System and method of rack management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9594385-B2
Application number	US-201414186905-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 21, 2014
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 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 high availability rack management method, comprising:
receiving, at a first rack management controller configured to manage a first rack system, management information from a second rack management controller configured to manage a second rack system different than the first rack system, the management information being associated with computing devices disposed in the second rack system;
receiving, at the first rack management controller, periodic heartbeat messages from the second rack management controller;
detecting that the first rack management controller ceases receiving the periodic heartbeat messages from the second rack management controller and, responsive to the detection, transmitting, with the first rack management controller, a status inquiry message for inquiring a status of the second rack management controller to the second rack management controller; and
determining that the second rack management controller fails to respond to the status inquiry message and, responsive to the determination, managing, with the first rack management controller, the computing devices disposed in the second rack system using the management information.

2. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the periodic heartbeat messages includes receiving the periodic heartbeat messages over a point-to-point communication link between the first rack management controller and the second rack management controller.

3. The high availability rack management method of claim 2 , wherein the point-to-point communication link is a low-bandwidth signaling link selected from one of a system management bus (SMBus) link and a serial link.

4. The high availability rack management method of claim 2 , wherein the transmitting the status inquiry message includes transmitting the status inquiry message over a second communication link between the first rack management controller and the second rack management controller different than the point-to-point communication link.

5. The high availability rack management method of claim 4 , wherein the second communication link is an Ethernet link.

6. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the management information includes addresses of management modules disposed in the computing devices in the second rack system.

7. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the management information includes attributes of computing devices in the second rack system.

8. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , further including repeating the receiving the management information at periodic time intervals.

9. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the management information includes the second rack management controller transmitting the management information to the first rack management controller in response to a change to the management information.

10. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the periodic heartbeat messages includes receiving the management information within each periodic heartbeat message.

11. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , wherein managing, with the first rack management controller, the computing devices disposed in the second rack system includes monitoring thermal characteristics of the computing devices in the second rack system.

12. The high availability rack management method of claim 11 , wherein monitoring the thermal characteristics includes reducing, with the first rack management controller, power consumption of at least one computing device in the second rack system if a temperature of the at least one computing device exceeds a threshold.

13. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 , further including, if the second rack management controller fails to respond to the status inquiry message, transmitting an alert message.

14. The high availability rack management method of claim 1 ,
further including transmitting, with the first rack management controller, further management information to the second rack management controller, the further management information being associated with computing devices disposed in the first rack system; and
further including transmitting, with the first rack management controller, further periodic heartbeat messages to the second rack management controller.

15. A high availability rack management system, comprising:
a first rack system having a first plurality of computing devices therein;
a first rack management controller communicatively coupled to each of the first plurality of computing devices and configured to manage each of the first plurality of computing devices using management information about the first plurality of computing devices;
a second rack system having a second plurality of computing devices therein;
a second rack management controller communicatively coupled to each of the second plurality of computing devices and configured to manage each of the second plurality of computing devices, the second rack management controller being further configured to store a copy of the management information about the first plurality of computing devices; and
a first communication link communicatively coupling the first rack management controller to the second rack management controller and configured to carry periodic heartbeat messages transmitted from the first rack management controller to the second rack management controller;
wherein the second rack management controller is configured to:
detect a failure of the first rack management controller to transmit the periodic heartbeat messages and, responsive to the detection, transmit a status inquiry message for inquiring a status of the first rack management controller to the first rack management controller, and
manage the first plurality of computing devices in the first rack system using the copy of the management information responsive to a determination that the first rack management controller fails to respond to the status inquiry message.

16. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 , wherein the first communication link is a point-to-point communication link between the first rack management controller and the second rack management controller.

17. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 , wherein the second rack management controller is configured to transmit the status inquiry message over a second communication link between the first rack management controller and the second rack management controller different than the first communication link.

18. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 , wherein the management information includes attributes of each of the first plurality of computing devices.

19. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 , wherein the first rack management controller is further configured to transmit the copy of the management information to the second rack management controller in response to a change to the management information.

20. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 , wherein each periodic heartbeat message includes the copy of the management information.

21. The high availability rack management system of claim 15 ,
wherein the first rack management controller is further configured to store a copy of further management information about the second plurality of computing devices in the second rack syst

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

• H05K7/20209

  Thermal management, e.g. fan control · CPC title

• Y02B60/1217

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G05D23/1917 Primary

  using digital means · 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