HPC Resource Allocation Under Energy Constraints

Abstract

We discuss the new problem faced by High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities in allocating resources to users of their facilities: while facilities once allocated a single finite resource—node-hours—now facilities must also concurrently allocate a second scarce resource: electrical energy, which is bounded within each facility's annual operations budget. Current application optimization practices encourage conservation of the first resource, but can be potentially unaffordably wasteful of the second. We describe a framework for reasoning about such allocations that can be utilized by facilities to articulate policy, while encouraging scientific application developers to write code mindfully of both constraints. We outline the requirements on facilities, on developers, and on hardware vendors and integrators that are necessary to enable the implementation of this framework.