among others. Additionally, the I/O device may be a touchscreen that includes a virtual keyboard that is rendered on the touchscreen. The I/O device may also be externally connected to the system 100, or the I/O device may be internal to the system 100. The peripherals 110 may also include a display adapted to render the output of the system 100. In examples, the display may be a display screen that is external to the system 100. Additionally, in examples, the display and an I/O device may be combined into one touchscreen.
The system 100 also includes a controller 112 that is used to control each blade server 102. In some examples, the chassis of the blade system is used to route each blade server to the controller 112 via a series of interconnects. Additionally, in some examples, each node is routed to the controller 112. In such a scenario, when there are multiple blade servers for each node, there is only one signal routed to the controller 112 from the node. The node may serve as the cartridge, with each blade server enabling processor, networking, and memory functionality. In this manner, throttling may be on a node level in a multi-blade server per node. However, in some examples, a single blade server 102 can initiate a request to throttle for the entire node. The controller 112 may also be used to manage each blade server 102, and may include management device logic. The controller 112 may also be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD) or a microcontroller. In some examples, the management device logic allocates one or more nodes to one or more capping zones. A capping zone is a set of nodes that are subject to the same power cap. The controller 112 may also be used to cap the power consumption of each blade server individually. Further, the controller 112 may cap the power consumption within a blade system chassis using a per-node basis or a per-zone basis. As a result, using zoneable power regulation can modify the power capping strategy down to a single blade server granularity. The power capping strategy may be a dynamic technique to regulate power consumption that is implemented using system hardware and firmware. In this manner, a power capping strategy is not dependent on an operating system or applications. In some examples, a user may modify the power capping strategy. Further, in some examples, the power capping strategy may be automatically modified based on rules for inter-zone power regulation or intra-zone power regulation. Although the description of the present techniques described herein use a zone basis or a node basis for power capping, the present techniques may also be used on a blade server basis for power capping.
The controller 112 may implement a set of rules to enable inter-zone power regulation. Rules for inter-zone power regulation may cap power across zones based on the relationship between the various zones. The controller 112 may also implement a set of rules to enable intra-zone power regulation, where the power consumption of elements within each zone is individually capped. Elements within each zone include one or more nodes, with each node including one or more blade servers. The controller 112 may also implement a power capping strategy.
In some examples, each blade server 102 is routed to the controller 112 using a series of interconnects. The controller 112 is able to dynamically assign each blade server 102 to a node. In some examples, in response to a request, the controller 112 may provide feedback including an identification of nodes allocated in the system 100 and an indication of which nodes belong to which zones. The feedback may also include the designation of which blade servers belong to which node. The allocation of the nodes and blade servers may be modified by a user. In some examples, the ability to modify a zone may be implemented through a licensing structure. In particular, a user may modify the zone allocation after the user has obtained a license with permission to modify the zone allocation.
The system 100 also includes a network interface controller (NIC) 114. In some examples, the NIC 114 may be one or more NICs integrated into each blade server 102. Additionally, in some examples, the NIC 114 is integrated into the backplane 104. The NIC 114 may be used to connect the system 100 to networks such as the Internet. In examples, the NIC 114 may implement a telnet protocol, transmission control protocol (TCP), internet protocol (IP), or any other networking communication protocol.
The system 120 also includes a controller 126 that is used to control the blade system 124 and the power supply 122. In some examples, the controller 126 is the controller 112 as illustrated in
It is to be understood that the block diagrams of
At block 204, a power capping strategy for each node of the plurality of nodes is determined. In examples, a power cap is determined. The power cap is a maximum power level that has been determined for each zone. In some examples, the power capping strategy may include a set of rules that may be applied to regulate the power to each node of the set of one or more nodes.
At block 206, the power to each node of the set of one or more nodes is regulated based on the power capping strategy. In some examples, the power to each node may be regulated using a duty cycle, where the duty cycle is asserted for each node in order to regulate the power consumed by each node based on the power cap. The duty cycle to a node may be removed or adjusted when that node's power consumption has fallen to less that the power cap for that node. Further, in some examples, the power to each node may be regulated using a general purpose input/output device. The power to each node may also be regulated using a networking device, power control device, and the like to modify the power output from a power system.
In some examples, the addition of power capping zones enables a user, such as a chassis manager, to use numerous inputs to provide capping with localized performance costs. Performance costs may be, for example, associated with the clock frequency of components within each zone, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a memory device. For example, a chassis manager can use inputs such as thermal data, anticipated power consumption, chassis configuration, and desired levels of service to cap the power consumed by each zone within a chassis. As a result, the chassis manager can enforce a power consumption cap of a power capping strategy using various techniques based on the sensor input data. These techniques include, but are not limited to, a round robin scheme to increase performance over the entire chassis, as well as developing a licensed environment where zones have weighted values attached to them for preferential treatment. In some examples, preferential treatment may include a variable power allocation for each zone, where zones with a higher value receive a higher preference when there is a contention for available power under the power capping scheme. The variable power allocation may depend on the type of license or service agreement purchased for the operation of the chassis.
The various software components discussed herein may be stored on the tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media 300, as indicated in
It is to be understood that
While the present techniques may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, the exemplary examples discussed above have been shown only by way of example. It is to be understood that the technique is not intended to be limited to the particular examples disclosed herein. Indeed, the present techniques include all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents falling within the true spirit and scope of the appended claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2013/035147 | 4/3/2013 | WO | 00 |
