Datacenter component maintenance time tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11523533-B1
Application number	US-202017008839-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 1, 2020
Priority date	Sep 1, 2020
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

Systems and techniques for tracking and providing real-time visualizations of maintenance time for datacenter components. The systems include sensors to detect when datacenter components are opened for maintenance, such as hot switching of hard drive disks, to initialize a countdown timer. Status indicator lights of components within the datacenter component are used to display visual representations of the countdown timer. The visualizations present a remaining or elapsed maintenance time remaining to ensure components of the datacenter component are not damaged by overheating during maintenance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A server comprising:
a chassis;
a lid mounted to the chassis and reconfigurable to an open position;
a sensor that indicates when the lid is in the open position;
a plurality of storage devices mounted in the chassis in an array and accessible through the lid, each storage device of the plurality of storage devices comprising a light emitting diode (LED);
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon that when executed, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a signal from the sensor indicating the lid is in the open position;
responsive to the signal, start a countdown timer counting down from a predetermined period of time; and
cause at least some of the LEDs of the plurality of storage devices to display a visual representation of the countdown timer.

2. The server of claim 1 , wherein the display of the visual representation of the countdown timer comprises a display of a number representative of the countdown timer.

3. The server of claim 1 , wherein the display of the visual representation of the countdown timer comprises an illumination of a fraction of the LEDs based on a fraction of the predetermined period of time remaining on the countdown timer.

4. The server of claim 1 , wherein the display of the visual representation of the countdown timer comprises flashing of at least one of the LEDs at a varying rate based on an amount of time remaining on the countdown timer.

5. A system comprising:
a server chassis;
a sensor that detects when the server chassis is in a service configuration;
a plurality of lights within the server chassis;
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a signal from the sensor indicating a reconfiguration of the server chassis to the service configuration; and
cause the lights to selectively illuminate based on an elapsed time since the reconfiguration of the server chassis to the service configuration.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the lights are selectively illuminated to display a graphical representation of a service time period.

7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned within the server chassis to detect a temperature within the server chassis, and wherein the one or more non-transitory computer readable media store additional instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to receive temperature data from the temperature sensor, and wherein the service time period is based on the temperature data.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the service time period is predetermined.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more non-transitory computer readable media store additional instruction that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to determine a service time period, and wherein the lights are selectively illuminated based further on the service time period.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the lights are selectively illuminated so that a percentage of the lights that are illuminated or not illuminated is indicative of the elapsed time since the reconfiguration of the server chassis to the service configuration.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the lights are selectively illuminated to display a 7-segment digit indicative of the elapsed time.

12. The system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more non-transitory computer readable media store additional instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to access a predetermined time period for service of electronic components mounted to the server chassis; and wherein the lights are selectively illuminated based on a difference between the predetermined time period and the elapsed time.

13. A method, comprising:
receiving a signal from a sensor indicating a reconfiguration of a server chassis to a service configuration;
determining a service time period for the server chassis; and
conveying a second signal to at least one of a plurality of electronic components stored within the server chassis to cause at least one light of the at least one of the plurality of electronic components to selectively illuminate based on an elapsed time since the reconfiguration of the server chassis to the service configuration and on the service time period for the server chassis.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving temperature data corresponding to a temperature within the server chassis; and
determining a remaining service time period based on the temperature data, and wherein determining the service time period is based further on the remaining service time period.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining a remaining service time period based on a difference between the elapsed time and the service time period, and wherein conveying the second signal to the at least one of the plurality of electronic components causes the at least one light to selectively illuminate further based on the remaining service time period.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the service time period for the server chassis comprises:
accessing a predetermined service time period; and
determining a remaining service time period based on a difference between the predetermined service time period and the elapsed time after receiving the signal indicating the reconfiguration of the server chassis to the service configuration.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein conveying the second signal to the at least one of the plurality of electronic components causes the at least one light to selectively illuminate so as to display a 7-segment digit representative of the remaining service time period.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising determining a percentage of service time remaining based on the predetermined service time period and the remaining service time period, and wherein conveying the second signal to the at least one of the plurality of electronic components causes a percentage of the lights of the at least one of the plurality of electronic components to selectively illuminate based on the percentage of service time remaining.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein conveying the second signal to the at least one of the plurality of electronic components causes at least one of the lights of the at least one of the plurality of electronic components to selectively illuminate based on the remaining service time period.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein conveying the second signal to the at least one of the plurality of electronic components causes the lights to flash at a predetermined rate based on the remaining service time period.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Rivnay Roey
• Megarity William Mark
• Choudhary Priti

Classifications

• G11B33/10 Primary

  Indicating arrangements; Warning arrangements {(G11B15/04, G11B19/04, G11B27/34, G11B27/36 take precedence)} · CPC title

• G09G3/14

  Semiconductor devices, e.g. diodes · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G08B21/24

  Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms · CPC title

• H05K7/20836

  Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control · CPC title