Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities Address climate change and environmental preservation Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving SATOU Tasuku, YOSHIZAWA Kentarou, TAKEMORI Kyoko, OOTANI Hiroyuki Abstract NEC’s power-saving Express5800 series servers and iStorage M series storages incorporate a various power-saving technologies. Of these, this paper introduces featured technologies that can protect the power consumption of data centers, such as power supply efficiency improvement, power control and high ambient temperature compatibility solutions. Keywords data center, power saving, DC power supply, optimum power supply operation control, power capping, high-efficiency power supply, MAID, high ambient temperature compatibility 1. Introduction 2.1 ECO CENTER The rapid dissemination of mobile terminals and widespread growth in the corporate use of cloud services in recent years have been promoting concentration of IT equipment to data centers. One of the issues of the data center is how to improve the efficiency of the IT equipment concentration in environments with limited power supplies. It is necessary to reduce the power consumption of the IT equipment in order to solve this issue. At NEC, we incorporate power-saving technologies in the Express5800 series servers and iStorage M series storages, not only to reduce the power consumption of IT equipment in order to fill the above requirements, but also to reduce the power demand of the entire data center facility. In order to achieve the optimization of data center operation, we have developed the ECO CENTER, in which various power-saving technologies are incorporated. Two of the chosen technologies are discussed below. (1) 12V DC power supply compatibility Most of data centers adopt UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) countermeasures to deal with issues such as power outages. The UPS converts AC power supply temporarily into DC and stores it in an internal battery. Subsequently, it re-converts the battery power to AC and supplies it to IT equipment such as servers, which then converts the power supply from AC back into DC again for operational use. These conversions between AC and DC are always accompanied by power losses, which means that minimizing the frequency of conversions will lead to power saving. The latest data centers note the power losses accompanying these AC/DC conversions and adopt 12V DC power supply to the IT equipment in order to reduce the frequency of AC/DC conversions. In order to provide countermeasures against these chang- 2. Power-saving Servers This section introduces some of the Express5800 series power-saving servers, including the ECO CENTER server for data centers and the SIGMABLADE blade server system. 36 NEC Technical Journal／Vol.8 No.1／Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities Address climate change and environmental preservation Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving General power supply system Conversion loss AC AC DC Conversion loss DC DC AC Conversion loss AC AC DC DC AC PSU Battery Photo 1 External view of the Express5800/E120d-M. UPS Mother board General IT equipment IT equipment with built-in batteries Conversion loss AC General power supply system Conversion loss AC AC Conversion loss DC DC DC AC AC AC AC DC AC PSU DC DC AC PSU Conversion loss Mother board Battery DC IT equipment with built-in batteries Mother board Battery UPS General IT equipment Fig. 2 Power supply system of IT equipment with built-in batteries. DC power supply system Conversion loss AC AC DC External shared PSU DC Mother board Battery UPS DC input-compatible IT equipment Fig. 1 DC power supply system. Photo 2 External view of the Express5800/E120d-1 es in the power supply environments of the data center facilities, we commercialized the Express5800/E120d-M 12V DC input compatible server (Photo 1) as the ECO CENTER series. The Express5800/E120d-M is provided with a power option called the 12V DC input module that provides system compatibility with 12V DC power as well as with AC power supply unit. When a 12V DC input module is used, the power fed as 12V DC is sent to the mother board of the server without being converted. In this way, power saving is achieved by a reduction of the frequency of AC/DC conversions (Fig. 1). The elimination of power conversions enables the 12V DC input module to adopt an extremely simple architecture. Therefore, the number of fault incidence occurrences in the server can be reduced and consequently it contributes to improvement of availability. (2) Built-in batteries Traditional AC power-supplied data centers and server rooms can also reduce the power loss risks caused by AC/ DC conversions by introducing IT equipment with builtin batteries. Incorporating batteries in the IT equipment instead of installing the UPS at the facility side can complete AC/DC conversions with one cycle, as well as reserving backup power to counter power failures (Fig. 2). This strategy can save power by up to 5% compared to the ordinary (Model with built-in batteries). power supply system using the UPS (compared to the system using NEC’s UPS). The Express5800/E120d-1 (model with built-in batteries) can incorporate up to two large-capacity Ni-MH batteries in the server (Photo 2). The number of batteries can be selected according to the power consumption of the server. The Express5800/E120d-1 (model with built-in batteries) installs the batteries at the front of it in order to improve the battery cooling efficiency by permanently feeding fresh air. The result is a long service life of five years, even with an ambient temperature of 30ºC. This model is also very convenient for system management because its standard server management function, the EXPRESS SCOPE engine, performs integrated management tasks that cover the battery status. As described above, the Express5800/E120d-1 (model with built-in batteries) not only saves power by incorporating batteries but also enables efficient equipment investment according to the customer’s business expansion by eliminating the large-sized UPS from the data center facility. 2.2 SIGMABLADE The SIGMABLADE is a product that combines servers, NEC Technical Journal／Vol.8 No.1／Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities 37 Address climate change and environmental preservation Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving networks and storage in a single enclosure. It incorporates the EM Card, which is the module for integrated operation management of the products inside the enclosure. This section describes two of the related energy-saving functions implemented by the EM card. (1) Optimum power operation control The enclosure of the SIGMABLADE accommodates up to 16 CPU blades (servers) and 8 network switches. Even if the enclosure has power supply module(s) capable of supplying power even when the maximum number of products is installed, this does not mean that the maximum numbers of CPU blades and switches should always be used. It is acceptable to use only the required number of CPU blades and switches. In such a case, the AC/DC conversion rates inside the power supply module(s) vary depending on the wattage supplied inside the cabinet, and the EM card applies autonomous judgment to optimize the conversions and switches the power supply module ON/OFF accordingly to save the power required in the operation (Fig. 3). (2) Power capping Technology This function supports the operation of SIGMABLADE so that the total power per enclosure is limited below the preset power capping value. This makes it possible to continue the system operation without using excessive power when it is required to operate the system efficiently within the limited power supply range of the floor. Specifically, this function sets the power capping value in the EM card in advance. The EM card monitors the power consumptions of all of the products in the enclosure. If the addition of a CPU board causes the power consumption to exceed the preset power capping value, the EM card autonomously switches the desired CPU blades to the power-save mode in order to reserve the power so Optimize AC/DC conversion efficiency by powering on or off the servers according to the number of servers in operation 90.00 85.00 SVB = Server Blade When keeping the overall power consumption at or below 4,500W in an enclosure Added S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 Power 1 Power 2 Power 3 Vacant Add a server to a vacant slot Power 4 S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 Power 1 Power 2 Power 3 Power 4 Exceeding 4,500W Running at 4,500W or lower To keep the overall power consumption at or below the limit, the EM Card automatically sets CPU blades to powersaving mode, starting from SVB 1, and controls power consumption of each blade. Automatically set to power-saving mode Advantage over competitors Change CPU frequencies of SVB 1 and 2 S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B S V B 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 Power 1 Power capping available in SIGMABLADE-M/-H v2 Power 2 Power 3 Power 4 Maintain 4,500W Fig. 4 Power capping. Multiple EM Cards interact with each other to optimize power allocation in a rack and keep the total power consumption at or below the limit. Max. power limit for a rack: 20kW Power control from a remote console Power control EM Card Management PC Unit 2 Max : 3kW Actual : 2.5kW Management LAN Advantage over competitors Unit 3 Max : 2kW Actual: 1.9kW Adjust max. power limit parameter Unit 2 Unit 4 Max : 6kW Actual: 5.5kW Unit 2 Max : 3kW Actual : 2.5kW Unit 3 Unit 1 Max : 3kW Actual: 3kW Max Max : 2kW Actual: 1.9kW Unit 5 Max : 6kW Actual: 6kW : 2.5kW Surplus power Actual : 2.5kW of 0.5kW goes from unit 2 to unit 3. Unit 3 Max : 2.5kW Actual: 2.5kW Need more power allocated to be switched on Power on Power capping available in SIGMABLADE-M/-H v2 Fig. 5 Inter enclosure power control. that the additional CPU board can be used subject to the preset power capping value (Fig. 4). This function is not restricted to a single enclosure but it is also possible to group more than one SIGMABLADE enclosure and set the power capping of an entire system. In this case, the EM cards inquire the power situations of each other so that the system operation can be continued by managing the power usage of the whole system (Fig. 5). 80.00 75.00 70.00 3. Power-saving Storages 65.00 0 7 0 15 0 17 70 90 13 11 0 30 60.00 10 Needs 16 power units Efficient 95.00 50 Conversion efficiency (%) Less efficient 18 To deliver power redundancy with 8 rack-mount servers… The EM Card changes CPU frequencies according to CPU usage rates for efficient power control. Power load (A) The lower power load, the higher lost energy But, with SIGMABLADE… Share 4 power units across the CPU Blades SIGMABLADE switches on or off power units according to the number of blades in operation Minimize lost energy on ON on on on ON on off ON Fig. 3 Optimum power supply operation control (Power ON/OFF according to the number of operating units). off OFF The iStorage M series can reduce the power consumption of the storage device itself through the hardware that is effective for power saving. In addition, it has succeeded to incorporating power consumption reduction function by applying our original ideas for controlling storage devices. (1) High-efficiency power supply The development of the high-efficiency power supply is an example of effective power saving hardware. The efficiency improvement technology is implemented by 38 NEC Technical Journal／Vol.8 No.1／Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities Address climate change and environmental preservation Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving iStorage M series iStorage StoragePowerConserver (power-save function ON) Online HDD HDDs for usual business operations are permanently working No Operational HDDs Hot spared HDDs Backup/Archiving Not required to operation except when building a pool, etc. Not required to operate except when used as spares Not used except in backup and for archiving in the nighttime (e.g. 0:00 to 8:00) 0:00 0:00 Backup/ Archiving Online Online Use Use Online Online Use Use Online Online Use Use Online Online Use Use 18:00 Operation Working 12:00 6:00 Not Not Used Used Not Not Used Used Not Not Used Used Not Not Used Used Spare Spare Spare Spare Backup Backup Backup Backup 18:00 Operation Operation Stopped 8:00 12:00 Fig. 6 iStorage StoragePowerConserver. the use of high-efficiency (soft switching/sync rectifier) circuitry and low-loss chips. Specifically, we have commercialized a world leading AC power supply unit (certified as 80 PLUS GOLD) that provides storages with high efficiency. (2) 380V HVDC power supply compatibility We have also developed a 48V DC/380V HVDC power supply unit that is used exclusively in data centers for enabling supply of DC power to storage devices. The high voltage of the 380V HVDC system not only features high efficiency but also provides other advantages, including the possibilities of reducing cable diameters as well as of facilitating the design and construction of the facility. (3) MAID technology The iStorage StoragePowerConserver is a function that reduces the power consumption by controlling the storage devices. It achieves energy-saving operations of storages by employing the MAID (Massive Arrays of Inactive Disks) technology that rotates the HDD only when necessary and stops it when it is unnecessary (Fig. 6). This function controls the stop/start of operations of the HDDs mounted in the iStorage M series product by autonomously identifying the HDDs that are not always used according to their properties. A function for controlling the stop/start of the HDDs forming the storage pool to which the logical volume belongs according to their usage situations is also provided for energy-saving operations linked to business operations. When this function makes it possible to rotate the HDD only as necessary during the backup operation, etc., the power consumption may be reduced by up to 30%. 4. Power Saving by High Ambient Temperature Compatibility The high ambient temperature compatibility of IT equipment is an important factor in power saving for facility linkages such as for data centers or server rooms. In general, the upper limit of the operating environment temperatures of traditional servers and storages is 35ºC. NEC has succeeded in raising the upper limit to 40ºC by selecting components and optimizing the air flow design (Fig. 7). This has made it possible to raise the air conditioning temperature Fig. 7 Cooling structure of high ambient temperature compatible server. Fig. 8 Power-saving effects of high ambient temperature compatible IT equipment. of data centers and to thereby reduce their power consumption. As an example of the effects of power-saving, Fig. 8 shows the results of trial calculations assuming that a customer is continuing to use IT equipment that was installed in 2007. In this case, replacing the servers and storages with the latest power-saving servers and storages of high ambient temperature compatibility can reduce the power consumption of the IT equipment and the generation of heat; as well as of the power consumed by the air conditioners used for cooling the generated heat. When the reduction of power consumption achieved by raising the air conditioner setting by 5ºC is considered, the total power consumption of the air conditioners can be reduced by about 40% and that of the entire data center can also be reduced by 34% (according to our trial calculations). 5. Conclusion In the above, we introduced the power saving measures adopted for our servers and storages. In the development of servers and storages of the future, too, we will endeavor to NEC Technical Journal／Vol.8 No.1／Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities 39 Address climate change and environmental preservation Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving contribute solutions to social issues associated with the global environment by considering power saving issues. Robust support will be continued in applying the implementation of functions and performances to meet customer needs. * 80PLUS is a registered trademark of Ecos Consulting, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Authors’ Profiles SATOU Tasuku Manager, engineering IT Platform Division YOSHIZAWA Kentarou Manager, engineering IT Platform Division TAKEMORI Kyoko Manager, engineering IT Platform Division OOTANI Hiroyuki Manager IT Platform Division 40 NEC Technical Journal／Vol.8 No.1／Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities Information about the NEC Technical Journal Thank you for reading the paper. If you are interested in the NEC Technical Journal, you can also read other papers on our website. Link to NEC Technical Journal website Japanese English Vol.8 No.1 Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities Remarks for Special Issue on Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities The Reinvention of NEC as a“ Social Value Innovator” - Contributing to solving social issues through business activities - ◇ Papers for Special Issue Build reliable information and communications infrastructure Features of the Next-Generation Traffic Control System as Seen in an Introductory Example at the Shin-Tomei Expressway Enabling International Communications - Technologies for Capacity Increase and Reliability Improvement in Submarine Cable Networks Component Technologies and Packet-Optical Integrated Transport Systems to Support Core Networks Development of Technology to Control Radio Signal Interference for LTE Femtocell Base Stations to Achieve Stable Communications Quality Anywhere Address climate change and environmental preservation Regular Observation by Global Change Observation Mission 1st-Water GCOM-W1(SHIZUKU) Express5800 Server Series and iStorage M Series Storages Contributing to Data Center Power Saving Possibilities in Thermoelectric Conversion Using a New Principle:“ Spin Seebeck Effect” Establish a safe and secure society CONNEXIVE Ionizing Radiation Measurement Solution Disaster Prevention Administrative Radio System in Municiparity (Broadcast via PA Systems) - Achievement of Greater Diversity in Disaster Information Transmissions Promoting the Digitization of Japanese Fire Prevention/Emergency Wireless Communications Systems NEC’s BC Solutions: HYDRAstor - Supporting Business Continuity of Enterprises Underwater Surveillance System to Counteract Associated Underwater Threats A Surveillance System Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Related Technologies A Privacy-Protection Data Processing Solution Based on Cloud Computing Towards Trustworthy Cloud Storage Include everyone in the digital society A Solution to Prevent Wandering by Geriatric Patients - A Validation Test to Ensure Safety in Nursing Care Facilities Remote Summary Transcription System for the Hearing Impaired Communication Activation Technology for Suggesting Conversational Topics Vol.8 No.1 September, 2013 Special Issue TOP