Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Referred to as “supply side” management, a common process for determining demand for power is to total the ‘nameplate’ maximum power consumption figures of the equipment in the environment. For organizations that want better data, hardware monitors can show how much power a specific device is drawing or software utilities can provide similar information. But these are essentially point solutions that aren’t comprehensive and produce raw data which must be compiled (typically on a spreadsheet) to provide actionable information. Some companies turn to their vendors for guidance on managing their power usage. But these vendors may not be totally objective, as they’re the same vendors that sell the UPSs, power distribution and cooling equipment.

What

Viridity’s EnergyCenter is a software solution for data center infrastructure management (DCIM) that provides realtime power consumption figures for all servers, instead of simply adding up theoretical maximums for all systems in the data center (regardless of whether they’re turned off, idle or running at peak). The EnergyCenter solution can calculate the amount of power actually being consumed at regular intervals and plot it to show variations due to the applications in use, the time of day, the period in the billing cycle, etc.

How

Viridity’s Genome database is at the heart of this technology. It’s a compilation of actual power consumption values for thousands of server configurations that Viridity developed themselves through lab testing over the past several years. They’ve also set up agreements with infrastructure manufacturers to provide ongoing test data to expand and enrich the database. These tests capture power consumption at several operational levels which is used to create a linear relationship between CPU utilization and power consumption for each server model and configuration.

Along with this information, the system uses SNMP traps to capture CPU usage on each server and calculates its power consumption. Then the totals for all the servers in the environment are taken, including those which are idle or powered down. The new EnergyCenter 2.0 release allows for the tracking of asset groups to support more detailed analysis and activities like chargeback. As well as adding support for HPUX and AIX, this new release also provides data for BTU and CFM analysis, which are used in cooling systems design.

Why

Rather than simply telling you how much power the data center could draw, Viridity’s solution shows how much power it IS drawing at any given moment in time or time period. It can show which servers are underutilized and when, or which servers are the top consumers, and when. With this information applications can be moved around to balance the overall workload, smoothing out the spikes in consumption, one of the factors which has historically driven the over-provisioning of power.

The cooling infrastructure is another resource that can be optimized with the information provided by EnergyCenter. Servers running at peak levels also create more heat and the physical distribution of these boxes in the data center can affect cooling efficiency. Knowing how much each system is consuming and when can enable managers to modify placement within equipment racks and rack placement within the data center to maximize cooling effectiveness.

With accurate, more ‘steady-state’ consumption data, it’s easier to know when data center power capacities are really being reached. This information can then show how much additional resources will be needed with an expansion or when a new data center is really required.

Storage Swiss Take

IT people are famous for finding a way to get the job done, especially without adequate tools or resources. Case in point, IT managers typically don’t have good information on power consumption, but use the information they have to make decisions about data center infrastructure management. Unfortunately, with only static ‘nameplate’ specs or spreadsheets to rely on, most companies end up over-provisioning data center power infrastructures.

With the scarcity of power and corporate real estate that exists in many areas of the country, this kind of over-building can be a tremendous waste of money. With the kind of  day to day, hour to hour information that Viridity can provide, it’s a different situation. Efficient data center infrastructure management is now available, something that should be of interest to all companies, not just those currently challenged by energy and real estate scarcity.

Eric Slack, Senior Analyst