Datacenter Power Costs and Their Impact in the Virtualized World

I recently conducted a quick analysis of a VMware vSphere–based virtual datacenter for a customer, and here’s what I found.

The average monthly electricity consumption of a single vCPU is 1.4 kWh, which translates to approximately $0.4  

The datacenter of my customer is located in Central Europe, and they pay 0.33 USD for 1 kWh of electricity in a Tier 3 datacenter facility (UPS + cooling included in energy cost).

Here are my questions for the broader worldwide infrastructure community.

• Q1: How much do you pay for electricity in your data center or server facility?
• Q2: What are the statistics of your cluster (CPU, memory, # of VMs, # of vCPUs)?
• Q3: How much power do your physical servers consume on average?

For vSphere Cluster statistics, you can use the PowerCLI script Get-ClusterDensity. I use it to compare virtual cluster metrics (# of VMs, # of vCPUs) with the actual power consumption of physical servers, which you can obtain from your hardware’s management tools.

If you want to dive deeper into my quick analysis, read on.

Detailed Analysis

CLUSTER01 

Cluster has the following specifications

• 10 pServers (Admission control 5+5)
• pServer Specification:
• 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6226R @ 2.90 GHz
• 16x 64 GB DIMM 
• 632 PowerOn Virtual Machines
• 1526 PowerOn vCPUs

Here is power consumption of  

1. 292 W [ACTIVE]
2. 203 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
3. 270 W [ACTIVE]
4. 211 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
5. 442 W [ACTIVE]
6. 287 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
7. 544 W [ACTIVE]
8. 335 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
9. 207 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
10. 320 W [ACTIVE]

Average Electricity Consumption of Physical Server is 0.311 kWh (3111 W / 10 pServers) => 228 kWh/month (0.311 kWh x 24 hours x 30.5 days in month). 

Electricity Cost of Physical Server is 75.24 USD/month (228 kWh/month x 0.33 USD)

Cluster's VM and vCPU statistics (averages)

• 63.2 Virtual Machines per Physical Server (632 VMs / 10 pServer)
• 1 VM average electricity consumption is 3.6 kWh/month (228 kWh/month / 63.2 VMs)
• 1 VM average electricity cost is 1.2 USD/month (3.6 x 0.33 USD)
• 152.6 vCPUs per Physical Server (1526 vCPUs / 10 pServers)
• 1 vCPU average electricity consumption is 1.5 kWh/month (228 kWh/month / 152.6 vCPUs)
• 1 vCPU average electricity cost is 0.5 USD/month (1.5 x 0.33 USD)

CLUSTER02 

CLUSTER02 has the following specifications

• 24 pServers (Admission control 24+2)
• pServer Specification:
• 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6226R @ 2.90 GHz
• 12x 64 GB DIMM 
• 936 PowerOn Virtual Machines
• 3127 PowerOn vCPUs

Here is power consumption of  

1. 283 W [ACTIVE]
2. 199 W [MAINTENANCE - NO VMs]
3. 239 W [ACTIVE]
4. 289 W [ACTIVE]
5. 273 W [ACTIVE]
6. 255 W [ACTIVE]
7. 280 W [ACTIVE]
8. 273 W [ACTIVE]
9. 271 W [ACTIVE]
10. 227 W [ACTIVE]
11. 235 W [ACTIVE]
12. 234 W [ACTIVE]
13. 320 W [ACTIVE]
14. 211 W [STANDBY - NO VMs]
15. 283 W [ACTIVE]
16. 286 W [ACTIVE]
17. 298 W [ACTIVE]
18. 291 W [ACTIVE]
19. 255 W [ACTIVE]
20. 294 W [ACTIVE]
21. 302 W [ACTIVE]
22. 273 W [ACTIVE]
23. 263 W [ACTIVE]
24. 215 W [STANDBY - NO VMs] 

Average Electricity Consumption of Physical Server is 0.265 kWh (6349 W / 24 pServers) => 194 kWh/month (0.265 kWh x 24 hours x 30.5 days in month). 

Electricity Cost of Physical Server is 64.02 USD/month (194 kWh/month x 0.33 USD)

Cluster's VM and vCPU statistics (averages)

• 63.2 Virtual Machines per Physical Server (632 VMs / 10 pServer)
• 1 VM average electricity consumption is 3.1 kWh/month (194 kWh/month / 63.2 VMs)
• 1 VM average electricity cost is 1 USD/month (3.1 x 0.33 USD)
• 152.6 vCPUs per Physical Server (1526 vCPUs / 10 pServers)
• 1 vCPU average electricity consumption is 1.27 kWh/month (194 kWh/month / 152.6 vCPUs)
• 1 vCPU average electricity cost is 0.41 USD/month (1.27 x 0.33 USD)

Conclusion

In my region (Central Europe), I pay 0.33 USD for electricity in Tier 3 datacenter (UPS + cooling included).

The average monthly electricity consumption for 1 vCPU is 1.4 kWh ((1.5 kWh + 1.27 kWh) / 2) , which translates to approximately 0.5 USD (1.4 kWh * 0.33 USD).

Please leave a comment with your answers to the questions at the beginning of this post, and don’t forget to share it, because sharing is caring.