Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD

LevyMoises@dcmetrix.com
www.dcmetrix.com
Do we really understand how a data center behaves?

Workloads ?

Physical environment ?

IT Equipment specs ?

Quality of Service ?

Power and Airflow requirements ?

Key Performance Indicators ?

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 It is important to model data centers

o Energy intensive

o ITE > 1 kW/m2

o U.S. ~ 3 M data centers

o ~2% electricity consumption

o 2020: ~73 billion kWh

o Downtime $$$
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
U.S. Data Center Energy Usage Report, June 2016

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Data centers modeled as CPS

Cyber physical system:

Workload
Integration of computational and
physical components

At a data center: Energy

High coupling between ITE and

their physical environment Physical
environment

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Data center model

Workloads ITE and

cooling
specs
Simple
Correct

Useful

QoS, Power, Airflow, Energy, KPIs

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
Steps for modeling data centers as CPS

1. Modeling
cyber components

2. Modeling
physical components

3. Key indicators

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Cyber components

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
Modeling cyber components

Win , = Win,DC *S ,

ITE specs : , ,
Data Center Modeling 101
Moises Levy, PhD
 Modeling cyber components

Quality of service

Parameters to predict QoS

Wout ,
o ITE resource utilization: U , =
PR

o Queue length:
L , = Win , + L , 1 - Wout ,
Processing in real time System overloaded
L ,
Wout , = Win , Wout , = PR o Waiting time: tw =
PR
No queue
o Total processing time …

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Modeling cyber components

Power

ITE Power requirement

ITE specs: , , , = ∗ , +

ITE Energy consumption

, = , ∗

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Modeling cyber components

Power

The power required by ITE depends on the workload and QoS

Workload Power QoS

No Power
workload (idle)

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Physical components

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric
Modeling physical components

Airflow
The convective heat transfer at the ITE:
= Cp * ρ * Airflow * ∆T

Cp: Specific heat of air

ρ: Density of air

Airflow requirement (ITE):

AirflowCFM = 3.2 *
Cyber and thermal components are coupled through ∆ °
the energy consumption of the ITE
Data Center Modeling 101
Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric
Modeling physical components

Airflow
The affinity laws for fans:
- The airflow is proportional to fan speed
- The power is proportional to the cube of the fan speed
- The power requirement is proportional to the cube of the airflow

Examples:
1.- A data center with 1 CRAH unit.
If the airflow required by the ITE is reduced by half, the power required will be reduced by a factor of 8.

2.- If the airflow required by the ITE can be supplied by 4 CRAH units instead of 1 unit at full capacity.
With 4 units operating at a fourth of the maximum speed, the power is 16 times lower.

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric
Modeling physical components

Power
Sensible Coefficient of Performance:
values for commercial
= net sensible cooling capacity precision cooling systems
power required to produce cooling ( ) without economizers usually
range from 1.8 to 3.8

Power requirement (cooling system)

∑ +∑ +∑
=

∑
=

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Is this model accurate?

180

Power 160 Airflow

140

120

Airflow (CFM)
100

80

60

40

20

% utilization

Series1 Series2

Rack server example

The model is accurate within a 20% margin of error, and
with greater precision (< 7% margin of error) if utilization > 50%.
Data Center Modeling 101
Moises Levy, PhD
Data center key indicators

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Efficiency key indicators such as PUE

=
∑

∑ +∑
=
∑

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Simulations to predict behavior

Types of workload

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Simulations to predict behavior

.

2 nodes (ITE)
WL distribution: 30%, 70%
WL input peak: 250 jobs
Run time: 1 hour

= 50 , 80 j/s
= 200
= 50

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Simulations to predict behavior

. .
532 s 821 s

400 W 35.6 cfm 273W-h

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 A Framework for Data Center Site Risk Metric

Simulations to predict behavior

Equal node distribution and Normal workload input

Workload vs. # nodes vs. Run time Workload vs. # nodes vs. Energy Workload vs. # nodes vs. Max wait time

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Real-time data

o Calibrate
o Validate

Data Center Modeling 101

Moises Levy, PhD
 Data Center Modeling is useful
o Simple formulation to predict parameters (under certain assumptions)
QoS, power, airflow, energy, KPIs

o Modeling helps understand data center performance

o Basis to develop simulations to assess data centers

o Assist in finding areas of improvement, providing a basis for decision-making

o Foundation to understand end-to-end resource management

Data Center Modeling 101
Moises Levy, PhD
Q&A

Moises Levy, PhD

LevyMoises@dcmetrix.com
www.dcmetrix.com

Data Center Modeling 101