Architecture for data center infrastructure monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9948521-B2
Application number	US-201715404015-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2017
Priority date	Jan 11, 2016
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

A central infrastructure monitoring system includes an asset configurator; and a plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems each associated with a respective data center of a plurality of geographically distributed data centers that include one or more physical infrastructure assets of a plurality of physical infrastructure assets for enabling system operation within the respective data center. The data center infrastructure monitoring systems are coupled to the central infrastructure monitoring system. The asset configurator is configured to define templates of standard attributes for the plurality of infrastructure assets based on information about the plurality of infrastructure assets of the plurality of data centers, generate infrastructure asset data that logically represents the plurality of physical infrastructure assets based on the defined templates, and associate, via the infrastructure asset data, the physical infrastructure assets within an infrastructure asset hierarchy indicating connections and interdependencies between the plurality of infrastructure assets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A monitoring system, comprising:
a central infrastructure monitoring system comprising an asset configurator; and
a plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems each associated with a respective data center of a plurality of geographically distributed data centers, each of the plurality of distributed data centers comprising one or more physical infrastructure assets of a plurality of physical infrastructure assets for enabling system operation within the respective data center, each of the plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems communicatively coupled to the central infrastructure monitoring system,
wherein the asset configurator is configured to define templates of standard attributes for the plurality of physical infrastructure assets, the standard attributes including a plurality of asset data points each associated with a reading to be recorded for a respective physical infrastructure asset, wherein the plurality of asset data points are common across the plurality of physical infrastructure assets of the plurality of data centers, generate infrastructure asset data that logically represents the plurality of physical infrastructure assets based only on the plurality of asset data points that are common for the defined templates by adding or removing asset data points for one or more of the plurality of physical infrastructure assets so that only the plurality of asset data points that are common across the plurality of infrastructure assets of the same type are included in the infrastructure asset data, and associate the infrastructure asset data within an infrastructure asset hierarchy indicating at least one of how the plurality of infrastructure assets are connected and interdependencies between the plurality of infrastructure assets,
wherein at least one of the plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems is configured to select a template of the defined templates for a physical infrastructure asset of the one or more physical infrastructure assets in response to detecting the physical infrastructure asset, and populate the selected template using asset data points defined by the selected template, wherein the selected template specifies a communication protocol for communicating with the detected physical infrastructure asset, and
wherein the central infrastructure monitoring system is configured to monitor data received from each of the plurality of infrastructure assets via a respective data center infrastructure monitoring system of the plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems, the data associated with one or more of the common asset data points.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more physical infrastructure assets comprise one or more of a temperature sensor, a heating ventilation and air conditioning unit, a computer room air conditioning unit, an uninterruptible power supply, a generator, a power distribution unit, an air handling unit, a chiller unit, a power unit, or switchgear.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the templates defines one or more standard alarms for the respective infrastructure asset.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein at the least one of the plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems is configured to detect presence of the physical infrastructure asset of the one or more physical infrastructure assets, select the communication protocol for receiving data associated with the detected physical infrastructure asset based on the selected template, and receive the data associated with the detected physical infrastructure asset using the selected communication protocol.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of data center infrastructure monitoring systems is configured to schedule system resources for receiving data associated with the one or more physical infrastructure assets, based on a type of each of the one or more physical infrastructure assets and a respective polling frequency associated with the respective type.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the asset configurator is configured to normalize asset configurations for defining asset models, define how to populate the asset models for the plurality of physical infrastructure assets, and define data needed to normalize asset readings to be recorded for the plurality of physical infrastructure assets.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a central hub configured to process data associated with one or more first infrastructure assets of a first data center of the plurality of data centers and one or more first infrastructure assets of other respective data centers of the plurality of data centers, and detect alarm events based on configured rules and the processed data; and
a gateway device in communication with the central hub and configured to provision an application programming interface (API) endpoint for communicating real-time data from the one or more first infrastructure assets, receive, at the API endpoint, the data associated with the one or more first infrastructure assets, and process the data associated with the one or more first infrastructure assets.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of infrastructure assets comprises at least one mechanical asset and at least one electrical asset.

9. A method, comprising:
defining, by an asset configurator of a central infrastructure monitoring system, templates of standard attributes for a plurality of physical infrastructure assets, the standard attributes including a plurality of asset data points each associated with a reading to be recorded for a respective physical infrastructure asset, wherein the plurality of asset data points are common across the plurality of physical infrastructure assets, wherein each of the plurality of physical infrastructure assets enables system operation within one or more of a plurality of data centers;
generating, by the asset configurator, infrastructure asset data that logically represents the plurality of physical infrastructure assets based only on the plurality of asset data points that are common for the defined templates by adding or removing asset data points for one or more of the plurality of physical infrastructure assets so that only the plurality of asset data points that are common across the plurality of infrastructure assets of the same type are included in the infrastructure asset data;
associating, by the asset configurator, the infrastructure asset data within an infrastructure asset hierarchy indicating at least one of how the plurality of physical infrastructure assets are connected and interdependencies between the plurality of physical infrastructure assets;
selecting a template of the defined templates for a physical infrastructure asset of the one or more physical infrastructure assets in response to detecting the physical infrastructure asset;
populating the selected template using asset points defined by the selected template, wherein the selected template specifies a communication protocol for communicating with the detected physical infrastructure asset; and
monitoring, by the central infrastructure monitoring system, data received from the plurality of infrastructure assets via respective data center infrastructure monitoring systems associated with the respective data center of the plurality of data centers, the data associated with one or more of the common asset data points.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more physical infrastructure assets comprise one or more of a temperature sensor, a heating ventilation and air conditioning unit, a computer room air conditioning unit, an uninterruptible power supply, a generator, a power d

Assignees

• Equinix Inc

Inventors

• Doraiswamy Vijaay
• Lillie Brian J
• Kumar Parveen
• Purohit Purvish
• Gundugola Prabhakar
• Jeyapaul Jaganathan
• Sathyavathi Sriharsha Mukundappa
• Raparti Swayambhu
• Rangasamy Venkatachalam

Classifications

• G06F11/3058

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations (thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206) · CPC title

• G06F11/30

  Monitoring · CPC title

• H04L67/025

  for remote control or remote monitoring of applications · CPC title

• H04L67/00

  Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications (user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00) · 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