INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM SERVER ARCHITECTURE FOR IMPROVED MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION

• US 20120203393A1
• Filed: 02/03/2011
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Dumitru, Aurelian, Pike, Jimmy D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,257 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

An information handling system server chassis manages plural server resources disposed on sleds in chassis slots with a power supply control board that allocates power from one or more power supplies to the slots. The power supply control board interfaces with an external network and includes one or more network interface cards that provide an Ethernet interface with power distribution boards disposed on sleds in the slots. The power distribution boards manage application of power to server resources and communication by the power supply control board through the Ethernet interface to manage functions at the server resources.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a chassis having plural slots, each slot operable to accept a sled;

a power supply control board disposed on a management sled, the power supply control board having a first Ethernet interface to a network, a second Ethernet interface to the plural slots, a power supply interface and logical resources for managing communications between the network and plural slots and for providing power from a power supply to the plural slots;

plural resource sleds, each resource sled having a resource board for performing an information handling function, and a power distribution board, the power distribution board having an Ethernet interface with the power supply control board, a communications interface with the resource board and logical resources, the logical resources managing application of power provided from the power supplies to the resource board and communication from the power supply control board to the resource board; and

at least one fan control board that communicates with the power supply control board through the Ethernet interface to control fan operation.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the resource board comprises a processor that serves information through a network to one or more clients.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the resource board comprises plural storage devices accessible by clients through a network.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the communications interface between the resource board and the power distribution board comprises a serial link.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising a fan control board interfaced with the power supply control board and operable to control cooling fan operations at the chassis.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 further comprising temperature sensors disposed at the resource sleds, the power distribution boards operable to communicate temperatures of the temperature sensors through the power supply control board to the fan control board for use in setting fan speeds.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising a switch disposed in the chassis to interface the power supply control board second Ethernet interface with the Ethernet interface of each power distribution board.

8. The information handling system of claim wherein the power supply control board first Ethernet interface comprises a 1 Gb network interface card and the power supply control board second Ethernet interface comprises a 10/100 Mb network interface card.

9. A method for managing plural server resources with a common chassis, the method comprising:

receiving at a power supply control board disposed on a first sled in the chassis an external network communication for a selected of plural resource boards, the selected resource board disposed on a second sled in the chassis;

providing the external network communication from the power supply control board to a power distribution board through an Ethernet interface, the power distribution board disposed on the second sled; and

managing a response to the external network communication by the selected resource board with the power distribution board.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

allocating power between plural resource boards with the power supply control board; and

managing power distribution at each resource board with a power distribution board disposed in a common sled with each resource board.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein managing a response further comprises powering up the resource board.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein managing a response further comprises communicating with the resource board through a serial interface.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the resource board comprises a server that serves clients through a network interface at the resource board.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the resource board comprises plural storage device accessible to clients through a network interface at the resource board.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising managing chassis cooling with a fan controller interfaced with the power supply control board.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

measuring a temperature at a resource board;

sending the temperature from the power distribution board associated with the resource board through the Ethernet interface to the power supply control board;

calculating a volume of airflow through the chasiss; and

sending an airflow correction from the power supply control board to the fan controller based on the temperature.

17. A system for supporting plural information handling system server boards, the system comprising:

a chassis having plural slots, each slot operable to accept a sled;

one or more power supplies operable to supply power to the slots;

a power supply controller board interfaced with the with the power supply and operable to allocate power to the slots; and

first and second network interface cards integrated with the power supply controller, the first network interface card operable to communicate with a network external to the chassis, the second network interface card operable to communicate with the slots through an Ethernet cable.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising a power distribution board associated with each of plural slots, each power distribution board having a network interface card to communicate with the power supply controller board through the Ethernet cable.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein each power distribution board couples to a server resource board to manage application of power to the server resource board.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the power distribution board couples to the server resource board through a serial interface.