Backup power communication

• US 10,275,003 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2014
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Park, Justin H., Raymond, Patrick A., Mohr, David P., Altobelli, David K., Engler, David W., Wang, Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Hicks, Austin
• Application Number:
  US15/323,665
• Publication Number:
  US 20170160779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,646 Days
• Field of Search: 713323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3275 Power saving in memory, e.g. RAM, cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/06 with automatic change-over , e.g. UPS systems

Abstract

Example implementations relate to backup power communication. For example, a system for backup power communication can include a shared backup power supply coupled to a node, a plurality of loads supported by the node, and a pass-through device to support multi-master communication between the shared backup power supply and the plurality of loads.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource of a shared backup power supply to:

send, by the shared backup power supply to a plurality of loads of a node, a request using and through a pass-through device supporting a multi-master communication protocol permitting the shared backup power supply and the pass-through device to, as master devices, both control the loads as slave devices to the master drives;

receive, by the shared backup power supply, a response from the plurality of loads, the responses identifying a subset of the plurality of loads that are to be protected by the shared backup power supply; and

communicate by the shared backup power supply to the subset, backup power information using the multi-master communication protocol on the pass-through device.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the backup power information includes a message indicating that the shared backup power supply has a threshold level of power to supply backup battery power for the subset.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the backup power information includes a message to enable a first portion of loads among the subset of loads and to disable a second portion of loads among the subset of loads as the shared backup power supply charges.

4. The medium of claim 1, the shared backup power supply to send messages to other shared backup power supplies indicating at least one of:

a charge status of the shared backup power supply; and

a output status of the shared backup power supply.

5. The medium of claim 1, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset indicating a sequence of delivery of backup power to the subset during backup.

6. The medium of claim 5, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset instructing a second load among the subset of loads to remain in a retaining mode until a first load among the subset of loads has completed a data backup.

7. The medium of claim 1, wherein the pass-through device is a baseboard management controller (BMC) communicatively connected to both the shared backup power supply and the loads of the node.

8. A method comprising:

sending, by a shared backup power supply to a plurality of loads of a node, a request using and through a pass-through device supporting a multi-master communication protocol permitting the shared backup power supply and the pass-through device to as master devices both control the loads as slave devices to the master drives;

receiving, by the shared backup power supply, a response from the plurality of loads, the responses identifying a subset of the plurality of loads that are to be protected by the shared backup power supply; and

communicating, by the shared backup power supply to the subset, backup power information using and through the multi-master communication protocol on the pass-through device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the backup power information includes a message indicating that the shared backup power supply has a threshold level of power to supply backup battery power for the subset.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the backup power information includes a message to enable a first portion of loads among the subset of loads and to disable a second portion of loads among the subset of loads as the shared backup power supply charges.

11. The method of claim 8, the shared backup power supply to send messages to other shared backup power supplies indicating at least one of:

a charge status of the shared backup power supply; and

a output status of the shared backup power supply.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset indicating a sequence of delivery of backup power to the subset during backup.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset instructing a second load among the subset of loads to remain in a retaining mode until a first load among the subset of loads has completed a data backup.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the pass-through device is a baseboard management controller (BMC) communicatively connected to both the shared backup power supply and the loads of the node.

15. A backup power supply comprising:

communication hardware to communicate with a plurality of loads of a node and with a pass-through device supporting a multi-master communication protocol permitting the shared backup power supply and the pass-through device to as master devices both control the loads as slave devices to the master drives;

a processing resource to;

send, to the plurality of loads of a node, a request using and through the pass-through device;

receive a response from the plurality of loads, the responses identifying a subset of the plurality of loads that are to be protected by the shared backup power supply; and

communicate, to the subset, backup power information using and through the multi-master communication protocol on the pass-through device.

16. The backup power supply of claim 15, wherein the backup power information includes a message indicating that the shared backup power supply has a threshold level of power to supply backup battery power for the subset.

17. The backup power supply of claim 15, wherein the backup power information includes a message to enable a first portion of loads among the subset of loads and to disable a second portion of loads among the subset of loads as the shared backup power supply charges.

18. The backup power supply of claim 15, the shared backup power supply to send messages to other shared backup power supplies indicating at least one of:

a charge status of the shared backup power supply; and

a output status of the shared backup power supply.

19. The backup power supply of claim 15, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset indicating a sequence of delivery of backup power to the subset during backup.

20. The backup power supply of claim 19, wherein the backup power information includes a message from the shared backup power supply to the subset instructing a second load among the subset of loads to remain in a retaining mode until a first load among the subset of loads has completed a data backup.