Moab Workload Manager

18.0 Green Computing

Green Computing Overview

Watch video Green Computing is a video tutorial that offers further details on green computing.

To conserve energy, Moab can turn off idle nodes that have no reservations on them. Conversely, Moab turns on additional nodes when jobs require such. Using the MAXGREENSTANDBYPOOLSIZE parameter, you can specify a "green pool," which is the number of nodes Moab keeps turned on and ready to run jobs (even if some nodes are idle). Moab turns off idle nodes that exceed the number specified with the MAXGREENSTANDBYPOOLSIZE parameter.

Example scenario:

Assume a cluster is empty and Moab starts. Moab turns off all nodes except those established by the green pool size. As jobs are submitted, Moab uses the machines that are already turned on, and Moab turns on additional nodes to keep the green pool at the configured size. As jobs complete, nodes turn off to keep the green pool at the configured size.

Requirements:

  • A license for green computing.
  • Moab 5.3.5 or later.
  • A script that Moab can call to programatically turn nodes on and off.
  • A resource manager that can monitor and report power state.