Analysis model of energy consumption variables for data processing in high-performance computing systems

Abstract

One of the main challenges in the efficient operation of a high-performance computing (HPC) center is the energy consumption generated by the operation of the data center where the HPC equipment is housed, mainly because this consumption is reflected in very high accounts payable, and this may affect the level of service offered to users. The study of the different factors and elements that can make energy consumption more efficient in these data centers provides an opportunity to focus these resources on elements that favor the use of HPC. The design variables provided by manufacturers to manage HPC systems and monitoring systems provide an accurate view of the behavior of these variables according to how they are used. HPC architectures are configured in a very particular way for each HPC data center, creating particular scenarios of operation and performance in each implementation. Various proposals and technologies have been developed for the analysis of the energy consumption of a data center, and the processing elements include a series of indicators and technologies that manufacturers have developed to determine the energy efficiency. This article seeks to identify this series of processing and performance variables, which affect the energy consumption of HPC equipment, for the implemented computing architectures based on the analysis of performance models to obtain a general over-view of their effect on energy consumption in a case study to identify the behaviors of particular job assignment factors and provide an analysis of the energy consumption under particular conditions.