Regulating power consumption

A method for dynamically regulating power consumption in a system, the method comprising:

• identifying a plurality of compute nodes in the system;
• implementing at least one virtual machine (VM) host at each of the plurality of compute nodes;
• instantiating at least one VM guest on the at least one VM host at each of the plurality of compute nodes;
• monitoring a workload demand of the at least one VM guest at each of the plurality of compute nodes and natively-measured performance metrics at the each compute node;
• and
• determining whether the workload demand of the at least one VM guest at one of the plurality of compute nodes exceeds or underutilizes a capacity of the one compute node;
• and
• upon the determining that the workload demand of the at least one VM guest underutilizes the capacity of the one compute node,
• a) providing migration of the at least one VM guest to another one of the identified plurality of nodes in the system;
• and
• b) powering down the one underutilized compute node to conserve power consumption once the migration is provided,
• wherein providing migration of the at least one VM guest comprises:
• determining whether there is sufficient capacity at the another one compute node to accommodate the at least one VM guest from the one compute node;
• and
• upon the determining that there is sufficient capacity at the another one compute node, migrating the at least one VM guest from the one compute node to the another one compute node.

A computer readable medium on which is encoded program code for dynamically regulating power consumption in a system having a plurality of compute nodes, the encoded program code comprising:

• computer program code executed to implement at least one virtual machine (VM) host at each of the plurality of compute nodes;
• computer program code executed to instantiate at least one VM guest on the at least one VM host at each of the plurality of compute nodes;
• computer program code executed to monitor a workload demand of the at least one VM guest at each of the plurality of compute nodes and natively-measured performance metrics at the each compute node;
• and
• computer program code executed to determine whether the workload demand of the at least one VM guest at one of the plurality of compute nodes exceeds or underutilizes a capacity of the one compute node;
• and
• computer program code executed to, upon the determining that the workload demand of the at least one VM guest underutilizes the capacity of the one compute node,
• a) provide migration of the at least one VM guest to another one of the identified plurality of nodes in the system;
• and
• b) power down the one underutilized compute node to conserve power consumption once the migration is provided,
• the computer program code executed to provide migration of the at least one VM guest comprises:
• computer program code executed to determine whether there is sufficient capacity at the another one compute node to accommodate the at least one VM guest from the one compute node;
• and
• computer program code executed to, upon the determining that there is sufficient capacity at the another one compute node, migrate the at least one VM guest from the one compute node to the another one compute node.