Enabling users to work sustainably on shared institute computing resources
For operators of small-to-medium academic computing clusters with limited retrofit options, this work provides a practical, user-focused approach to sustainability.
The VISPA project implemented user-centric sustainability measures on a shared computing cluster, including per-job energy monitoring, green-window scheduling based on grid renewable share, and voluntary user reporting. These interventions aim to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by increasing resource awareness.
The VISPA project is a self-managed, mid-scale computing cluster that supports physics data analysis in research and teaching. Because the cluster is housed in a 1970s institute building with limited retrofit options, conventional efficiency upgrades would yield only minor energy savings. We therefore target sustainability primarily through user-centric measures. A monitoring system now records per-job energy consumption, while real-time data on the renewable share of the German power grid enable `green-window' scheduling. Users can query their individual energy consumption and carbon footprints, receive weekly reports, and tag jobs by project for aggregate accounting; memory records from previous runs help avoid oversubscription. All options are voluntary, fostering a cultural shift rather than imposing hard constraints. A simulation framework evaluates the potential impact of these measures. Together, the technological and behavioral interventions aim at medium- to long-term reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by increasing resource awareness within the scientific community.