System and method for intelligent control of power consumption of distributed services during periods when power consumption must be reduced

A computer program product comprising:

• at least one computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for causing a reduction in power consumption of a distributed application comprised of a plurality of components in response to an indication that power consumption must be reduced, wherein the plurality of components are hosted by a plurality of computing elements that can each enter a power saving mode, the computer program product including:
• first computer readable program code devices configured to detect a need to reduce power consumption of the distributed application;
• second computer readable program code devices configured to identify in priority order components having a lower priority;
• third computer readable program code devices configured to gracefully suspend all identified components on one or more of the plurality of computing elements;
• and
• fourth computer readable program code devices configured to signal the one or more of the plurality of computing elements to enter the power saving mode.

A computer system comprising:

• a backplane;
• a plurality of host processor cards coupled to the backplane, with the plurality of host processor cards hosting a distributed application comprised of a plurality of components;
• and
• a management unit coupled to the back plane, the management unit operable to signal each of the plurality of host processor cards to enter a power saving mode, and executing a program that:
• detects a need to reduce power consumption of the distributed application;
• identifies in priority order components having a lower priority;
• gracefully suspends all identified components on one or more of the plurality of host processing cards;
• and
• signals the one or more of the plurality of host processing cards to enter the power saving mode.

A data center that hosts a distributed application comprised of a plurality of components, the data center comprising:

• a plurality of computer systems, each computer system comprising:
• a backplane;
• a plurality of host processor cards coupled to the backplane, with the plurality of host processor cards hosting components of the distributed application;
• and
• a management unit coupled to the back plane, the management unit operable to signal each of the plurality of host processor cards to enter a power saving mode;
• and
• a load management system in communication with each of the management units of the plurality of computer systems, the load management system executing a program that:
• detects a need to reduce power consumption of the distributed application;
• identifies in priority order components having a lower priority;
• signals one or more of the plurality of host processor cards in one or more of the plurality of computer systems to gracefully suspend all identified components on the one or more of the plurality of host processor cards in the one or more of the plurality of computer systems;
• and
• signals the management units in the one or more of the plurality of computer systems to collectively signal the one or more of the plurality of host processor cards to enter the power saving mode.