I/O Processor Power Management for Under-Utilized Adapters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Adapters in computing systems are often under-utilized but remain powered up, leading to unnecessary power consumption.
Innovation Solution
An IOP discovers paths between I/O adapters and their endpoints, builds a table with adapter characteristics, and monitors utilization to enable redundant paths when thresholds are reached, placing under-utilized adapters in lower power states without interrupting the operating system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If adapters are kept powered up to ensure system availability, then system reliability is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically transitions adapters between active and lower-power states based on real-time utilization monitoring. When an adapter is determined to be under-utilized, it is placed in a lower power consumption state while a redundant adapter remains in active state to handle I/O requests, thus reducing overall power consumption while maintaining system availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational state parameter of adapters based on utilization thresholds. By monitoring adapter utilization and comparing it against defined thresholds, the system adjusts adapter power states (from fully powered to lower power states) to optimize the balance between reliability and energy consumption.
2Reliability
If redundant adapter paths are enabled to maintain performance during adapter failure, then system reliability is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables redundant adapter paths partially - only when utilization thresholds are exceeded. Instead of keeping all redundant paths permanently active, the system activates them only when needed based on monitored utilization levels, thus avoiding unnecessary power consumption while maintaining reliability when required.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures redundant adapter paths but keeps them in a lower power state until needed. The redundancy is prepared in advance but not fully activated, allowing the system to switch to redundant paths quickly when utilization thresholds are reached without permanently consuming the power that would be required to keep all paths fully active.
3Loss of energy
If adapter power states are changed to reduce consumption, then energy efficiency is improved, but system performance may be affected
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses an intermediary I/O processor that redirects I/O requests from under-utilized adapters (in lower power states) to active redundant adapters. This intermediary mechanism allows the system to maintain full performance capability while keeping individual adapters in energy-efficient states, as the I/O processor ensures requests are routed to available active adapters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates functional copies of adapter capabilities through redundant adapter paths. When an adapter is placed in a lower power state, its functionality is copied to a redundant adapter that remains active, ensuring that system performance is maintained while the original adapter consumes less power.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, computer system, and a computer program product for sustainable data storage is provided. An IOP discovers a path between each defined I/O adapter and its endpoint. Based on a system configuration and the discovered pathing, the IOP builds a table comprising each I/O adapter, endpoint, initial adapter state. The IOP creates an I/O adapter redundancy mapping from the table and assign performance thresholds to each I/O adapter. The IOP continuously monitors utilization of each I/O adapter, whereby based on utilization for the I/O adapter reaching a defined threshold, the IOP enables a redundant I/O adapter path, whereby the redundant I/O adapter is a proxy for the I/O adapter.