energy efficient ict at the university of sheffield chris cartledge independent consultant...
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Energy Efficient ICT at the
University of Sheffield
Chris Cartledge
Independent Consultant
With thanks to
The University of Sheffield
SusteIT
Practical Steps for ICT Electricty
Use Improvement ICT Electricity Use Footprint
IT equipment, Measuring and Costing The Electricity Bill Purchasing
Data Centres European Code of Conduct ASHRAE 2008
PCs Practical purchasing A benchmark
PCsServersNetworkTelephonyPrintingAV
University of SheffieldICT Electricity Use (2008)
More than £1M/year
About 20% Institution use
PCs dominate Servers: over
30% (including HPC & departmental)
University of SheffieldData Centres Electricity (2008)
PCsData CentresPrintingAV
Servers, Network, PABX
Over 40% of ICT use, £400,000 p/a
Including departmental & remote cabinets
Could be higher – overheads underestimated?
Measuring Power Use
Manufacturer's figures
Where they exist
Measure equipment
Instantaneously or
Over a period or better
Monitor continuously
Use meter readings
Remember aircon, UPS, etc overheads
Electricity Cost
In 2008, electricity was 10p per unit (kilowatt hour) plus VAT (5%) and climate change levy? has increased and is increasing, so now say 15p Over a year of 365*24 = 8760 hours About £1.80 per watt per year
Date centres Measured air conditioning overhead at Sheffield is 1.8 Typical, and much lower than aircon CoP (earlier estimate was
1.5) Now continuously monitored by SNMP and Ganglia So for equipment in data centre, electricity costs 27p per unit Over a year, about £2.40 per watt of IT equipment installed
IT Equipment Buying
Typically, it is blind to electricity consumption
The bill is somebody else's responsibility
Information not always easily available
Cost from configuration tool, but not electricity use
Lots of other complex issues: VMware, Wake on
LAN, Stable platform, etc...
Sheffield includes life cost of electricity in VFM
Purchasing Example Sun X2200 HPC Server
~25% Power Saving worth £130 p/a
Standard, 2PSU, 16*2GB
Standard, 1 PSU, 16*2GB
Standard, 1 PSU, 8*4GB
HE Processor, 1PSU, 8*4GB
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
StandbyIdleWorking
Watts
Sheffield Data Centres Two, conventional:
Dark - with the lights off!
Physical changes Hot aisle – cold aisle arranged, with some aisle containment Redundant aircon units switched off Power monitoring, using SNMP capable distribution blocks, into
Ganglia
Equipment changes Virtualisation – PC, SPARC servers and storage (NAS)
Redundant equipment switched off HPC compute servers powered up dynamically
Signed up to EU Code of Conduct on Data Centres IT working with Estates - not always easy
Code of Conduct for Data Centres A European Action to Improve Energy Efficiency
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data%20centers.htm
Best Practice Guidelines to enable change
About 120 good practices: covers all issues
Including on setting up a project to bring about change
An excellent, readable, How To Do It guide
Unlikely to become compulsory HEFCE mindful of University independence But possibly unavoidable?
Sheffield has signed up to it
EU Code of ConductGroup Involvement
Establish a cross disciplinary change board Consider impacts, ensure effective solution Definition of standard IT hardware M&E implications of new services Audit existing equipment
optimise and consolidate where possible Virtualisation Temperature set point Identify and deal with little used and unused services
EU Code of Conduct
Some Top Rated PracticesBuy energy efficient IT devices
Use virtualised servers and storage
Switch off hardware for unused services
Virtualise little used services
Separate cold air from heated return air
Use free or economised cooling
Increase temperature set points
Desktop PCs
Monitors LCDs much better than CRTs Now power down automatically, by default
Desktop PCs Powered down, when not in use Thin client (Sunray) deployed where appropriate Lifetime cost of electricity factored into purchase decisions Other issues – in particular maintaining a stable platform
It has not been feasible to have PCs specially built Instead Standard PCs are configured to be electrically efficient
PCsInformation on energy consumption now better
EnergyStar Typical Energy consumption available
A guide - good for office PCs, not 24 hour use
BUT PCs could/should be better! In 2007 Sheffield identified Mac Mini as Best in
Class
Still is today: a genuine core 2 duo PC but not feasible
No Windows license not a standard PC platform...
Apple Mac Mini vs PCs
Watts Off Watts Idle
Apple Mac mini, Z0H5 0.2 1.3 8 181 31 17% £40.9 2.3 45 216 162 75% £230.6 3.4 52 216 185 86% £26
Watts Sleep
ENERGY STAR TEC**
Requirement
(Adjusted for Config)
TEC (Measured
)
Actual vs TEC
Target
TEC cost (14p per
unit)
Dell OptiPlex XE, D01D001
HP TouchSmart 600