Fujitsu Develops Virtual Machine Control Technology to Improve Server Density of Datacenter Racks

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Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. announces the development of virtual machine (VM) control technology that improves server rack mounting density for each datacenter rack.

Currently, in datacenters, the number of servers mounted to a rack is limited by the total rated electrical power of the servers, which must be less than the power supply of the rack. However, often times, server load is low, at approximately 10% to 50%, and power usage for each rack proportional to load is also low compared to the rated power, leading to racks with low server mounting density. Now, in order to increase server mounting density, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed technology that enables efficient server placement by setting up a partition made up of backup servers in the datacenter, and migrating VMs to the backup partition based on the physical distribution and power consumption of the virtual machines.

With this technology, for racks that are running virtual servers, datacenters can reduce their space usage by increasing mounting density. Fujitsu Laboratories has calculated that in a case where server rack operational efficiency(1) was increased to 90%, space usage could be reduced by 40%.

Details of this technology were presented at IEEE Cloud 2017, an international conference currently being held in Honolulu, U.S., from June 25-30.

Development Background

As the number of servers installed in datacenters continues to rise and its further increase is expected with the growth of AI and IoT systems going forward, there has been a demand for ways to increase server mounting density within the bounds of limited space and power.

Issues

In datacenters, when installing servers in a rack, the number of servers is decided based on the rated power usage of each server, so as not to exceed the rack's power supply. However, often times, server load is low, at approximately 10% to 50%, and power usage for each rack proportional to load is also low compared to the rated power. Being this low creates a demand to raise mounting density.

In response to this demand, in recent years a "power capping technology" has been developed which monitors the actual operational status of servers in racks that mount a number of servers in excess of their power supplies. If that power supply is about to be exceeded, the technology limits the operational frequency of servers to suppress power consumption. This technology, however, could not be used for applications that require a specified level of processing performance, such as mission-critical applications.

About the Newly Developed Technology

Now Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a VM control algorithm that first installs physical servers in racks at high density in a datacenter and then establishes a back-up partition, using the migration functionality of the VMs to move them depending on the power consumption of each server. In this way it prevents each rack from exceeding its amount of power supply.