Dynamic active servers allocating policy for cloud computing data centers

Cloud computing data centers generally consist of a large number of servers connected via high speed network. One promising approach to saving energy is to maintain enough active severs in proportion to system load, while switch left servers to idle mode whenever possible. Then operating cost and switching cost is brought about respectively. The problem of right-sizing active severs to minimize energy consumption (total cost of operating and switching) in data centers is discussed. Firstly, the NP-hard model is established, and the characteristics of the optimal solution when omitting the switching cost are analyzed. Then by revising the solution procedure carefully, the recursive procedure is successfully eliminated. The optimal static algorithm with polynomial complexity is achieved. Finally, the online strategy is developed using the worst predicting load as the constraints. Simulation results show that the proposed offline and online algorithm can adapt the dramatic trend of external load and always carefully adjust the proportion of active servers, to guarantee minimum power consumption with a smooth computing process.