TFGrid power management feature for 3.9 [Closed]

#1

Note: This project is now the Farmerbot. More information on the TF Manual: https://manual.grid.tf/farmers/farmerbot/farmerbot_intro.html

we are working on the power management feature for our farmers

see https://github.com/threefoldtech/farmerbot/issues/1

  • first version <2 weeks, please let us know if you want to help us test

info from the story:

features version 1

  • farmers can define their configuration in an easy markdown format
  • through WOL machines can be turned on and off
  • the provisioning scripts need to be adjusted to wake a node when required
  • the farming manager checks which nodes can be turned off

technical requirements

generic requirements phase 2

  • defensive mode, we check wol works with multiple interfaces e.g. network switch, ping, …
    • when doing wol on/off talk to supported switch to see if network is active and also do ping to see node comes back or are down
  • its easy for farmers with scripting experience to expand the tool to support other PDU’s (power mgmt devices)
  • we support racktivity devices for power measurement and power on/off
6 Likes
GEP for Super Green Farming with 100% Renewable Energy [Closed]
GEP for Super Green Farming with 100% Renewable Energy [Closed]
#2

That looks all very nice.

How can we help you test this new feature?

Thanks!

1 Like
#3

We didn’t expect the feature to be available so quickly, albeit in a demo Version. In any case, a huge round of applause for the devs.
We operate 40 nodes in a German data center, unfortunately we had to switch them off at the beginning of the year because of our new energy prices but we would like to start them up again as soon as possible. So we would be very happy to volunteer to test the demo version of the feature and would like as much information as possible to prepare our farm.

3 Likes
#4

We will prepare the setup as described here: https://github.com/threefoldtech/farmerbot/tree/development/example_data

Will be ready for testing the next days.

Can’t wait to get hands on the the farming bot.

3 Likes
#5

days is maybe a little soon, lets aim for next week if you’re ok with it

1 Like
#6

I’m totally fine with next week.

1 Like
#7

Know this was long-awaited for farmers and in the end it’s beneficial to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Better for people, better for the planet. :clap: Thanks to the team pushing this forward!

2 Likes
#8

Blockquote * use vlang and the rmb components built into crystallib

Blockquote * use actor based paradigm (so its very easy to extend)

I just love it how you manage to get 5 words in 2 sentences to make sure that 99,8% of this planet doesn’t have a clue what you’re saying :rofl:
I’ll wait this one out but hope it works. Great work!

1 Like
#9

I am looking forward to this feature and would love to test it out.

1 Like
#10

Hi all! I have a short update directly from the team responsible for the power management feature, will also share in the chats shortly:

“The farmerbot has actors – node (for anything node related) and power (for anything power related) – which are able to execute what we call jobs. Jobs are actions or methods that can be done or executed by an actor. One of them is the ‘find node’ action, which finds a node that can fit the required resources for a specific deployment. While doing that, it will power on the node if it is off. Every five minutes, the farmerbot fetches information about the nodes (calling the nodes directly). With that information it is able to shut down nodes automatically that are not being used.

The implementation is now mostly done. The communication between farmerbot, nodes, and tfchain is not yet complete. An exact estimate for completion is hard to provide as there are many variables, but we are working as quickly as we can.”

:pray: :pray: :pray:

3 Likes
#11

Hi all.

I’m pleased to inform you that we have made some good progress on the farmerbot. It is now able to contact the nodes in the farm and retrieve some critical information to make decisions on power management. Our next task is to make it contact the chain in order to start the process of shutting down a node. Finally we will have to properly test the farmerbot before releasing it to the world.

Thank you all for your patience :muscle:

6 Likes
#12

Thanks for the update is there any amount of time that this hopefully final task should be completed. According to Kristof the test version of the farmerbot should actually be completed in the course of the last week.Finally, can we expect it within days weeks or months? Another question I have is whether the probably testing will be done by the community, since we applied for this testing opportunity. Thank you

1 Like
#13

Thanks for the patience :pray: I haven’t heard any exact timing but the feature should be ready for testing in the next days. Kristof gave his estimate but sometimes giving estimates is not so simple as we are walking an unwalked path and execution can bring unexpected challenges or simply take longer than expected. To answer your second question, yes, once the feature is ready for testing it will be released to the community so that those who want to test it can do so.

2 Likes
#14

Hi.

We are starting end-to-end tests today. Once those succeed the community is welcome to test it on their own (on devnet for now). If everything goes as planned you can expect it within days.

Thank you for your patience.

8 Likes
#15

This is good news! Thanks @brandonpille for your hard work and happy testing. :pray:

#16

Nice I appreciate that a lot since I have offline everything due to energy costs…
you all are the best!!

I was busy (am busy) the last weeks and sadly i didn’t manage to make some stuff on TF… but i want to test this feature soon.
Did anyone already test the new power-saving-feature? Is there description, a howTo or anything informative to configure it well? Or is it working out of the box in dev.net?

I assume the min configure is to enable WOL on the NICs

thanks great work as everytime!

1 Like
#17

You cannot test it yet as we still have to test it. Once that is done we will make sure it is easy to use and we will provide you the required documentation. Keep in mind that it will only work on devnet in the beginning.

The minimal configuration is indeed enabling WOL. You will also need to use mnemonics of your farm.

Thank you for your patience. :muscle:

5 Likes
#18

Hi all,

We have been testing the farmerbot the last couple of days. The farmerbot was able to shutdown 2 nodes on its own which is a good thing. But we noticed that shutting down the second node took over 30 minutes which is not what we expected. After some investigation we noticed a small issue that we are fixing right now.

Thank you for your patience. We will be continuing our tests once this issue is fixed and keep you up to date.

7 Likes
#19

Hi,

Good news. We were able to fix the issue mentioned before. The farmerbot is now able to shutdown nodes in a few minutes and bring them back on. To make sure everything is as expected we will be running some more testing today. Next week we should be able to invite the community to test it too. Please reply to this message if you are interested in testing the farmerbot with us.

We are very thankful for your patience, we’re almost there! :muscle:

8 Likes
#20

Amazing! Looking forward to it!