Robotic Mapping and Monitoring of Data Centers

We describe THOMAS, an inexpensive autonomous robot capable of navigating previously unseen data centers and monitoring key metrics such as air temperature. THOMAS provides real-time navigation and sensor data to commercial IBM software, thereby enabling real-time generation of the data center layout, a thermal map and other visualizations of energy dynamics. Once it has mapped a data center, THOMAS can efficiently monitor it for hot spots and other anomalies using intelligent sampling. We demonstrate the effectiveness of THOMAS via experimental studies from two production data centers.

By: Chris Mansley; Jonathan Connell; Canturk Isci; Jonathan Lenchner; Jeffrey Kephart; Suzanne McIntosh; Michael Schappert

Published in: Shanghai, China, no. 5905-10 in 2011

Please obtain a copy of this paper from your local library. IBM cannot distribute this paper externally.

Questions about this service can be mailed to reports@us.ibm.com .