Method for pre-chassis power multi-slot blade identification and inventory

• US 20100106987A1
• Filed: 10/29/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Gamare, Kalyani S., Lambert, Timothy M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

Systems and methods for a blade server to obtain the blade type and configuration of the chassis without requiring the blades to be fully powered. Using this method the user has the ability to acquire correct inventory and slot status of the chassis through the use of a low power auxiliary power state. The user is then able to apply the proper power budgeting and thermal algorithm requirements utilizing this information while minimizing the power consumption necessary to acquire such information. In addition, an intelligent search algorithm may be utilized to scan the blades for blade information thus further minimizing power consumption and decreasing the time needed to inventory the blades.

Claims

1. A method of inventorying the blades of a blade chassis comprising:

providing low power auxiliary power to at least a first blade within the blade chassis, the low power auxiliary power being less than the normal power utilized to operate the blade;

selectively powering a portion of the blade in a low power state, the portion of the first blade being sufficient to communicate information regarding the first blade to at least one chassis system component; and

communicating the first blade information to the at least one chassis system component while the low power auxiliary power is provided to the first blade.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selectively providing the low power auxiliary power to a plurality of blades through a process that utilizes pre-existing knowledge chassis limitations and/or configurations in order to more efficiently inventory the chassis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said method is performed upon detection of the insertion of a new blade in the blade chassis.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing low power auxiliary power step is performed incrementally upon one blade at a time for a plurality of blades.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the blades are blade servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes at least one of blade type, blade size, blade configuration or number of CPUs within the blade.

7. A method of performing an intelligent identification of blades in a blade chassis comprising:

obtaining information regarding at least one of a pre-set chassis limitation, blade presence in a blade slot, or blade configuration dimensions;

scanning a plurality of blades of the chassis to identify blade information; and

selectively bypassing the scanning of at least one of the blade slots of the blade chassis based upon the information,

wherein the selective bypassing reduces the power consumption of the blade identification process.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the selective bypassing is based at least in part upon whether the blade slot is empty.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the selective bypassing is based at least in part upon whether the blade slot is occupied by a slave blade.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the selective bypassing is based at least in part upon whether blade slots are empty and whether blade slots are occupied by a slave blade.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the scanning of the plurality of blades is performed incrementally.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the scanning of the plurality of blades is performed incrementally.

13. A method of operating an information handling system which comprises a plurality of blade components and a chassis controller, comprising:

obtaining pre-set information handling system limitations;

providing low power auxiliary power to the plurality of blade components within the information handling system;

selectively powering only a portion of the component in a low power state, the portion of the component being sufficient to communicate information regarding the first component to a chassis controller;

communicating the first component information to the chassis controller while the low power auxiliary power is provided to the first blade;

scanning a plurality of the blades component while low power auxiliary power is provided to the plurality of blade components to identify blade information; and

selectively bypassing the scanning of at least one of the blade components of the information handling system based upon the information regarding the information handling system limitations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the selective bypassing reduces the power consumption of a blade identification process.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the providing of low power auxiliary power to the plurality of blade components and the scanning of the plurality of blades is performed incrementally for each blade except for those blades that are selectively bypassed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the blade information includes at least one of blade type, blade size, blade configuration or number of CPUs within the blade.

17. An information handling system, comprising:

a blade server chassis;

a chassis controller within the blade server chassis;

a plurality of server blades coupled to the chassis controller, the server blades having a low power mode to operate the blade under less than normal power, the low power mode providing power to components of the blade sufficient to provide blade configuration information to the chassis controller,

wherein the configuration information allows the chassis controller to identify and inventory the server blades present in the blade server chassis.

18. The information handling system of claim 17, further comprising a bus coupling the chassis controller and the plurality of server blades wherein the bus provides system hardware control communications in addition to providing blade configuration information.

19. The information handling system of claim 17, wherein the chassis controller is configured to selectively bypass obtaining information from at least some blade servers slots.

20. The information handling system of claim 17, wherein the server blades may be configured in varying dimensions of heights and widths.