Electronic equipment chassis having storage devices and other modules configured for front-access removability

• US 10,051,764 B1
• Filed: 06/07/2017
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Frangioso, Jr., Ralph C., Wierzbicki, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hoa C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Augustin, Christopher L
• Application Number:
  US15/616,412
• Time in Patent Office: 433 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/128 of the plurality of recording/reproducing devices, e.g. disk drives, onto a chassis
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/142 by air cooling
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 13/00 Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing or adjusting assemblages of electric components
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20563 within sub-racks for removing heat from electronic boards
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20709 for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20736 within cabinets for removing heat from server blades

Abstract

An electronic equipment chassis in one embodiment comprises a housing having a front portion and a rear portion, at least one row of dual in-line memory modules disposed at one of an upper level and a lower level of the front portion, and a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion adjacent the at least one row of dual in-line memory modules. At least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment chassis comprising:

a housing having a front portion and a rear portion;

at least one row of dual in-line memory modules disposed at one of an upper level and a lower level of the front portion; and

a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion adjacent said at least one row of dual in-line memory modules;

wherein the electronic equipment chassis has a rack mount configuration for mounting of the electronic equipment chassis in an electronic equipment rack;

wherein at least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and at least a subset of the storage devices are configured for each such dual in-line memory module and storage device to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

a given group of the dual in-line memory modules of the subset of dual in-line memory modules being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other groups of the dual in-line memory modules in a same one of the one or more rows as the given group of the dual in-line memory modules and separately from any of the storage devices; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices and separately from any of the groups of dual in-line memory modules.

2. The chassis of claim 1 wherein said at least one row comprises first and second rows of dual in-line memory modules with each such row comprising multiple groups of dual in-line memory modules.

3. The chassis of claim 2 wherein a given one of the groups comprises a plurality of dual in-line memory modules arranged in slots secured to a slidable tray configured to allow the given group to be removed from the chassis separately from the other groups through the vertical plane of the front portion.

4. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are horizontally oriented in the front portion of the housing.

5. The chassis of claim 4 wherein the hard disk drives are arranged in a plurality of groups with the hard disk drives of each group being arranged in parallel with one another.

6. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the chassis has a 4U rack mount configuration.

7. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the housing further comprises a middle portion between the front and rear portions, the chassis further comprising a plurality of cooling modules arranged in the middle portion.

8. The chassis of claim 1 further comprising additional electrical equipment arranged in the rear portion of the housing, said additional electrical equipment comprising one or more processors, circuit boards, interface cards and power supplies.

9. The chassis of claim 1 wherein each of said at least a subset of the storage devices configured so as to be removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion is configured as a hot-pluggable module.

10. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the chassis further comprises a front panel coincident with the vertical plane and wherein said at least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through at least one opening in the front panel.

11. An electronic equipment rack comprising:

a first electronic equipment chassis mounted in the electronic equipment rack; and

at least one additional electronic equipment chassis mounted in the electronic equipment rack;

wherein at least one of the first electronic equipment chassis and the additional electronic equipment chassis each comprises;

a housing having a front portion and a rear portion;

at least one row of dual in-line memory modules disposed at one of an upper level and a lower level of the front portion; and

a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion adjacent said at least one row of dual in-line memory modules;

wherein at least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and at least a subset of the storage devices are configured for each such dual in-line memory module and storage device to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

a given group of the dual in-line memory modules of the subset of dual in-line memory modules being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other groups of the dual in-line memory modules in a same one of the one or more rows as the given group of the dual in-line memory modules and separately from any of the storage devices; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices and separately from any of the groups of dual in-line memory modules.

12. The rack of claim 11 wherein said at least one row comprises first and second rows of dual in-line memory modules with each such row comprising multiple groups of dual in-line memory modules.

13. The rack of claim 12 wherein a given one of the groups comprises a plurality of dual in-line memory modules arranged in slots secured to a slidable tray configured to allow the given group to be removed from the chassis separately from the other groups through the vertical plane of the front portion.

14. The rack of claim 11 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are horizontally oriented in the front portion of the housing and further wherein the hard disk drives are arranged in a plurality of groups with the hard disk drives of each group being arranged in parallel with one another.

15. A method comprising:

configuring an electronic equipment chassis to include at least one row of dual in-line memory modules disposed at one of an upper level and a lower level of a front portion of a housing of the chassis;

configuring the electronic equipment chassis to further include a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion of the housing adjacent said at least one row of dual in-line memory modules; and

removing at least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and at least a subset of the storage devices from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

wherein the electronic equipment chassis has a rack mount configuration for mounting of the electronic equipment chassis in an electronic equipment rack;

a given group of the dual in-line memory modules of the subset of dual in-line memory modules being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other groups of the dual in-line memory modules in a same one of the one or more rows as the given group of the dual in-line memory modules and separately from any of the storage devices; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices and separately from any of the groups of dual in-line memory modules.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said at least one row comprises first and second rows of dual in-line memory modules with each such row comprising multiple groups of dual in-line memory modules.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein a given one of the groups comprises a plurality of dual in-line memory modules arranged in slots secured to a slidable tray, and wherein said removing comprises utilizing the slidable tray associated with a given one of the groups to remove that group separately from the other groups through the vertical plane of the front portion.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising mounting the electronic equipment chassis in a rack, and wherein said removing occurs while the electronic equipment chassis is mounted in the rack.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein said removing comprises removing said at least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices from the chassis through at least one opening in a front panel coincident with the vertical plane.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are horizontally oriented in the front portion of the housing and further wherein the hard disk drives are arranged in a plurality of groups with the hard disk drives of each group being arranged in parallel with one another.