System, architecture, and method for logical server and other network devices in a dynamically configurable multi-server network environment

• US 20020004912A1
• Filed: 05/18/2001
• Published: 01/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/1990
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Amphus, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Amphus, Inc.
• Inventors: Fung, Henry T.
• Application Number:
  US09/860,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20020004912A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00315 Microtiter plates
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00317 Microwell devices, i.e. having large numbers of wells
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00605 the compounds being directly bound or immobilised to solid supports
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00659 Two-dimensional arrays
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00686 Automatic
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00691 using robots
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00707 separated from the reactor apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: C40B 60/14 for creating libraries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3221 of disk drive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Network architecture, computer system and/or server, circuit, device, apparatus, method, and computer program and control mechanism for managing power consumption and workload in computer system and data and information servers. Further provides power and energy consumption and workload management and control systems and architectures for high-density and modular multi-server computer systems that maintain performance while conserving energy and method for power management and workload management. Dynamic server power management and optional dynamic workload management for multi-server environments is provided by aspects of the invention. Modular network devices and integrated server system, including modular servers, management units, switches and switching fabrics, modular power supplies and modular fans and a special backplane architecture are provided as well as dynamically reconfigurable multi-purpose modules and servers. Backplane architecture, structure, and method that has no active components and separate power supply lines and protection to provide high reliability in server environment.

Claims

1. In a system having a plurality of physical network devices, a method for grouping said plurality of physical network devices into a logical network device for operation and control, said method comprising:

coupling said physical network devices that are to be grouped together as a logical device for communication;

identifying a manager to supervise operation of said logical device;

receiving a request for performance of a task; and

executing a procedure within said manager to coordinate and control operation of said logical device to perform said task, said coordination and control including;

(i) determining a capability of each said physical network device, and (ii) distributing network tasks between and among said network devices based on said determined capabilities and requests submitted to said network.

2. The method in claim 1, wherein said manager supervising operation is performed at least in part by a component of one of said plurality of network devices.

3. The method in claim 1, wherein said manager supervising operation is performed at least in part by a component of one of said plurality of network devices comprising said logical network device.

4. The method in claim 1, wherein said manager supervising operation is performed at least in part by an external manager separate from said plurality of network devices comprising said logical network device.

5. The method in claim 1, wherein said manager supervising operation is performed by a management module and said plurality of physical network devices comprise server modules.

6. The method in claim 1, wherein said manager supervising operation is performed by a server module designated as a master.

7. The method in claim 6, wherein said plurality of network devices comprise server modules, and said manager supervising operation is performed by one of said server modules designated as a master.

8. The method in claim 6, wherein said plurality of network devices comprise server modules, and said manager supervising operation is performed by a server module different from said plurality of server modules grouped as a logical network device and designated as a master.

9. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices comprise switch modules.

10. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices comprise management modules.

11. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices comprise network devices selected from the set consisting of management modules, server modules, and switching modules.

12. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices are configured as a logical manager.

13. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices are configured as a logical switcher.

14. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices are configured as a logical router.

15. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices are configured as a logical server.

16. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices comprise server modules.

17. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of logical devices comprise server modules and said logical network device comprises a logical server module configured as one of a web server, a streaming media server, a cache server, a file server, an application server, and combinations thereof.

18. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of physical devices include a plurality of data storage devices, and said coordination and control of said physical devices into said logical device comprise managing said storage devices as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID).

19. The method in claim 18, wherein said plurality of data storage devices comprise a plurality of disk drives managed as a mirroring data storage subsystem.

20. The method in claim 18, wherein said RAID is managed as either a RAID Level 1 or RAID Level 0+1.

21. The method in claim 18, wherein said plurality of storage devices comprise hard disk drives and operation of said hard disk drives is managed to reduce power consumption and prolong disk drive life.

22. The method in claim 19, wherein said managing includes:

selecting a first set of disc drives from among a plurality of sets of disc drives as a currently active set;

selecting a second set of disc drives as a currently inactive set and placing said selected inactive set in a power conserving mode;

using said first set of disc drives to retrieve data in response to read data requests;

activating said second set of disc drives in response to a write data request prior to performing said requested write operation;

performing said write operation to both said first and second set of disc drives; and

selecting one of said first set and second set as the inactive set and deactivating said selected inactive set after performing said write operation.

23. The method in claim 22, wherein said disc drives are configured as a RAID Level 1.

24. The method in claim 22, wherein said disc drives are configured as a RAID Level 0+1.

25. The method in claim 22, wherein said disc drives are configured as mirrored storage each set duplicating the data of the other set.

26. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of grouped network devices are electrically coupled via a backplane bus and the logical grouping of the plurality of network devices into a single logical network device is performed under control of software.

27. The method in claim 1, wherein said software executes within a processor and memory associated within each network device.

28. The method in claim 1, wherein a plurality of network devices of the same type are grouped together and treated as a single network device.

29. The method in claim 1, wherein said group of network devices treated as a single network device is managed and controlled as a single network device.

30. The method in claim 1, wherein said group of network devices treated as a single network device is power managed as a single network device.

31. The method in claim 1, wherein said group of network devices treated as a single network device is monitored as a single network device.

32. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of grouped network devices are electrically coupled via a backplane bus and the logical grouping of the plurality of network devices into a single logical network device is performed under control of software.

33. The method in claim 1, wherein said software executes within a processor and memory associated within each network device.

34. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of network devices each comprise a server group.

35. The method in claim 34, wherein each said server group comprises a plurality of server modules.

36. The method in claim 1, wherein said plurality of network devices each comprise a computer node.

37. The method in claim 36, wherein each computer node is configured as a computer node selected from the group consisting of a web server, a streaming media server, a cache server, a file server, an application server, and a router.

38. The method in claim 1, wherein said logical device is managed as a single image.

39. The method in claim 1, wherein said method includes a first plurality of physical devices grouped as a first logical device, and a second plurality of physical devices grouped as a second logical devices.

40. The method in claim 39, wherein said first and second logical devices are power managed as logical devices.

41. The method in claim 1, wherein tasks performed by each of the logical devices are monitored for each logical device, for each physical device within said logical device, or both.

42. The method in claim 1, wherein tasks performed by each of the logical devices are monitored for each logical device, for each physical device within said logical device, or both;

and said task monitoring information is used to power manage said logical device and said physical devices.

43. The method in claim 42, wherein said power management includes reconfiguring said logical unit to provide a required performance level with a desired power consumption.

44. The method in claim 42, wherein said power management includes reconfiguring said logical unit to minimize power consumption while maintaining a required task performance level.

45. The method in claim 44, wherein said reconfiguring said logical unit to minimize power consumption while maintaining a required task performance level is performed in accordance with power management policies.

46. The method in claim 44, wherein said reconfiguring said logical unit to extend the life of a component constituting said physical device.

47. The method in claim 45, wherein said power management policies include a policy that attempts to satisfy performance requirements by operating each of first selected physical devices at first performance levels, and a each of second selected physical devices at second performance levels.

48. The method in claim 47, wherein said second performance levels are a performance level at which substantially no tasks are performed and power consumption is reduced relative to said first performance levels.

49. The method in claim 48, wherein said first performance levels are between about 40 percent and about 100 percent of maximum performance level.

50. The method in claim 45, wherein said power management policies include a policy that attempts to satisfy performance requirements by operating a minimum number of physical devices to satisfy task performance requirements.

51. The method in claim 40, wherein performance of a logical group of physical network devices forming a single logical device are power managed by reducing the performance and power consumption of each constituent physical device in predetermined equal increments, predetermined unequal increments, in a substantially continuous manner, or dynamically in a continuous or incremental manner.

52. The method in claim 51, wherein said unequal increments include placing one or more of said plurality of physical devices in an operating mode wherein said physical device includes a processor operating to perform tasks only when a processor clock signal is provided, and said processor clock signal is stopped or substantially stopped.

53. The method in claim 52, wherein said processor is placed in a suspend mode.

54. The method in claim 51, wherein said unequal increments include placing one or more of said plurality of physical devices in a sleep mode.

55. The method in claim 51, wherein said unequal increments include placing one or more of said plurality of physical devices in a powered-off mode.

56. The method in claim 45, wherein a composite performance of a logical network device is achieved by placing some physical network devices in a first power saving mode and by placing others in a different mode.

58. The method in claim 51, wherein said disc drives are configured as a RAID Level 1.

59. The method in claim 51, wherein said disc drives are configured as a RAID Level 0+1.

60. The method in claim 51, wherein said disc drives are configured as mirrored storage each set duplicating the data of the other set.

61. The method in claim 51, wherein:

said disc drives are disposed on separate server modules that have been grouped as a single logical device; and

said disk drives are configured as either a RAID Level 1 or a RAID Level 0+1 and include data mirroring.

57. A method of reducing power consumption in a computer system having a mirroring data storage subsystem, said method comprising steps of:

selecting a first set of disc drives from among a plurality of sets of disc drives as a currently active set;

selecting a second set of disc drives as a currently inactive set and placing said selected inactive set in a power conserving mode;

using said first set of disc drives to retrieve data in response to read data requests;

activating said second set of disc drives in response to a write data request prior to performing said requested write operation;

performing said write operation to both said first and second set of disc drives; and

selecting one of said first set and second set as the inactive set and deactivating said selected inactive set after performing said write operation.