Power management using spare capacity of redundant power supply in blade environment

• US 7,457,976 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2005
• Issued: 11/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brey, Thomas, Hughes, James E., Shippy, Gary R., Gruendler, Nickolas J., Kochar, Sumeet, Desai, Dhruv M., Bolan, Joesph E., Klodnicki, Edward J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abbaszadeh; Jaweed A
• Application Number:
  US11/285,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20070118771A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/340
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed to enable and control over-subscription in a blade/chassis system and to provide the capability to recover in the event of the loss of a redundant power supply. An over-subscription policy is determined by a system administrator and is set in the chassis management module. Information regarding the maximum power allocation needed for each blade being powered by the power supply system is identified by the blade and stored in its VPD or otherwise made available to the chassis management module. The management module of the chassis in which the blades and power supplies are located uses this information to manage the subscription of blades and the over-subscription of blades when appropriate. If throttling is required, the system also allows a predetermined blade priority to be used to identify which blades will be reduced in power.

Claims

1. A method for power management in a blade computing system having one or more power supplies and a plurality of components capable of being powered up by said one or more power supplies, comprising:

continuously monitoring power allocated for all fully-powered-up components;

retrieving a maximum power value for a first component requesting full power-up, wherein the maximum power value for said first component is stored in BIOS of said first component;

performing a partial power-up of said first component to execute the BIOS, thereby enabling the options present on said first component to be identified without performing a full power-up of said first component;

identifying any over-subscription policies for said blade computing system;

determining if the maximum power value for said first component falls within or outside of an over-subscription policy;

accepting and fully powering-up said first component if the maximum power value for said first component falls within an over-subscription policy;

rejecting and not fully powering-up said first component if the maximum power value for said first component falls outside of said over-subscription policy;

sensing a loss of function in at least one of said power supplies; and

upon sensing of a loss of function of at least one of said power supplies, performing a power-reduction procedure whereby one or more of said components are throttled to reduce the aggregate of power consumed by said plurality of components, whereby said throttling is performed according to a predetermined throttling schedule, and wherein said predetermined throttling schedule first throttles components drawing the highest amounts of power.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first component comprises a blade, and wherein said maximum power value for said blade is calculated based on options present on said blade.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said over-subscription policy is set by an administrator of said blade computing system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said blade computing system includes a management module, wherein said step of determining if the maximum power value for said first component falls within or outside of an over-subscription policy comprises:

obtaining a power subscription capacity for each of said one or more power supplies;

using said management module, comparing the power subscription capacity for each of said one or more power supplies with the combined maximum power value for said first component and the power allocated for all powered up components to obtain a power-available-vs.-power-needed result; and

comparing the power-available-vs-power-needed result with said over-subscription policy to identify if it is within or outside of said over-subscription policy.

5. A system for power management in a blade computing system having one or more power supplies and a plurality of components capable of being powered up by said one or more power supplies, comprising:

a power monitor for continuously monitoring power allocated for all fully-powered-up components;

means for retrieving a maximum power value for a first component requesting full power-up, wherein the maximum power value for said first component is stored in BIOS of said first component;

means for performing a partial power-up of said first component to execute the BIOS, thereby enabling the options present on said first component to be identified without performing a full power-up of said first component;

means for identifying any over-subscription policies for said blade computing system;

means for determining if the maximum power value for said first component falls within or outside of an over-subscription policy;

means for accepting and fully powering-up said first component if the maximum power value for said first component falls within an over-subscription policy;

means for rejecting and not fully powering-up said first component if the maximum power value for said first component falls outside of said over-subscription policy;

means for sensing a loss of function in at least one of said power supplies; and

means for performing a power-reduction procedure whereby one or more of said components are throttled to reduce the aggregate of power consumed by said plurality of components upon sensing of a loss of function of at least one of said power supplies, whereby said throttling is performed according to a predetermined throttling schedule, and wherein said predetermined throttling schedule first throttles components drawing the highest amounts of power.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said first component comprises a blade, and wherein said maximum power value for said blade is calculated based on options present on said blade.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said over-subscription policy is set by an administrator of said blade computing system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said blade computing system includes a management module, wherein said means for determining if the maximum power value for said first component fails within or outside of an over-subscription policy comprises:

means for obtaining a power subscription capacity for each of said one or more power supplies;

means for using said management module, comparing the power subscription capacity for each of said one or more power supplies with the combined maximum power value for said first component and the power allocated for all powered up components to obtain a power-available-vs.-power-needed result; and

means for comparing the power-available-vs-power-needed result with said over-subscription policy to identify if it is within or outside of said over-subscription policy.