Energy Saving
The
D-INFK has a significant amount of compute hardware in its server rooms. Much of this does not need to run all the time. Computers that idling also consume energy, for high-end GPU servers this can be up to
1kW which costs ETH thousands of franks per year for nothing.
isginf develops and operates a service which allows you and your team to turn systems
on from anywhere when they are needed. Systems can also be turned
off manually or automatically if a system is considered idle. In addition a simple booking system is available to coordinate access to systems.
ITCs have the possibility to alter access and policies governing the systems of their groups.
Access
Access is possible for all ETH users but each user only sees systems for which access has been granted, which may be none at all:
Systems are organized into
clusters of
servers, each research group with at least one physical server in our server rooms has at least one
cluster, more if the group has many systems with different roles.
Power Control
For each
server or
cluster there are controls for
power on,
power off, reset and more. Not all may be enabled, for instance
hibernate is often not possible and multi-GPU systems do not support
suspend.
Automatic Shutdown
If the usage pattern of a system allows it then the system will automatically shut down after it is idle for a given time.
API
A token based API is available to automate power controls in scripts. The access tokens for the API can be endowed with granular access rights.
Reservations
Reservations serve two purposes:
- Any active reservation prevents a system for automatically shutting down.
- Reservations coordinate access to systems
Depending on the policy of your research group, reservations can be exclusive or not.
