Energy Management and Performance Analysis on the IBM System z10 BC

Energy Management and Performance Analysis on the IBM System z10 BC December 17, 2008 Elisabeth Stahl Michael Buechele John P. Rankin IBM Systems and Technology Group

Executive Overview IBM s smarter planet vision is to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works, and the IBM System z10 is a smart platform for the integration of energy efficiency and performance. Many corporations are reaching the limits of available space and power at their data centers and with server virtualization and consolidation capabilities and a green footprint, the IBM System z10 is well suited to address these requirements. This paper will demonstrate the new IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) as an excellent system for power efficiency and performance, discuss energy management strategies, highlight the Active Energy Manager tool, and provide an analysis of energy and performance on the IBM System z10 BC. Page 2

The IBM System z10 BC: Smart, Cool, Affordable IBM s smarter planet vision is to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts. Each interaction represents a chance to do something better, more efficiently and more productively. As the systems of the planet become smarter, new possibilities for progress emerge. Designed as a powerful, entry-level version of the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) mainframe announced earlier this year, the IBM z10 Business Class (z10 BC) provides midsize clients with all of the smart attributes of an IBM mainframe. The IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) delivers innovative technologies for small and medium enterprises. This competitively priced server manages growth and reduces cost and risk. The z10 BC extends the leadership of IBM System z by delivering expanded granularity and optimized scalability for growth, enriched virtualization technology for consolidation of distributed workloads, improved availability and security to help increase business resiliency, and just-in-time management of resources. The z10 BC continues the line of upward compatible mainframe processors and retains application compatibility since 1964. The z10 BC uses the same processor chip as the z10 EC. Each chip is individually packaged in a single-chip module (SCM) and four SCMs are plugged into the processor board. The heart of the processor unit is the new IBM z10 Enterprise Quad Core processor chip running at 3.5 GHz. The z10 BC supports all z/architecture - compliant operating systems. The z10 BC expands the granularity of subcapacity settings, offering 26 different sub-capacity levels for the (up to five) configurable CPs. Thus a total of 130 distinct capacity settings is available in the system, providing a range of 1:100 in processing power. This feature allows more precise control of IT investment and incremental growth, essential for small and medium-sized enterprises. With up to 130 capacity settings for running permanent and temporary workloads, the IBM z10 BC can give administrators an upgradeable system to manage business growth. The IBM z10 BC offers unique processors known as "specialty engines" that expand the use of the mainframe for SAP, Linux, Java, and other applications. The z10 BC, like its predecessors, supports 24, 31, and 64-bit addressing, as well as multiple arithmetic formats. High-performance logical partitioning via Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM ) is achieved by industry-leading virtualization support provided by z/vm. An improvement to the z/architecture on z10 BC is designed to allow memory to be extended to support large (1 megabyte (MB)) pages. Use of large pages can improve CPU utilization for exploiting applications. Large page support is primarily of benefit for long-running applications that are memory-access-intensive. The IBM System z10 BC is designed to deliver industry leading reliability, availability and security that clients have come to expect from System z servers. System z10 BC reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) is designed to reduce sources of outages by reducing unscheduled, scheduled and planned outages. Planned outages are further designed to be reduced with the introduction of concurrent I/O drawer add and eliminating pre-planning requirements. These features are designed to reduce the need for a Power-on-Reset (POR) and help eliminate the need to deactivate/activate/ipl a logical partition. From a performance standpoint, the IBM z10 BC is nearly 40% faster, has over 50% more total capacity and nearly four times the maximum memory compared to its predecessor, the largest IBM z9 BC. IBM mainframes provide an advanced combination of reliability, availability, security, scalability, and virtualization. The z10 BC has been designed with a midrange focus to extend these capabilities and is optimized for today's business needs. Page 3

The IBM System z10 BC and Energy Management Many corporations are reaching the limits of available space and power at their data centers. With server virtualization and consolidation capabilities and a green footprint, the IBM System z10 is well suited to address these needs. The z10 BC is more energy efficient than its predecessor. The energy consumption per unit of capacity in System z servers has decreased by a factor of sixteen since 1995. Over the same time period, the floorspace occupancy per unit of capacity has decreased by a factor of seventy-seven. In addition to these attributes, the z10 BC provides monitoring of energy consumption and tools for building energy consumption trends that can be utilized for in-depth analysis. The power system for the z10 BC features new front-end bulk power supplies and new Distributed Converter Assembly (DCA) technology. The z10 BC requires two power feeds, either two identical three phase feeds or two identical single phase feeds. One feed connects to the front and the other to the rear of the frame. The z10 BC operates from two fully-redundant power supplies. These redundant power supplies each have their own line cord, allowing the system to survive the loss of power to either line cord. If power is interrupted to one of the power supplies, the other power supply will pick up the entire load and the system will continue to operate without interruption. The z10 BC operates with 50/60Hz AC power and voltages ranging from 208V to 480V. For ancillary equipment such as the Hardware Management Console, its display and modem, additional single-phase outlets are required. Actual power consumption depends on the number of I/O drawers installed. The nameplate power values in Figure 1 assume a maximum configuration with maximum I/O adapters installed. Input power in kva is equal to the output power in kw. Heat output expressed in kbtu per hour is derived by multiplying the kw table entries by a factor of 3.4. Figure 1. z10 BC Nameplate Power IBM System z10 BC Energy Management Strategies IBM energy management strategies include server consolidation and virtualization. System z can be an integral part of this strategy by leveraging strengths such as: The ability to host hundreds of workloads on a single server. Providing advanced management and automation techniques. Offering highly secure and robust technologies. Page 4

The new z10 BC design brings increased granularity from a power consumption viewpoint. Clients can start with small number of I/O drawers based on the number of adapters installed. If the full capacity of an I/O drawer was reached and additional adapters had to be installed, an additional I/O drawer could be installed concurrently. Distributed servers often have low utilization levels, which makes them a prime target for consolidation on a larger server using virtualization and workload management. The z10 BC runs more application environments on fewer processors and has sustained utilization levels of 85% or higher without reducing throughput and response times. Consolidating low utilization servers on the System z10 will help reduce power and facility costs. Several tools are available to monitor the power consumption and heat dissipation of the IBM System z10 BC. The Power Estimation Tool and System Activity Display on the HMC will be discussed in this section of the paper. The IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager (AEM) will be described in the following section. The Power Estimation Tool To assist in energy planning, the Resource Link site provides tools to estimate server energy requirements before a new server purchase. A user inputs the machine model, memory, and I/O configuration and the tool will output an estimate of the system total heat load and utility input power. (http://www.ibm.com/servers/resourcelink) The tool is designed to help in power and cooling planning for new or currently installed IBM System z10 Business Class servers. A customized planning aid is also available on Resource Link which provides physical characteristics of the machine along with cooling recommendations, environmental specifications, system power rating, power plugs/ receptacles, line cord wire specifications and the machine configuration. System Activity Display Actual power consumption of the system can be seen on a System Activity Display (SAD) panel of the Hardware Management Console (HMC). The mainframe gas gauge feature introduced on the System z9 servers provides power and thermal information via the System Activity Display (SAD) on the HMC and is available on the z10 BC. The current total power consumption in watts and BTU/hour as well as the air input temperature is displayed. Page 5

The Active Energy Manager Active Energy Manager is a software tool which provides a single view of actual power usage across multiple platforms and increases energy efficiency by controlling power use across the data center. Active Energy Manager provides visibility to and enables energy savings and cost reductions. Active Energy Manager is an energy management software tool that can provide a single view of the actual power usage across multiple platforms as opposed to the nameplate power consumption. It can effectively monitor and control power in the data center at the system, chassis, or rack level. By enabling these power management technologies, data center managers can manage their systems while lowering the cost of computing. The power management functions available with Active Energy Manager are: Power trending Power trending monitors the consumption of power by a supported power managed object in real time. This data can be used to track the actual power consumption of monitored devices and to determine the maximum value over time. The data can be presented either graphically or in tabular form. Thermal trending Thermal trending monitors the heat output and ambient temperature of a supported power managed object in real time. This data can be used to help avoid situations where overheating could cause damage to computing assets and to study how the thermal signature of various monitored devices varies with power consumption. The data can be presented either graphically or in tabular form. CPU trending CPU trending determines the actual CPU speed of processors for which either the power saver or power cap function is active. The data can be presented either graphically or in tabular form. Power saver Power saver saves energy by adjusting the processor voltage and clocking rate to match computing power to workload while at the same time reducing your energy costs. Power saver can be scheduled using the IBM Systems Director scheduler. Scripts can be written to turn power saver on or off based on the CPU utilization. Power cap Power cap allocates less energy for a system by setting a cap on the number of watts that the power managed system can consume. If the power consumption of the server approaches the cap, Active Energy Manager throttles back the processor voltage and clocking rate in the same way as for the power saver function. In this way the power cap value is not exceeded. The advantage of power cap is that energy consumption of supported systems can be limited to a known value and data center managers can match power requirements to power availability. Power cap can be scheduled using the IBM Systems Director scheduler. Active Energy Manager measures, monitors, and manages energy consumption using hardware and software built into IBM systems, enabling a cross platform power management solution. It also provides a source of energy management data that will be available over time to be exploited by IBM Tivoli enterprise solutions such as IBM Tivoli Monitoring and IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager. IBM Active Energy Manager enables clients to: Increase energy efficiency by monitoring power use across the data center Negotiate the best utility rates based on accurate trend assessments Limit server power requirements by capping maximum power consumption Manager power use and potentially reduce power costs Page 6

More effectively plan new data center construction or modifications Plan power capacity requirements based on actual usage Justify incremental hardware purchases based on available power capacity Better utilize existing resources IBM Active Energy Manager (AEM) is an industry leading cornerstone of the IBM energy management framework. In tandem with chip vendors Intel and AMD and consortia like the Green Grid, AEM advances the IBM initiative to deliver price/performance per square foot. Active Energy Manager is an extension of IBM Systems Director and is available for installation on System z and other platforms. AEM on System z will allow tracking of trends for both the z10 BC as well as multiple server platforms. On the System z10, the HMC will provide support for AEM which will display power consumption/air input temperature as well as exhaust temperature. AEM will also provide some limited status/ configuration information which could assist in explaining changes to the power consumption. AEM is exclusive to System z10 and other IBM IT products and is detailed in the following section of the paper. Page 7

Active Energy Manager on the IBM System z10 The IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager (AEM) is an energy management solution building block that controls the energy cost of an installation. AEM enables clients to manage actual power consumption and resulting thermal loads that the z10 places on the data center. The AEM product is available as a component of Director Services (Figure 2) and communicates over a network connection with the client portion on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) of the z10. Figure 2. IBM Director Console with Managed Objects The IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager provides the intelligence needed to effectively manage power consumption in the datacenter. AEM allows clients to "meter" actual power usage and trend data for any single physical system or group of systems. Developed by IBM Research, AEM utilizes IBMdeveloped monitoring circuitry to identify how much actual power is being used and the temperature of the system. The Active Energy Manager server can monitor a System z10 by communicating with its managing Hardware Management Console (zhmc). The System z10 is managed by an external zhmc which provides additional management capabilities to the Support Element (SE). The zhmc can manage multiple System z10 systems as well as other System z models. Page 8

Note that the power saver and power cap functions are only applicable to x86 and Power Systems at this time. An Active Energy Manager license for other IBM platforms (such as System z) is not required at this time because they support the no-charge monitoring functions. The following data is available from the AEM on the z10: System Name, machine type, model, serial number, firmware level Ambient Temperature Exhaust Temperature Average Power (over a one minute period) Peak Power (over a one minute period) Limited status and configuration information. This helps explain changes to the power consumption, called Events : Changes in fan speed Changes between power off, power on, and IML-complete states Number of I/O drawers CBU records expiration(s) Page 9

IBM System z10 BC Workload and Energy Analysis IBM System z offers a vast assortment of models to choose from, delivering a wide variety of computing power to meet business needs. With IBM s new System z10 BC, there are greater options for increasing computing capacity while increasing energy efficiency. The following analysis demonstrates how energy efficiency can be factored into choice of a system. The Large System Performance Report (LSPR) provides throughput ratios comparing different System z models running different workloads (http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/advantages/management/lspr ). Figure 3 highlights Active Energy Manager (AEM) on the system used to generate the z10 BC information in the LSPR. Note that this system was configured to run all LSPR workloads, was configured with more equipment than many standard systems, and that AEM on this system was correlated with the System Activity Display described earlier in this paper. Figure 3. Active Energy Manager Trend Data for IBM System z10 BC (M27) Consider a business currently employing an IBM system such as an IBM z900 or a non-ibm system and needing to upgrade to a z10 class system. The z900 LSPR single workload ratios are shown in Table 1 and z900 input power is shown in Table 2. Page 10

Processor #CP MSU Mixed LoIO-Mix TI-Mix CB-L ODE-B WASDB OLTP-W OLTP-T 2064-1C8 8 276 2.82 2.83 2.76 2.90 2.96 2.96 2.62 2.83 Table 1. z900 LSPR Ratios Physical Configuration Input Power Table 2. z900 Power Models 101-116 and 1C1-1C9 1frame minimum 5.3 KW's Several z10 BC and EC processors provide extra capacity over the z900, depending upon which LSPR workload or workload mix best matches the work. The LSPR ratios for these systems are shown in Tables 3a, 3b, 4, and 5. Note that the z10 BC systems in Table 3a and the z10 EC systems in Table 4 have comparable LSPR ratios and would be short term target systems. The largest z10 BC system in Table 3b and the larger z10 EC system in Table 5 have larger LSPR ratios and could be considerations for the longer term. Processor #CP MSU Mixed LoIO-Mix TI-Mix CB-L ODE-B WASDB OLTP-W OLTP-T 2098-V05 5 218 3.14 3.25 2.90 3.79 3.71 3.57 2.48 3.07 2098-W05 5 245 3.52 3.64 3.25 4.23 4.15 3.99 2.79 3.42 Table 3a. System z10 BC LSPR Processor #CP MSU Mixed LoIO-Mix TI-Mix CB-L ODE-B WASDB OLTP-W OLTP-T 2098-Z05 5 342 4.93 5.12 4.59 5.87 5.79 5.52 4.02 4.47 Table 3b. System z10 BC (Largest z10 BC) Processor #CP MSU Mixed LoIO-Mix TI-Mix CB-L ODE-B WASDB OLTP-W OLTP-T 2097-410 10 218 3.17 3.23 3.03 3.54 3.57 3.38 2.75 3.13 2097-505 5 252 3.65 3.70 3.53 3.96 4.02 3.80 3.27 3.63 Table 4. System z10 EC Model E12 LSPR Processor #CP MSU Mixed LoIO-Mix TI-Mix CB-L ODE-B WASDB OLTP-W OLTP-T 2097-510 10 462 6.74 6.89 6.43 7.58 7.70 7.21 5.80 6.64 Table 5. System z10 EC Model E12 LSPR (Larger z10 EC) Table 6 depicts the power required for the potential target systems referenced in the LSPR tables above. Note that the z10 BC and EC models were modeled with the same memory and I/O configuration; the only difference between them is the processor and the number of engines. The power estimates used in Page 11

this analysis were computed using the Power Estimation tool described earlier in this paper. The power estimate data was correlated with the System Activity Display and Active Energy Manager data from this study. In previous studies the power estimate data and System Activity Display were also correlated with an external power meter. (http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/webindex/wp101265 ) Model Z10 BC Z10 EC Z10 EC N-way 5 5 10 N-way + SAPs 7 7 12 Voltage Group 208-240V 208-240V 208-240V I/O cages 1 1 1 Memory 48 48 48 Fan-out Cards 2 2 2 MP Daughter Cards 4 4 4 Ficon Express2 2G LX 3 3 3 OSA Express2 1000base-T 1 1 1 Power Estimate in Watts 3126 5607 5692 Table 6. z10 Power Estimates from the Power Estimation Tool In this example, the z10 BC draws less power than the z900 and less power than either z10 EC, so it offers the better energy efficiency at comparable capacity. This efficiency will continue so long as the planned computing requirements stay within that supported by the various z10 BC models, through the largest z10 BC system shown in Table 3b. However, if the computing requirements are likely to grow beyond what can be supported on the largest z10 BC in Table 3b, the z10 EC may be more efficient in the future since a single large z10 EC (Table 5) offers approximately twice the performance but takes less power as well as space than two z10 BC systems. (Table 3a) Note: IBM does not guarantee that your results will correspond to the ratios provided herein. This information is provided "as is", without warranty, express or implied. Page 12

Conclusion Many organizations around the globe are looking to reduce power consumption and many are facing data center power challenges. With the IBM System z10, clients can successfully integrate reduced power consumption with increased performance. IBM has led the technology industry in energy-smart innovation for over 40 years and is committed to climate protection. It is IBM's goal to sustain leadership in energy conservation and management by continuing to deliver power-management and cooling technologies. With these technologies, systems use less power, generate less heat and use less energy to cool the system. Along with advanced technologies, IBM can assist organizations to optimize the utilization of data center and system solutions. IBM Systems and Technology Group Lab Services for System z provides services including power consultations, consolidation assessments, and total cost of ownership offerings. (http://www.ibm.com/systems/services/labservices) This paper has described the new IBM System z10 BC and z10 energy efficiency strategies and has highlighted a z10 BC power analysis. As additional power benchmarking is performed and technologies such as power savings and capping are exploited, the IBM System z10 will continue to be viewed as a very smart platform for energy efficiency and performance. Page 13

References Going Green with IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/redp4361.pdf IBM System z10 Business Class Technical Overview http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/sg247632.pdf IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) Reference Guide ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/rg/n/zso03021usen/zso03021usen.pdf IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) Reference Guide ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/rg/n/zso03018usen/zso03018usen.pdf IBM Launches Next-Generation Mainframe for Midsize Customers http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/25584.wss Large Systems Performance Reference http://www.ibm.com/systems/resources/sc28118713_20081013.pdf S/390 Server Consolidation - A Guide for IT Managers http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg245600.pdf Power Estimation Tool https://www.ibm.com/servers/resourcelink/hom03010.nsf/pages/pet2097v2100 IBM eserver zseries 900 http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/library/specsheets/pdf/g2219112.pdf Page 14

IBM Corporation Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, New York 10589 Produced in the United States of America December 2008 This document was developed for products and/or services offered in the United States. IBM may not offer the products, features, or services discussed in this document in other countries. The information may be subject to change without notice. Consult your local IBM business contact for information on the products, features and services available in your area. All statements regarding IBM future directions and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only. IBM, the IBM logo, System z, and System z10 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both. A full list of U.S. trademarks owned by IBM may be found at: http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. IBM hardware products are manufactured from new parts, or new and used parts. In some cases, the hardware product may not be new and may have been previously installed. Regardless, our warranty terms apply. This equipment is subject to FCC rules. It will comply with the appropriate FCC rules before final delivery to the buyer. Information concerning non-ibm products was obtained from the suppliers of these products or other public sources. Questions on the capabilities of the non-ibm products should be addressed with those suppliers. All performance information was determined in a controlled environment. Actual results may vary. Performance information is provided AS IS and no warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by IBM. Buyers should consult other sources of information, including system benchmarks, to evaluate the performance of a system they are considering buying. When referring to storage capacity, 1TB equals total GB divided by 1000; accessible capacity may be less. The IBM home page on the Internet can be found at: http://www.ibm.com. Page 15