Modeling the correlation between the workload and the power consumed by a server using stochastic and non‐parametric approaches

Abstract

In this article, we address a critical concern of the growth of computer servers number and the resulting power expenditures in data centers by analyzing the statistical metrics related to the workload executed in each physical node. The aim is to build a stochastic model for power consumption estimation based on historical data. Relying on in-depth investigation and experimental testing of the power consumption features and performance of the various workload datasets, we propose a model that considers the workload and the power consumed to be executed by a server as random variables. Based on the properties of the probabilistic distribution function of each random variable, we establish the correlation relationship between the workload and the power consumption using a non-parametric approach. Our use of a non-parametric method to learn a given probability model is challenging because it requires estimating the full distribution from the available data samples. The accuracy of our approach is demonstrated by estimating the energy consumption of various workloads. The experimental and simulation results show that our model outperforms many existing approaches in terms of accuracy, and it can be applied to a wide variety of workloads.