Patent ID: 8230238

Claim:
A computer implemented method for determining power consumption in a data storage system, the method comprising: processing data access requests submitted by way of a host system operating in a computing environment, wherein the data access requests are directed to at least a first storage device operating in a virtualized storage system in said computing environment; determining disk level data access operations for the first storage device based on processing the data access requests, wherein due to virtualization of the storage system, the first storage device is unable to independently provide information that identify individual disk level data access operations performed by the first storage device, in response to receiving the data access requests submitted by way of the host system; and calculating power consumption for the storage system by interpolating costs associated with each of the operations performed by the first storage device, wherein the cost associated with each of said operations is determined based on: (1) various levels of activities for the first storage device and a mix of workload characteristics, and (2) predetermined power consumption measurements obtained from one or more benchmarks for same operations performed by a second storage device in a test environment, wherein the second storage device simulates the first storage device in a non-virtualized storage environment such that power consumption measurements for a series of operations performed on the second storage device are accurately obtained by way of test equipment directly connected to the second storage device.