Analysis of the Influences on Server Power Consumption and Energy Efficiency for CPU-Intensive Workloads

Abstract

Energy efficiency of servers has become a significant research topic over the last years, as server energy consumption varies depending on multiple factors, such as server utilization and workload type. Server energy analysis and estimation must take all relevant factors into account to ensure reliable estimates and conclusions. Thorough system analysis requires benchmarks capable of testing different system resources at different load levels using multiple workload types. Server energy estimation approaches, on the other hand, require knowledge about the interactions of these factors for the creation of accurate power models. Common approaches to energy-aware workload classification categorize workloads depending on the resource types used by the different workloads. However, they rarely take into account differences in workloads targeting the same resources. Industrial energy-efficiency benchmarks typically do not evaluate the system's energy consumption at different resource load levels, and they only provide data for system analysis at maximum system load.In this paper, we benchmark multiple server configurations using the CPU worklets included in SPEC's Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT). We evaluate the impact of load levels and different CPU workloads on power consumption and energy efficiency. We analyze how functions approximating the measured power consumption differ over multiple server configurations and architectures. We show that workloads targeting the same resource can differ significantly in their power draw and energy efficiency. The power consumption of a given workload type varies depending on utilization, hardware and software configuration. The power consumption of CPU-intensive workloads does not scale uniformly with increased load, nor do hardware or software configuration changes affect it in a uniform manner.