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Google Running 900,000 Servers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yeah-but-how-many-cores-chris dept.

1sockchuck writes "How many servers is Google using? The company won't say, but a new report places the number at about 900,000. The estimate is based on data Google shared with researcher Jonathan Koomey, for a new report on data center power use. The data updates a 2007 report to Congress, and includes a surprise: data centers are using less energy than projected, largely due to the impact of the recession (buying fewer servers) and virtualization."

6 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. How about lower wattage CPUs? by Enry · · Score: 4, Informative

    We've moved from 1U systems with 90-125W systems to blade enclosures with 60W CPUs and also getting 4 or 6 cores per physical CPU rather than 1 or 2. While our HPC cluster core count has increased by a factor of 4 (allowing researchers to do more work), the amount of energy and floor space required did not increase that much at all.

    1. Re:How about lower wattage CPUs? by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      In addition to this, Google runs DC power supplies, with a low-voltage on board battery as opposed to large rack UPS. I've heard they have some innovative tricks for server room cooling as well, but I've never seen confirmation of exactly what they're doing. But Google goes to great lengths to cut down data center power usage.

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  2. Impressed by Verdatum · · Score: 3, Funny

    No comment about it being over 9000 yet. I'm impressed Slashdot.

  3. Re:Real Question by mat+catastrophe · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real question is how the hell do you manage that many servers? How do you even name them

    1hahaha
    2hahaha
    3hahaha
    4hahaha ....
    899999hahaha
    900000hahaha

    900000 servers! Hahahaha!

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  4. Re:Real Question by tibit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't think that's that big of a problem, once you plan for having that many from the get go. All of those servers must be automatically provisioned, and their names are irrelevant and are machine generated. No one ever needs to know those names. Their management software probably manages servers by function. Say they have so many storage nodes, so many storage indexers, so many load balancers, so many static content servers, so many web spiders, etc. The configurations for any particular server must be generated, too, from some sort of a global configuration for their whole "system".

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  5. The standard Google server by Quila · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dual-processor, two SATA hard drives, 12V PSU, 12V Lithium battery. It's not even sealed in a case, just a frame holding a board, with the PSU, battery and hard drives held on with Velcro.

    Most of these will be about that spec.