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The beauty of the system, Xiao says, comes when the two systems work in tandem. The sensors monitor the servers to make sure they're not being overcooled (a common problem in data centers, he says, since people often set the cooling system conservatively, to protect the equipment). In addition, the sensor system watches for hot spots, which can make the air-conditioning system work inefficiently. This information is then used by the load-skewing algorithms. Knowing that you want to shut down 400 servers is one thing. The sensor helps determine which ones to shut down.
Jonathan Koomey, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the author of several reports on data-center energy consumption, says that he sees this type of research as one step toward a big-picture vision for data centers. "There's a focus by the big players in the data-center area to try to get to a point where they can shift computing loads around, dependent on not just electricity prices, but also weather and other variations." Ultimately, Koomey says, this could mean shifting loads not only within a data center, but also from region to region.
The group ran simulations using data from the IM service Windows Live Messenger and found that the system could produce about 30 percent in energy savings, depending on the physical structure of the data center and on how the system is configured. Zhao says that the savings produced by the group's system does depend on how the user chooses to deal with some inherent trade-offs. For example, he says, Microsoft is working on several areas of research that will help in modeling the unexpected, such as load spikes. However, a user might choose to keep more servers than is strictly necessary powered on as a reserve in case of a spike, at a corresponding loss in energy savings. "Our research shows the trade-off between energy saving and performance hit, and lets users choose the right balance," Zhao says.
Other researchers are working on developing techniques for shutting down servers at optimal times. Xiao says that the Microsoft group's work is distinguished by its focus on connection servers and the problems that come with shifting loads when users typically stay logged in for many hours.
"Servers are only being used [about] 15 percent of their maximum computing ability, on average," Koomey says, "so that means a lot of capital sitting around." He expects companies to be very motivated to implement the research that they do in this area, since "they want to make better use of their capital," he says. Wasting energy and computing power doesn't make good business sense.
The processors are slower, but they use much less energy—a huge boon for those who run massive data centers.
Far-flung data centers could use otherwise unharvestable renewable energy for computation.
The social network breaks an unwritten rule by giving away plans to its new data center—an action it hopes will make the Web more efficient.
Temperature, Humidity, Ducting
OK - Temperature is obvious. Why humidity?
What gets done differently if humidity is higher or lower, at one spot versus another?
Lastly, what about ducting?
Concentrating heat removal at the heat source?
(Versus providing cooling to the entire room)
Too expensive to do on a rack by rack or even bank of racks basis?
Already assumed - standard practice?
Re: Temperature, Humidity, Ducting
The fastest answer to the question about humidity is that the sensors are built for more than simply data centers (Zhao told me, for example, that they could be used outdoors for other types of environmental research). It could be that their ability to measure humidity would be best applied in some other context.
That said, I've forwarded your questions to him, in case there is a particular use for knowing the humidity in a data center. Same story on the ducting. I'll let you know when I know more.
Best,
Erica Naone
Re: Temperature, Humidity, Ducting
From Feng Zhao:
"Ducting is an interesting example of re-thinking about the way data centers/racks are designed. In general, moving air (as in room-sized air-conditioning) across a long distance is expensive in energy use. Cooling for the entire room is also expensive. People have been thinking about new form factors/rack arrangement, for example, in the “container data center” form factor from manufacturers such as Rackable and Sun.
"Humidity is usually correlated with temperature (inversely). Humidity is important for the efficiency of the air-conditioning. If the humidity is too high in the return air, one needs to de-humidify the air before cooling."
Save power - stop Spam and Viruses
Since half the traffic served is spam or viruses, how much power could we save if we actually tried to stop them? Nobody selling services or equipment wants to, of course, as they depend on all that illicit traffic for revenue...
Re: Save power - stop Spam and Viruses
SPAM doesn't require a huge data center, just a few dedicated mail servers.
So nobody remembers the ice work of Los Alamos bomb designer T. Tayer. Power up snow makers and make snow in a pound or quarry. It turns in to ice. Lots of it. Cheap. Go North rich guys and make ice to help cool your data centers
GE Sensing had already developed this kind of product
GE Sensing had already developed a similar product some years back. I was the software developer for this GearTrak product and it not only senses temperature and Humidity but also senses Pressure, Noise, Vibration etc. More on the product at
http://www.gesensing.com/products/gear_trak.htm?bc=bc_indust+bc_pro_chm
Thanks,
Kishore Babu Gaddam.
Software Architect,
Bechtel Software Engineering & Construction (SEC)
Re: GE Sensing had already developed this kind of product
Kishore,
You might want to correct the url.. I think the current one is
http://www.gesensing.com/products/rtd_element.htm?bc=null
Guest (Mattaak7)
All Check this out done by a canadian company :
http://www.regenenergy.com/video.html
But I am impressed by price of Microsoft ,
The steam engine was originally used to remove excess water from mines to make them more productive and PROFITABLE.
Why not turn the 'PROBLEM' of waste heat into a profitable SOLUTION?
Engineers building datacentres don't seem to grasp basic principles of physics - hot air rises and draws in cool air to replace it. Instead of mechanically forcing air to cool data centres with low levels of efficiency, allow the natural movement of air to work for FREE.
Architecture has decoded the layout of a termite's nest that keeps it regulated at a constant temperature despite external fluctuations.
I saw a video on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok - created by Puget Systems, that submerged a computer in mineral oil for two years without any problems. The submerged computer had superior heat transfer. An extra benefit was that the submersion eliminated the requirement for filtered air(no more dust to arc and short out components) and the fans were superfluous, reducing electricity requirements.
A datacentre that submerses the servers in mineral oil gains from increased lifespan of electronic components(heat dissipation), reduced electricity usage from removal of cooling fans and easier recovery of heat to make a PROFIT.
Recovered heat could be used in a stirling engine(thermal recovery and conversion) powerplant to create electricity needed by the datacentre to offset that drawn from the grid.
When no further heat can be used to generate electrity, the heat could be sold to a local city to provide preheated hotwater(the idea of combined heat and power electricity powerplants), instead of burning heating oil in winter.
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76 Comments
heat flow
this does give an opportunity for clever engineering--real-life engineering. a fast flow of warm room air may cool better--and far more economically--than a small flow of expensively-cooled air from an air-conditioner. so rather than attempting to chill an entire suite of computers, just keeping them at operating temps with flexible blower and cooler systems that adapt moment to moment could indeed save energy.
heck, think of how well they could HEAT a building in winter!
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