A Unified Model for Holistic Power Usage in Cloud Datacenter Servers

Abstract

Cloud datacenters are compute facilities formed by hundreds and thousands of heterogeneous servers requiring significant power requirements to operate effectively. Servers are composed by multiple interacting sub-systems including applications, microelectronic processors, and cooling which reflect their respective power profiles via different parameters. What is presently unknown is how to accurately model the holistic power usage of the entire server when including all these sub-systems together. This becomes increasingly challenging when considering diverse utilization patterns, server hardware characteristics, air and liquid cooling techniques, and importantly quantifying the non-electrical energy cost imposed by cooling operation. Such a challenge arises due to the need for multi-disciplinary expertise required to study server operation holistically. This work provides a unified model for capturing holistic power usage within Cloud datacenter servers. Constructed through controlled laboratory experiments, the model captures the relationship of server power usage between software, hardware, and cooling agnostic of architecture and cooling type (air and liquid). An exciting prospect is the ability to quantify the amount of non-electrical power consumed through cooling, allowing for more realistic and accurate server power profiles. This work represents the first empirically supported analysis and modeling of holistic power usage for Cloud datacenter servers, and bridges a significant gap between computer science and mechanical engineering research. Model validation through experiments demonstrates an average standard error of 3% for server power usage within both air and liquid cooled environments.