System and method of rack management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9582010-B2
Application number	US-201313830191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A rack management method and system is disclosed. The method includes detecting the presence of a computing device releasably mounted in a frame, the detecting based on an electrical connection established between a configuration bar disposed in a rear portion of the frame and the computing device, and determining a physical location of the computing device within the frame based on the electrical connection. The method also includes retrieving management information about the computing device from a profile storage disposed within the computing device via the electrical connection and storing the management information in a management table, the management table associating the computing device with the physical location within the frame.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A rack management method, comprising:
detecting the presence of a computing device releasably mounted in a frame, the detecting based on an electrical connection established between a configuration bar disposed in a rear portion of the frame and the computing device;
determining a physical location of the computing device within the frame based on the electrical connection;
retrieving management information about the computing device from a profile storage disposed within the computing device via the electrical connection, wherein the management information includes device component control algorithms for controlling device components associated with the computing device; and
storing the retrieved management information in a management table, the management table associating the computing device with the physical location within the frame, and
performing management tasks associated with the computing device based on the management information including the device component control algorithms stored in the management table.

2. The rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting, the determining, the retrieving, and the storing are performed with a rack management controller in electrical communication with the computing device via the electrical connection.

3. The rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the device component control algorithms include a fan control algorithm for controlling a fan mounted adjacent to the computing device in the frame,
wherein the performing the management tasks associated with the computing device based on the management information includes:
controlling the fan based on the physical location of the computing device within the frame according to the fan control algorithm.

4. The rack management method of claim 3 , wherein performing management tasks includes controlling a speed of the fan according to the fan control algorithm.

5. The rack management method of claim 1 , wherein performing management tasks includes controlling power usage of the computing device.

6. The rack management method of claim 1 ,
wherein the frame includes a plurality of fans mounted thereto; and
further including associating the computing device with one of the plurality of fans based on the physical location of the computing device within the frame.

7. The rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the management information includes fan control information describing cooling requirements of the computing device.

8. The rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the management information includes at least one of computing device power usage, computing device size, computing device type, computing device hardware assets, computing device power up and power down timing, and computing device thermal attributes.

9. The rack management method of claim 1 ,
wherein the configuration bar includes a plurality of coupling assemblies, the computing device being releasably coupled to a first coupling assembly in the plurality of coupling assemblies and the electrical connection being established within the first coupling assembly; and
wherein determining the physical location of the computing device includes determining in which of the coupling assemblies the electrical connection was established.

10. The rack management method of claim 9 , wherein determining the physical location includes receiving, via the electrical connection, a unique binary number that identifies a physical location of the first coupling assembly within the frame.

11. A rack management system, comprising:
a frame configured to support computing devices releasably mounted therein;
a configuration bar disposed in a rear portion of the frame, the configuration bar having a first coupling assembly;
a first computing device releasably mounted within the frame such that a second coupling assembly disposed on the first computing device is releasably coupled to the first coupling assembly, an electrical connection being established between the first coupling assembly and the second coupling assembly;
a profile storage disposed within the first computing device that stores management information about the computing device, wherein the management information includes device component control algorithms for controlling device components associated with the first computing device; and
a rack management controller in electrical communication with the first computing device via the electrical connection and being configured to:
retrieve the management information from the profile storage via the electrical connection;
store retrieved management information in a management table; and
performing management tasks associated with the first computing device based on the management information including the device component control algorithms stored in the management table.

12. The rack management system of claim 11 , wherein the management table associates the first computing device with a physical location within the frame.

13. The rack management system of claim 11 ,
wherein the frame includes a plurality of fans mounted thereto; and
wherein the management table associates the first computing device with one of the plurality of fans based on a physical location of the first computing device within the frame.

14. The rack management system of claim 11 , wherein the first coupling assembly includes a first data contact that is configured to contact a second data contact in the second coupling assembly when the first computing device is releasably mounted in the frame, the electrical connection being established by the first and second data contacts.

15. The rack management system of claim 14 , wherein the electrical connection forms one of a serial link, a System Management Bus (SMBus) link, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) link.

16. The rack management system of claim 11 , wherein the management information includes fan control information describing cooling requirements of the first computing device.

17. The rack management system of claim 11 , wherein the management information includes at least one of computing device power usage, computing device size, computing device type, computing device hardware assets, computing device power up and power down timing, and computing device thermal attributes.

18. The rack management system of claim 11 , wherein the rack management controller is further configured to determine a physical location of the first computing device within the frame based on the electrical connection.

19. The rack management system of claim 18 ,
wherein the first coupling assembly is one of a plurality of first coupling assemblies disposed on the configuration bar; and
wherein the rack management controller is configured to determine the physical location of the first computing device within the frame by determining in which of the first coupling assemblies the electrical connection was established.

20. The rack management system of claim 19 , wherein each of the first coupling assemblies include a first sense contact that is configured to contact a second sense contact in the second coupling assembly.

21. The rack management system of claim 19 , wherein each of the first coupling assemblies include a plurality of contacts that form a unique binary pattern representing a binary number that identifies the location of the first coupling assembly within the frame.

22. A rack system, comprising:
a frame configured to support computing devices rel

Assignees

• Rackspace Us Inc

Inventors

• Mick Jason
• Bracey Dale Lee

Classifications

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• Y02B60/1282

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F1/3287

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

• G06F11/3051

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs (verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247) · CPC title

• H05K7/20836

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