IBM Touts Mainframe Power "Gas Gauge" For Greener Data Centres (16-Oct-07)
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Full story: IBM Touts Mainframe Power "Gas Gauge" For Greener Data Centres (16-Oct-07)
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Most of us probably wouldn’t buy a refrigerator without first checking its energy efficiency rating, so why should buying a refrigerator-sized mainframe be any different? That’s the signature pitch of IBM Corp.’s latest Project Big Green gambit—a new energy efficiency program (or "mainframe gas gauge") that lets customers monitor Big Iron energy consumption in real-time.
Big Blue also plans to start publishing typical energy consumption data—derived from in-the-field monitoring of approximately 1,000 customer machines—for its z9 mainframes. IBM officials describe the new program as similar to the average "kilowatt-per-year" metrics used to rate the efficiency of refrigerators. In this case, Big Blue is measuring average watts/hour consumed, which can in turn be used to calculate watts per unit.
"The customers come from all industries and geographic areas. Being on z9, they are exploiters of the latest mainframe technology. We have the ability to go min, max as well as typical. Min and max are already available using the power estimator. Few configurations resemble those," comments David Anderson, PE, an IBM green consultant.
IBM also tallies the net power requirements of its Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL), zSeries Application Assist Processor (zAAP), and zSeries Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) engines: about 20 watts, says Anderson. The upshot, he claims, is a powerful, power-friendly—and powerfully cost-efficient—virtualization platform.
"The mainframe’s high utilization rates and extreme virtualization capability may help make it a more energy-efficient choice for large enterprises," he indicates. "A single mainframe running Linux may be able to perform the same amount of work as approximately 250 x86 processors while using as little as two to ten percent of the amount of energy. Customers can now measure the energy advantages of IBM System z."
According to IBM officials, data collected during August and September indicate that the typical energy consumption of Big Iron is about 60 percent of the "label"—or maximum rating of the mainframe model.
Big Blue’s latest Project Big Green pitch exploits a new on-board power monitor—available immediately—that’s free with System z9, Anderson says. There are a couple of caveats, of course: customers must be running a z9 and also be current on driver 67 microcode, which became available in May.
The on-board power monitor measures a system’s actual energy and cooling statistics—collected by internal sensors—and presents them in real time on the System Activity Display. The result, Anderson claims, is that users can correlate the energy their mainframe systems consume with the work they actually perform. Elsewhere, he says, power statistics can be observed in real time or summarized for project or trend analysis.
Big Blue is also providing a Power Estimator Tool designed to simplify capacity planning. It calculates how changes in system configurations and workloads can affect the entire energy "envelope"—including the power needed to both run and cool the machines, according to Anderson.
- Source: Enterprise Systems
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IBM To Fit Power Meter To Mainframe (12-Oct-07)]]
ANOTHER DAY, another green story and this time it’s IBM fitting its mainframes with energy usage monitors so that customers can watch power budgets, and arguably the planet as we know it, tick away into nothingness.
The "gas gauge" monitors energy and cooling numbers by hooking up to sensors and then reports back stats to a console so admins can see them in real time, or round them up in subsequent reports. These reports can be used for cost-justification exercises or, where and when these rules apply, claiming rebates from utilities or even government departments.
In a press release, IBM green consultant David Anderson suggests one mainframe running Linux could do the same amount of work as 250 x86 servers for as little as two per cent of the power consumption. Hmm, I wonder what IBM’s System x marketers will think of that quote. Looks like the long-held détente between IBM’s competing server divisions could be off.
Two more thoughts. First, power consumption for datacentre servers is still usually a cost centre for the facilities management crew so it will be interesting to see whether IT bothers to route through that information to people who might not know what to do with it. Second, it’s a good bet that server vendors won’t agree a metric to compare and contrast server types and brands, including where sensors are located, how to measure the value-to-power equation, and so on.
Still, this is a step that looks worth investigating and the Armonk veterans also said they will offer a power capacity planning tool for estimating how setup changes will affect electricity bills.
Finally, IBM will also publish power usage figures, making it the first to comply with a US Environmental Protection Agency call for transparency among server vendors, the firm claimed. However, there’s also a spin in this for IBM’s big-tin department as it reckons mainframe virtualisation will show preferable utilisation, and therefore energy efficiency, compared to other system categories.
This is IBM’s latest step in a programme it has called Big Green (geddit?) µ.
- Source: The Inquirer
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IBM Uses Environmental Concerns To Push It's Mainframes (12-Oct-07)
IBM has launched a "mainframe gas gauge" to widen its environmental push, in addition to promoting its mainframes.
The system demonstrates a mainframe's energy usage versus x86 servers and other distributed computing platforms.
As an extension of the company's ongoing £500m Project Big Green initiative for datacentres, the program allows mainframe customers to monitor their systems' precise energy consumption in real-time.
IBM will also begin publishing typical energy consumption data for the IBM System z9 mainframe. The data is derived from actual field measurements from about 1,000 customer machines, determining average watts per hour consumed, which can be used to calculate watts per unit.
IBM claims the data already collected for August and September shows that typical energy use can be 60% of "what is on the label" or maximum rating for the model of mainframe.
David Anderson, an IBM green consultant, said, "A single mainframe running Linux may be able to perform the same amount of work as approximately 250 x86 processors, while using as little as 2% to 10% of the amount of energy. Customers can now measure the energy advantages of IBM System z."
- Source: ComputerWeekly.com
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IBM Mainframes Report Actual Energy Use (12-Oct-07)
Ever wondered just how much power your servers are consuming, and how that relates to workloads? If you're part of the Green IT revolution, you probably have.
A new facility for IBM's z9 mainframe reports the actual energy and cooling statistics as collected by internal sensors, and these figures can be used to reveal trends or correlated with the work done.
Another tool in the suite helps predict the effect of configuration changes on energy use. Adding an Integrated Facility for Linux (a CPU dedicated to running Linux and therefore exempt from per-processor pricing schemes for System z software) can increase consumption by as little as 20 watts, according to IBM officials.
IBM is summarising energy consumption data from around 1000 customer systems to compile an average watts-per-hour figure as called for by a recent EPA report. The company claims it is the first vendor to provide such information to customers.
"A single mainframe running Linux may be able to perform the same amount of work as approximately 250 x86 processors while using as little as two to ten percent of the amount of energy," said IBM green consultant David Anderson.
- Source IT Wire
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IBM Launches Real Time Mainframe Energy Gauge (12-Oct-07)
IBM has launched a program that it claimed allows mainframe users to monitor their systems' energy consumption in real-time.
IBM said it would start publishing typical energy consumption data for its System z9 mainframe and that the data would be derived from field measurements of about 1,000 live production machines. The measurements will determine average watts/hour consumed which can be used to calculate watts per unit, similar to miles per gallon estimates and appliance kilowatt per year ratings.
The metering system works by monitoring a mainframe's energy and cooling statistics as collected by internal sensors and presents them in real time on the System Activity Display, said IBM. Users can then correlate the energy consumed with work actually performed and, when the machine reports its maintenance health on a weekly basis, its power statistics can be used. These statistics can be observed real time or summarized for project or trend analysis, said IBM. The company reckoned that energy consumption statistics are used for demonstrating cost savings toward electric rebates and programs to reduce data center energy consumption.
Big Blue said that it has a power estimator tool available to enable future planning. It calculates how changes in system configurations and workloads can affect the entire energy envelope -- including the power needed to both run and cool the machines.
For example, a user adding a single mainframe processor for Linux applications could project the amount of additional energy required before and when the feature is turned on, according to IBM. Normally less than approximately 20 watts are added when an Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) feature is turned on, reckoned the company.
Big Blue said that a mainframe processor with zVM virtualization can typically perform the work of multiple x86 processors because a mainframe is designed for running many mixed workloads at high utilization rates. It claimed that a single processing chip executing hundreds of workloads efficiently is key to consuming less energy than multiple x86 servers, and that this translates into a simplified infrastructure and cost savings.
IBM said that it collected data for August and September 2007 which showed that typical energy use can be normally 60 per cent of the "label" or maximum rating for the model of mainframe measures. The company said that this allowed it to claim to be the first organization to embrace recommendations from a recent EPA report that encourages server vendors to publish typical energy consumption figures for servers.
IBM said that the metering system was being launched in tandem with a new program to publish consolidated real-world consumption figures by model for System z9. Typical use figures will assist data center planning as they will give data center designers an idea of how much energy a particular mainframe consumes.
IBM said that it's summarized the field population data for each month since 2 August 2007, when the US EPA published the report to US Congress on Data Center and Server Energy Efficiency. The EPA encouraged server vendors to publish typical energy usage numbers to enable purchasers of servers to make informed decisions based on energy efficiency.
"The mainframe's high utilization rates and extreme virtualization capability may help make it a more energy-efficient choice for large enterprises," said David Anderson PE, IBM green consultant. "A single mainframe running Linux may be able to perform the same amount of work as approximately 250 x86 processors while using as little as two to ten percent of the amount of energy. Customers can now measure the energy advantages of IBM System z."
- Source IT World.com
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