AUTOMATIC DISCOVERY OF SERVER TO POWER-CIRCUIT CONNECTIONS
First Claim
1. A system for automatically discovering computer to power-circuit connections, comprising:
- a plurality of computers, wherein each computer is connected to a network; and
a computer program having program modules executable by each computer, wherein each of the computers is directed by the program modules of the computer program to generate a power consumption signature.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a data center which includes a plurality of servers, a discovery computer, a power measurement system (PMS), and a plurality of power-circuits which supply power to the servers, the discovery computer performs the following actions for each server. It transmits a first command to the server causing the server to start generating a power consumption signature if the server is able to do so. Upon receiving a SUCCESS response from the server, it instructs the PMS to start measuring the power consumption from each power-circuit. After a prescribed interval of time has elapsed, it collects the measurements from the PMS and analyzes the measurements to look for the presence of the signature. Upon detecting the signature in the measurement taken from a particular power-circuit, the discovery computer concludes that the server is connected to the particular power-circuit and creates a mapping there-between.
49 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for automatically discovering computer to power-circuit connections, comprising:
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a plurality of computers, wherein each computer is connected to a network; and a computer program having program modules executable by each computer, wherein each of the computers is directed by the program modules of the computer program to generate a power consumption signature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. In a data center comprising a plurality of server computers each of which is connected to a network, a power connection discovery computer which is also connected to the network, a power measurement system (PMS) which is connected to the discovery computer, and a plurality of power-circuits each of which is connected to one or more server computers and supplies electrical power to said servers, a computer-implemented process for automatically discovering the server to power-circuit connections, comprising using the discovery computer to perform the following process actions:
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for each server computer in the data center; (a) transmitting a first command to the server over the network causing the server to start generating an identifiable power consumption signature if the server is able to do so; (b) upon receiving a SUCCESS response from the server over the network, instructing the PMS to start measuring the power consumption from each power-circuit; (c) after a prescribed interval of time has elapsed, collecting the power consumption measurement taken from each power-circuit from the PMS; (d) analyzing the power consumption measurement taken from each power-circuit to look for the presence of said signature; and (e) upon detecting said signature in the power consumption measurement taken from a particular power-circuit, concluding that the server is connected to the particular power-circuit and creating a mapping there-between. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. In a data center comprising a plurality of server computers each of which is connected to a network, a power connection discovery computer which is also connected to the network, a power measurement system (PMS) which is connected to the discovery computer, and a plurality of power-circuits each of which is connected to one or more server computers and supplies electrical power to said servers, a computer-implemented process for automatically discovering the server to power-circuit connections, comprising using the discovery computer to perform the following process actions:
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for each server computer in the data center; transmitting a first command to the server over the network causing the server to start generating a square wave power consumption pattern if the server is able to do so, wherein, said pattern is generated by repeatedly toggling the utilization of one or more central processing units (CPUs) in said server from an idle state to 100% utilization, T0 is a first interval of time during which the CPUs are idle, T100 is a second interval of time during which the CPUs are 100% utilized, T0=T100, and said pattern comprises a period P given by the equation P=T0+T100; upon receiving a SUCCESS response from the server over the network, instructing the PMS to start measuring the power consumption from each power-circuit; after an interval of time equal to 10 P has elapsed, collecting the power consumption measurement taken from each power-circuit from the PMS; analyzing the power consumption measurement taken from each power-circuit to look for the presence of said pattern, said analysis comprising analyzing said measurement in the frequency domain using a Fourier transform method and looking for a pair of frequency component spikes in said domain that comprise a magnitude that is larger than a prescribed threshold, wherein said threshold is set sufficiently above the magnitude of the other frequency components of said measurement such that said spikes can be reliably detected; upon detecting said pattern in the power consumption measurement taken from a particular power-circuit, concluding that the server is connected to the particular power-circuit and creating a mapping there-between; and storing the mapping between the server and the particular power-circuit in a mapping database, wherein the database specifies which server is connected to which power-circuit(s) for all of the servers and power-circuits in the data center.
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Specification