Intelligent Asset Management System
First Claim
1. An asset management system comprisinga) an asset management strip having a plurality of identification connectors;
- b) at least one asset management tag having a flexible sheet with a tag identification connector deployed on the flexible sheet, one of said at least one asset tag being fixedly attached to an asset and said identification connector being coupled to an identification circuit storing identification data of the asset;
c) wherein said tag identification connector is configured to be removably coupled to one of the plurality of identification connectors; and
d) wherein said tag identification connector is configured to provide the identification data of the asset to the asset management strip when coupled to the one identification connector.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of associating the identification of a server with its physical location thorough the use of an asset management strip and asset management tags. The asset management strip is extendable by means of slave asset management strips. The asset tags are attached to data center components, such as servers, in racks. They are removably attached to the asset strip and provide identification information to the asset strip. The asset strip can correlate the identification information with the location where the tag attaches to the strip. The strip provides the rack identity to management software over a network, which includes an indication of a vertical location on the rack of the component and the component identification data.
51 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An asset management system comprising
a) an asset management strip having a plurality of identification connectors; -
b) at least one asset management tag having a flexible sheet with a tag identification connector deployed on the flexible sheet, one of said at least one asset tag being fixedly attached to an asset and said identification connector being coupled to an identification circuit storing identification data of the asset; c) wherein said tag identification connector is configured to be removably coupled to one of the plurality of identification connectors; and d) wherein said tag identification connector is configured to provide the identification data of the asset to the asset management strip when coupled to the one identification connector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15)
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10. An asset management strip comprising:
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a) a plurality of identification connectors each having a magnetic ring and a contact, and each configured to removable couple to an identification circuit; b) a microcontroller providing control signals; c) a control bus coupled to said microcontroller for carrying the control signals; d) a data bus coupled to the microcontroller; e) a multiplexer coupled to the data bus and the control bus; f) a plurality of branch data buses each coupled to the multiplexer and to one of the first number of identification connectors; g) wherein the multiplexer couples at most one of said first number of branch data buses to said data bus at any point in time; and h) wherein the control signals provided by said microcontroller over said control bus are used by said multiplexer to connect the at most one branch data bus to the data bus. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 16)
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17. A method for managing assets in an asset management system including an asset management strip having a plurality of identification connectors and at least one asset management tag having a tag identification connector and being fixedly attached to an asset and said identification connector, said tag identification connector being coupled to an identification circuit storing identification data of the asset, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) determining that said tag identification connector is electrically coupled to one of the plurality of identification connectors; b) retrieving the identification data of the asset at the one identification connector of the asset management strip via the electrically-coupled tag identification connector of the at least one asset management tag; and c) providing the retrieved identification data to a management program of a first server over a network coupling the first server to the asset management strip. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification