Michael G. Tricker

The design and development of the server efficiency rating tool (SERT)

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) almost 3% of all electricity consumed within the US in 2010 goes to running datacenters, with the majority of that powering servers and the associated air conditioning systems dedicated to eliminating the heat they produce. The EPA launched the ENERGY STAR® Computer Server program in May 2009, intended to deliver information to better enable server purchasing decisions based on projected power consumption. The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) has been developed by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) SPECpower committee to address the EPA requirements for Version 2 of the ENERGY STAR server program. Unlike many tools sourced from the SPEC organization the SERT is not intended to be a benchmark, and for Version 2 does not offer a single score model. Instead it produces detailed information regarding the influence of CPU, memory, network and storage I/O configurations on overall server power consumption. This paper describes the design and development of the SERT, including discussion of the collaborative nature of working with the EPA and the various industry stakeholders involved in the design, review and development process. Many of the core ideas behind SERT were derived from theSPECpower_ssj2008 and other SPEC-developed benchmarks, and this paper illustrates where ideas and code were shared, as well as where new thinking resulted in entirely new solutions. It also includes thoughts for the future, as the ENERGY STAR server program continues to evolve and the SERT will evolve with it.

The implementation of the server efficiency rating tool

The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) has been developed by Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) at the request of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), prompted by concerns that US datacenters consumed almost 3% of all energy in 2010. Since the majority was consumed by servers and their associated heat dissipation systems the EPA launched the ENERGY STAR Computer Server program, focusing on providing projected power consumption information to aid potential server users and purchasers. This program has now been extended to a world-wide audience. This paper expands upon the one published in 2011, which described the initial design and early development phases of the SERT. Since that publication, the SERT has continued to evolve and has entered the first Beta phase in October 2011 with the goal of being released in 2012. This paper describes more of the details of how the SERT is structured. This includes how components interrelate, how the underlying system capabilities are discovered, and how the various hardware subsystems are measured individually using dedicated worklets.

Further implementation aspects of the server efficiency rating tool (SERT)

The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) has been developed by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) at the request of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Almost 3% of all electricity consumed within the US in 2010 went to running datacenters. With this in mind, the EPA released Version 2.0 of the ENERGY STAR for Computer Servers program in early 2013 to include the mandatory use of the SERT. Other governments world-wide that are also concerned by growing power consumption of servers and datacenters are considering the adoption of the SERT.

SPECpower_ssj2008: driving server energy efficiency

SPECpower_ssj2008 [1] is the first industry-standard SPEC [2] benchmark that evaluates the power and performance characteristics of volume server-class and multi-node class computers. This poster-paper gives an overview of the benchmark that defines the server power measurement standards [8] in the same way SPEC have done for performance.

Server efficiency rating tool (SERT)

The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) [1] has been developed by Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) [2] at the request of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [3], prompted by concerns that US datacenters consumed almost 3% of all energy in 2010. This poster-paper gives an overview of the SERT.

Server efficiency rating tool (SERT) 1.0.2: an overview

The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) has released the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) and the EPA released Version 2.0 of the ENERGY STAR for Computer Servers program in early 2013 to include the mandatory use of the SERT. Other governments world-wide that are concerned with the growing power consumption of servers and datacenters are also considering adoption of the SERT. This poster-paper provides an overview of the current release of 1.0.2 version of SERT.

Abstract only: the design and development of the server efficiency rating tool (SERT)

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) almost 3% of all electricity consumed within the US in 2010 goes to running datacenters, with the majority of that powering servers and the associated air conditioning systems dedicated to eliminating the heat they produce. The EPA launched the ENERGY STAR® Computer Server program in May 2009, intended to deliver information to better enable server purchasing decisions based on projected power consumption. The Server Efficiency Rating Tool (SERT) has been developed by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) SPECpower committee to address the EPA requirements for Version 2 of the ENERGY STAR server program. Unlike many tools sourced from the SPEC organization the SERT is not intended to be a benchmark, and for Version 2 does not offer a single score model. Instead it produces detailed information regarding the influence of CPU, memory, network and storage I/O configurations on overall server power consumption. This paper describes the design and development of the SERT, including discussion of the collaborative nature of working with the EPA and the various industry stakeholders involved in the design, review and development process. Many of the core ideas behind SERT were derived from theSPECpower_ssj2008 and other SPEC-developed benchmarks, and this paper illustrates where ideas and code were shared, as well as where new thinking resulted in entirely new solutions. It also includes thoughts for the future, as the ENERGY STAR server program continues to evolve and the SERT will evolve with it.