Programmable availability for a high availability storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304581-B1
Application number	US-201313932668-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 1, 2013
Priority date	Sep 30, 2008
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Storage systems include a plurality of enclosures interconnected to provide a network. Each enclosure includes a first power supply module, a redundant power supply module, a first electronics module, and a redundant electronics module in electrical communication with the first electronics module and providing redundant functionality of the first electronics module. Each of the modules of each enclosure is individually associated with a separate power profile dedicated to that module. The power profile of each given module includes one or more programmable power parameters that determine when to power down and power up that given module during operation of the storage system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage enclosure comprising:
a first electronics module;
a second electronics module configured to provide redundant functionality to the first electronics module;
a first power supply module associated with the first electronics module; and
a second power supply module associated with the second electronics module and configured to provide redundant functionality to the first power supply module, the second power supply module being a sole source of the redundant functionality of that enclosure;
wherein each of the first and second electronics modules and each of the first and second power supply modules is individually associated with a separate power profile dedicated to that module, the power profile of each given module including one or more programmable power parameters that determine when to power down and power up that given module during operation of the storage enclosure, wherein a separate power profile associated with the second power supply module powers down the second power supply module during a copy or move of data from the storage enclosure to a remote location, wherein the separate power profiles of the first and second power supply modules comprise a trigger condition to individually power down the first and second power supply modules when a workload of the storage enclosure falls below a predetermined threshold.

2. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein the first electronics module includes a controller configured to monitor a status of the first power supply module and to send the status to the redundant second electronics module.

3. The storage enclosure of claim 2 , wherein the second electronics module includes a controller configured to receive the status of the first power supply module from the controller of the first electronics module and to cause power to be restored to the second power supply module in response to determining from the status that the first power supply module has faulted.

4. The storage enclosure of claim 2 , wherein the second electronics module includes a controller configured to receive periodically a heartbeat signal from the controller of the first electronics module while the second electronics module is powered down.

5. The storage enclosure of claim 4 , wherein the heartbeat signal includes the status of the first power supply module.

6. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein the second power supply module is powered down while the first and second electronics modules remain active; and wherein the first power supply module supplies sufficient power to support a load of the first and second electronics modules while the second power supply module is powered down.

7. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein both the first and second electronics modules of the storage enclosure are link control cards or storage processor cards.

8. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define a schedule for powering down each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles.

9. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define an event, an occurrence of which triggers an appropriate moment to power down each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles.

10. The storage enclosure of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define a storage system condition, an existence of which causes each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles to power down.

11. A storage system comprising:
a plurality of enclosures interconnected to provide a network, each enclosure including a first power supply module, a redundant power supply module, and a first electronics module, and a redundant electronics module in electrical communication with the first electronics module and providing redundant functionality of the first electronics module, the redundant power supply module being a sole source of the redundant functionality of that enclosure;
wherein each of the modules of each enclosure is individually associated with a separate power profile dedicated to that module, the power profile of each given module including one or more programmable power parameters that determine when to power down and power up that given module during operation of the storage system, wherein a separate power profile associated with the redundant power supply module powers down the redundant power supply module during a copy or move of data from the storage enclosure to a remote location, wherein the separate power profiles of the first and redundant power supply modules comprise a trigger condition to individually power down the first and redundant power supply modules when a workload of the storage enclosure falls below a predetermined threshold.

12. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein the first electronics module of a given enclosure includes a controller configured to monitor a status of the first power supply module of the given enclosure and to send the status to the redundant control card module of the given enclosure.

13. The storage system of claim 12 , wherein redundant electronics module of the given enclosure includes a controller configured to receive the status of the first power supply module of the given enclosure from the controller of the first electronics module of the given enclosure and to cause power to be restored to the second power supply module of the given enclosure in response to determining from the status that the first power supply module of the given enclosure has faulted.

14. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein the second electronics module of the given enclosure includes a controller configured to receive periodically a heartbeat signal from the controller of the first electronics module of the given enclosure while the second electronics module of the given enclosure is powered down.

15. The storage system of claim 14 , wherein the heartbeat signal includes the status of the first power supply module of the given enclosure.

16. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein the second power supply module of a given enclosure is powered down while the first and second electronics modules of the given enclosure remain active; and wherein the first power supply module of the given enclosure supplies sufficient power to support a load of the first and second electronics modules of the given enclosure while the second power supply module of the given enclosure is powered down.

17. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define a schedule for powering down each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles.

18. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define an event, an occurrence of which signals an appropriate moment to power down each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles.

19. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein one or more of the power profiles define a storage system condition, an existence of which causes each module associated with the one or more of the power profiles to power down.

20. The storage system of claim 11 , wherein a given one of the plurality of enclosures is a storage processor enclosure or a disk array enclosure.

21. A method for reducing power consumption in a storage system including one or more enclosures interconnected to form a network, each enclosure includes a first power supply module, a redundant power supply module, a first electronics module, and a redundant electronics modu

Assignees

• Emc Corp

Inventors

• Robillard Michael

Classifications

• G06F1/3287 Primary

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F3/06

  Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers {, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers} · CPC title

• G06F1/3234

  Power saving characterised by the action undertaken · CPC title

• G06F3/0634

  by changing the state or mode of one or more devices · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title