Managing data center resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9864669-B1
Application number	US-201213402691-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 22, 2012
Priority date	Feb 22, 2012
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

Various features are disclosed for providing indicators of activity on server computing systems or other devices. An indicator component can indicate whether data center equipment is being used by a user and/or to support a user, and that therefore the operation of the data center equipment should not be impacted. One or more indicator components can be affixed to or integrated with the exterior of data center equipment, e.g., added to the rack on which server computing systems are mounted, integrated with a networking component that provides connectivity to the server computing systems mounted in the rack, or the like. The indicator components can be controlled by software or hardware implemented in a server computing system, a networking component, and/or remotely from an administrator system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for managing computing devices, the system comprising:
a first indicator device configured to indicate whether operation of a computing device is interruptible, the first indicator device configured to operate in:
a first state indicating that the computing device is not executing any active customer workloads; and
a second state indicating that the computing device executing at least one active customer workload;

a second indicator device configured to indicate whether operation of a data center component is interruptible, the second indicator device configured to operate in:
a third state indicating that the data center component is not supporting operation of any computing devices that are executing any active customer workloads; and
a fourth state indicating that the data center component is supporting operation of at least the computing device that is executing the at least one active customer workload,
wherein the data center component comprises an environmental control system or a power control system, wherein the data center component is configured to support operation of the computing device during execution of the at least one active customer workload, and wherein the data center component does not execute the at least one active customer workload; and

a management component executed by one or more processors in communication with the first and second indicator devices, the management component configured to:
initialize the first indicator device to the first state and the second indicator device to the third state;
analyze usage data regarding one or more activities executing on the computing device;
determine that an activity of the one or more activities executing on the computing device corresponds to an active customer workload, the determining based at least in part on the analysis of the usage data; and
cause, based at least in part on the determination, the first indicator device to change to the second state and the second indicator device to change to the fourth state.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein usage data comprises data indicating that a virtual machine instance is executing on the computing device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first indicator device comprises a first lighting component.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the management component is configured to cause the first lighting component to emit light of a first color in the first state and cause the first lighting component to emit light of a second color in the second state.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the management component is configured to cause the first lighting component to emit light in one of the first state or second state.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management component is further configured to cause a change in the state of the first indicator device in response to a network connection with a client computing device being opened or closed.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second state further indicates that the computing device is available for powering down, disconnecting from a network, or performing maintenance.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first indicator device further comprises a message display configured to display a message regarding a status of the computing device.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management component is further configured to communicate with an administrator computing device, the administrator computing device configured to cause the management component to change the state of the first indicator device.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device comprises one or more hot-swappable components.

11. A system for managing data center components, the system comprising:
an indicator device in communication with a management component, the indicator device associated with a data center component, the indicator device configured to indicate whether operation of the data center component can be interrupted,
wherein the data center component comprises an environmental control system or a power control system, and
wherein the indicator device is configured to operate in a first state indicating that the data center component is not configured to support any computing devices that are processing any active workloads associated with users, and to operate in a second state indicating that the data center component is configured to support a computing device that is processing any active workload associated with a user; and

the management component, wherein the management component is configured to control the state of the indicator device, the management component executing on computing hardware in communication with the indicator device, wherein the management component is configured to:
determine that the computing device is executing an active workload associated with the user;
determine that the data center component is configured to support the computing device, wherein the data center component is not executing the active workload associated with the user; and
in response to the determination that the data center component is configured to support the computing device, cause the indicator device to change to the second state.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the environmental control system comprises at least one of a heating, ventilation, or an air conditioning unit.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the data center component comprises a hot-swappable component.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the indicator device comprises a lighting component.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the management component is configured to cause the lighting component to emit light of a first color in the first state and cause the lighting component to emit light of a second color in the second state.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the management component is configured to cause the lighting component to emit light in one of the first state or second state.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first state further indicates that the data center component is available for powering down, disconnecting from a network, or performing maintenance.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the management component is further configured to communicate with an administrator computing device, the administrator computing device configured to cause the management component to change the state of the indicator device.

19. A method for managing computing devices, the method comprising:
identifying usage data reflective of one or more activities executing on a computing device;
determining, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, that an activity of the one or more activities executing on the computing device corresponds to an active customer workload, the determining based at least in part on the identification of the usage data;
in response to said determining that the computing device is executing the active customer workload, actuating a first hardware indicator component associated with the computing device to indicate that the computing device is executing the active customer workload;
determining, by the computing system, that a data center component is configured to support operation of the computing device during execution of the active customer workload, wherein the data center component comprises at least one of an environmental control system or a power control system, and wherein the data center component does not execute the active customer workload; and
in response to th

Assignees

• Klein Matthew D
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Klein Matthew D

Classifications

• G06F11/325 Primary

  by lamps or LED's · 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

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04L41/08

  Configuration management of networks or network elements (address allocation H04L61/50) · CPC title

• G06F11/3006

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title