Systems and methods for flexible HDD/SSD storage support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10691628-B2
Application number	US-201615148340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 6, 2016
Priority date	May 6, 2016
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

Various examples of the present technology provide systems and methods for incorporating a switch card and adapter cards in a server system to provide flexible HDD and SSD supports. More specifically, a server system comprises a switch card having at least two different types of interfaces (e.g., a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface, a serial ATA (SATA) interface, or a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface), and a controller that comprises a first Central Processing Unit (CPU) and a second CPU. The first CPU is connected to a first adapter card while the second CPU is connected to a second adapter card. The first adapter and the second adapter are coupled to the switch card of the server system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a switch card comprising at least one of a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface or a serial ATA (SATA) interface, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface; and
a controller comprising a first computing node and a second computing node; wherein the first computing node is directly connected to a first PCIe switch of a first adapter card via a first PCIe connection, and the second computing node is directly connected to a second PCIe switch of a second adapter card via a second PCIe connection;
a plurality of SAS Hard-disk Drives (HDDs);
wherein the first adapter card is connected to the second adapter card, and the first PCIe switch is directly connected to the second PCIe switch of the second adapter card via a third PCIe connection, wherein the first adapter card comprises a first SAS controller and a first expander, the first SAS controller coupled to the first computing node while the first expander is coupled to the plurality of SAS HDDs through the switch card; and wherein the second adapter card comprises a second SAS controller and a second expander, the second SAS controller coupled to the second computing node while the second expander is coupled to the plurality of SAS HDDs through the switch card, wherein the first SAS controller is coupled to the first expander and the second expander, and the second SAS controller is coupled to the second expander and the first expander;
wherein the switch card is connected to a plurality of storage devices of the system;
wherein the controller is configured to:
receive a status signal from the adapter cards to determine that the first and second adapter cards support either SAS, SATA, or PCIe storage devices;
send a configuration signal to the switch card to enable the corresponding SAS, SATA, or PCIe interface of the switch card, and disenable other types of interface(s) of the switch card;
communicate with the plurality of storage devices of the system through at least one of the first adapter card or the second adapter card, and the switch card;
determine that the first adapter card supports at least one SAS HDD and the second adapter card supports at least one SAS HDD;
enable the SAS interface of the switch card;
communicate with the plurality of SAS HDDs of the system through at least one of the first adapter card or the second adapter card, and the SAS interface of the switch card;
determine that the first expander fails; and
communicate with the plurality of SAS HDDs through the second computing node, the second SAS controller, the second expander, and the switch card, or through the first computing node, the first SAS controller, the second expander, and the switch card.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the first adapter card has a malfunction; and
communicate with the plurality of storage devices of the system through the second adapter card and the switch card.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the first SAS controller fails; and
communicate with the plurality of SAS HDDs of the system through the second computing node, the second SAS controller of the second adapter card, the second expander of the second adapter card or the first expander of the first adapter card, and the switch card.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the first adapter card supports at least one PCIe Solid-state Drive (SSD) and the second adapter card supports at least one PCIe SSD;
enable the PCIe interface of the switch card, and disenable other types of interface(s) of the switch card; and
communicate with a plurality of PCIe SSDs of the system through at least one of the first adapter card or the second adaptor card, and the PCIe interface of the switch card.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first PCIe switch is coupled to the plurality of PCIe SSDs of the system through the switch card and coupled to the first computing node; and wherein the second PCIe switch is coupled to the plurality of PCIe SSDs of the system and coupled to the second computing node.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first PCIe switch is coupled to the second computing node, and the second PCIe switch is coupled to the first computing node.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the first PCIe switch fails; and
communicate with the plurality of PCIe SSDs of the system through the second computing node, the second PCIe switch of the second adapter card, and the switch card, or through the first computing node, the second PCIe switch of the second adapter card, and the switch card.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the first adapter fails; and
communicate with the plurality of PCIe SSDs of the system through the second computing node, the second PCIe switch of the second adapter card, and the switch card.

9. A computer-implemented method for providing flexible Hard-disk Drive (HDD) and Solid-state Drive (SSD) support in a computing system that comprises a plurality of SAS HHDs and a first computing node and a second computing node, the first computing node and the second computing node being a part of a controller, comprising:
receiving data from two or more adapter cards of the computing system, the two or more adapter cards including at least a first adapter card and a second adapter card that support at least one Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) HDD, at least one serial ATA (SATA) HDD, or at least one Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) SSD, a first PCIe switch of the first adapter card being directly connected to the first computing node via a first Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connection, a second PCIe switch of the second adapter card being connected to the second computing node via a second PCIe connection; wherein the first adapter card is connected to the second adapter card, and the first PCIe switch is directly connected to the second PCIe switch of the second adapter card via a third PCIe connection, and wherein the first adapter card comprises a first SAS controller and a first expander, the first SAS controller coupled to the first computing node while the first expander is coupled to the plurality of SAS HDDs through the switch card; and wherein the second adapter card comprises a second SAS controller and a second expander, the second SAS controller coupled to the second computing node while the second expander is coupled to the plurality of SAS HDDs through the switch card, wherein the first SAS controller is coupled to the first expander and the second expander, and the second SAS controller is coupled to the second expander and the first expander;
determining via the controller, from the data received from the two or more adapter cards, whether the two or more adapter cards supports the at least one SAS HDD, the at least one SATA HDD, or the at least one PCIe SSD;
in response to determining that the two or more adapter cards support the at least one PCIe SSD, enabling a PCIe interface of a switch card of the computing system and disenabling other types of interface(s) of the switch card via a configuration signal sent by the controller, the switch card comprising at least one of an SAS interface or a SATA interface, and the PCIe interface;
communicating with a plurality of PCIe SSDs of the computing system through the two or more adapter cards and the switch card;
in response to determining that the two or more adapter cards support the at least one SAS HDD, enabling the SAS interface of a switch card of the computing system and disenabling othe

Assignees

• Quanta Comp Inc

Inventors

• Lin Fa-Da
• Yu Chih-Wei

Classifications

• G06F11/2007

  using redundant communication media · CPC title

• G06F11/2005

  using redundant communication controllers · CPC title

• G06F13/387

  for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system · CPC title

• G06F13/4022 Primary

  using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network (G06F13/4009 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F2213/0032

  Serial ATA [SATA] · CPC title