CHASSIS POWER ALLOCATION USING EXPEDITED POWER PERMISSIONS

• US 20110289327A1
• Filed: 05/24/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pagan, William G., Nolterieke, Michael H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,627,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1492 having electrical distribution arrangements, e.g. power supply or data communications
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1498 Resource management, Optimisation arrangements, e.g. configuration, identification, tracking, physical location thermal management H05K7/20836
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In one embodiment, a fixed chassis power budget is dynamically allocated to a plurality of servers inserted into a multi-server chassis. An inserted server may be inventoried by sequentially identifying server components, categorically-defined component power limits, and actual component power requirements of the inventoried components. A power permission may be granted to the inserted server prior to completion of the inventory, based on power-related information inferred from a chassis and server specification or from the inventoried components.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

allocating a fixed chassis power budget among one or more servers in a multi-server chassis;

detecting insertion of a server into the multi-server chassis;

generating an inventory of the inserted server, including identifying a plurality of server components and obtaining a component power requirement of each identified server component;

granting a power permission to the inserted server prior to completing the inventory; and

upon completing the inventory, granting a power permission to the inserted server according to the total power requirements of the plurality of server components.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a server type of the inserted server and obtaining a server power limit predefined for the server type, wherein the total power requirements of the plurality of server components is less than or equal to the server power limit; and

setting the power permission equal to the server power limit.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

setting the power permission equal to the server power limit prior to initiating the step of generating the inventory.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising setting the power permission equal to the total power requirements of the plurality of server components upon completion of the inventory.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a component category associated with each inventoried component;

obtaining a predefined component power limit for each component category, wherein the component power requirement for one or more of the server components is less than the component power limit of the associated component categories; and

for each inventoried component having a component power requirement of less than the component power limit for the associated component category, reducing the power permission to the server by an amount equal to the difference between the component power limit and the actual power requirement of the inventoried component.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

computing an unallocated chassis power as the fixed chassis power budget minus any presently granted power permissions; and

increasing the unallocated chassis power by an amount equal to each reduction of the power permission to the inserted server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the inventory in stages, wherein each stage includes obtaining the component power requirement of one or more of the server components; and

upon completion of each stage, adjusting the power permission to the inserted server according to the component power requirements of any server components inventoried in any completed stage.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing the total power requirement of the server components after all of the server components have been inventoried; and

setting the power permission to the inserted server equal to the total power requirement of the server components.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting the power permission to a value of less than the total power requirement of the server components; and

continuously throttling the one or more of the server components to enforce the power permission.

10. A power management system, comprising:

a local controller on a server, the local controller configured for generating an inventory of server components of a server in response to insertion of the server into a multi-server chassis and requesting a power permission upon completion of the inventory as a function of the inventoried server components; and

a supervisory controller on the multi-server chassis, the supervisory controller for dynamically allocating a fixed chassis power budget among servers in the chassis, including selectively granting the requested power permission to the inserted server upon completion of the inventory and granting a power permission to the inserted server prior to completion of the inventory.

11. The power management system of claim 10, wherein the supervisory controller is configured for identifying a server type of the inserted server and obtaining a server power limit predefined for the server type, wherein the total power requirements of the plurality of server components is less than or equal to the server power limit, and setting the power permission equal to the server power limit.

12. The power management system of claim 10, wherein the local controller on each server comprises a service processor on a system board of the inserted server.

13. The power management system of claim 10, wherein the supervisory controller comprises a hot-pluggable chassis management module.

14. The power management system of claim 10, wherein the server components comprise hardware components, software components, or combinations thereof.

15. The power management system of claim 14, wherein the hardware components are selected from the group consisting of a processor, a memory module, a graphics card, and a hard drive.

16. A computer program product including computer usable program code embodied on a computer usable storage medium, the computer program product including:

computer usable program code for allocating a fixed chassis power budget among one or more servers in a multi-server chassis;

computer usable program code for detecting an insertion of a server into the multi-server chassis;

computer usable program code for receiving and selectively granting a request for a power permission from the inserted server; and

computer usable program code for granting a power permission to the inserted server prior to receiving the request for the power permission.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for identifying a server type of the inserted server and obtaining a server power limit predefined for the server type, wherein the total power requirements of the plurality of server components is less than or equal to the server power limit; and

computer usable program code for setting the power permission equal to the server power limit.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising:

computer usable program code for setting the power permission equal to the server power limit prior to commencing generating the inventory.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for generating an inventory of the inserted server in response to the insertion, including computer usable program code for sequentially identifying a plurality of server components, obtaining a component power requirement of each server component, and requesting the power permission according to the inventoried server components.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for generating an inventory of the inserted server in stages, wherein each stage includes obtaining the component power requirement of one or more of the server components; and

computer usable program code for adjusting the power permission to the inserted server upon completion of each stage according to the component power requirements of any server components inventoried in any completed stage.

21. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for computing the total power requirement of the server components after all of the server components have been inventoried; and

computer usable program code for reducing the power permission to the inserted server in response to the total power requirement of the server components being less than the power value.