Power Consumption Monitor and Method Therefor

• US 20110029798A1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Reddy, Jaydev, Brumley, Alan, Munjal, Ashish
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3062 where the monitored property is the power consumption power management in a computing system G06F1/3203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3065 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766

Abstract

A power supply unit of an information handling system determines that a power consumption module of the information handling system is available. If the power consumption module is available, the power supply unit measures input power of the power supply unit and provides a representation of the input power to the power consumption module in response to receiving a power measurement request from the power consumption module. If the power supply unit determines that the power consumption module is not available, the power supply unit measures input power of the power supply unit and stores a representation of the input power at the power supply unit independent of a power measurement request from the power consumption module.

Claims

1. In an information handling system, a method comprising:

operating a power supply unit (PSU) of the information handling system in a first mode while the PSU determines that a power consumption module of the information handling system is available, whereby in the first mode the PSU measures a first input power of the PSU and provides a representation of the first input power to the power consumption module in response to receiving a power measurement request from the power consumption module; and

operating the PSU in a second mode while the PSU determines that the power consumption module is unavailable, whereby in the second mode the PSU measures a second input power of the PSU and stores a representation of the second input power at the PSU independent of a power measurement request from the power consumption module.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing the representation of the second input power at the PSU and providing the representation of the second input power from the PSU to the power consumption module in response to determining at the PSU that the power consumption module has become available.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the representation of the second input power comprises:

providing an indication that the representation of the second input power is stored at the PSU to the power consumption module in response to determining at the PSU that a power measurement request has been received at the PSU while the PSU is operating in the second mode; and

providing the representation of the second input power stored at the PSU in response to receiving a request for the representation of the second input power from the power consumption module.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, at the PSU, that the power consumption module is unavailable in response to determining that a power management request has not been received at the PSU within a predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined amount of time is a predetermined amount of time from a power management request last received at the PSU.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an amount of power consumed by the information handling system based at least in part on the representation of the first input power and the representation of the second input power.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

billing at least one entity based on the amount of power consumed by the information handling system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information handling system comprises a server rack having a plurality of blade servers that use power supplied by the PSU.

9. An information handling system comprising:

a power supply unit (PSU) to supply power to one or more components of the information handling system, the PSU comprising;

an interface to receive power measurement requests from a power consumption module of the information handling system;

a local storage; and

a power measurement module to;

operate in a first mode while the power measurement module determines that the power measurement module is available, whereby in the first mode the power measurement module measures a first input power of the PSU and provides a representation of the first input power to the power consumption module in response to receiving a power measurement request from the power consumption module; and

operating in a second mode while the power measurement module determines that the power consumption module is unavailable, whereby in the second mode power measurement module measures a second input power of the PSU and stores a representation of the second input power at the local storage independent of a power measurement request from the power consumption module.

10. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the power measurement module further is to access the representation of the second input power from the local storage and provide the representation of the second input power from the PSU to the power consumption module in response to determining that the power consumption module has become accessible.

11. The information handling system of claim 10, wherein the power measurement module provides the representation of the second input power to the power consumption module by:

providing an indication that the representation of the second input power is stored at the PSU to the power consumption module in response to determining that a power measurement request has been received at the PSU while the PSU is operating in the second mode; and

providing the representation of the second input power stored at the PSU in response to receiving a request for the representation of the second input power from the power consumption module.

12. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the power measurement module is to determine that the power consumption module is unavailable in response to determining that a power management request has not been received at the PSU within a predetermined amount of time.

13. The information handling system of claim 12, wherein the predetermined amount of time is a predetermined amount of time from a power management request last received at the PSU.

14. The information handling system of claim 9, further comprising:

the power consumption module, wherein the power consumption module is to determine an amount of power consumed by the information handling system based at least in part on the representation of the first input power and the representation of the second input power.

15. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the information handling system comprises a server rack having a plurality of blade servers that use power supplied by the PSU.

16. In an information handling system, a method comprising:

providing power from a power supply unit (PSU) to at least one component of the information handling system;

determining, at the PSU, a first amount of power received at the input of the PSU and providing a representation of the first amount of power from the PSU to a power consumption module as first power information in response to receiving a first power measurement request from the power consumption module;

in response to determining at the PSU that a power measurement request has not been received within a predetermined amount of time;

periodically determining an amount of power received at the input of the PSU and storing a representation of the amount of power and a representation of the time at which the amount of power was determined as second power information at a local storage of the PSU;

in response to receiving at the PSU a command from the power consumption module, providing an indication from the PSU to the power consumption module that the PSU has stored the second power information; and

providing the second power information stored at the PSU to the power consumption module in response to receiving at the PSU a request for the second power information from the power consumption module.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining a power consumption of the information handling system based on the first power information and the second power information.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

billing at least one entity based on the power consumption.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the predetermined amount of time is a predetermined amount of time from a power measurement request last received at the PSU.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the information handling system comprises a server rack having a plurality of blade servers that use power supplied by the PSU.