Data center inventory management using smart racks

• US 8,171,142 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kolin, Benjamin Trevor, Rider, Eric Marshall
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilles, Jude Jean
• Application Number:
  US12/827,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005344A1
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

A system for managing physical and virtual inventory in a data center is disclosed. The system includes a resource management system for managing computing resources of the data center, an inventory management system for tracking physical locations of the plurality of hosts and the plurality of virtual machines in the data center and a smart rack for housing a plurality of hosts. The computing resources include a plurality of hosts and a plurality of virtual machines running on one or more of the plurality of virtual machines. The smart rack has sensors for detecting movement of each of the plurality of hosts in the data center. The smart rack also has a control unit to control the sensors and collecting data from sensors. The control unit is coupled to the inventory management system and configured to transmit the collected data to the inventory management system through a network. The plurality of hosts, the resource management system and the control unit are coupled together through the network.

Claims

1. A system for managing computing resources inventory in a data center, the system comprising:

a resource management system for managing the computing resources of the data center, the computing resources includes a plurality of hosts and a plurality of virtual machines running on one or more of the plurality of hosts;

a smart rack for housing one or more hosts in the plurality of hosts, the smart rack having sensors for detecting physical movement of the one or more hosts, the smart rack having a control unit to control the sensors and to collect data from the sensors; and

an inventory management system for tracking and storing physical locations of the plurality of hosts and the smart rack, the control unit is coupled to the inventory management system and configured to transmit the collected data to the inventory management system through a network, wherein, the plurality of hosts, the resource management system, the inventory management system and the control unit are coupled together through the network.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the resource management system is configured to live migrate a virtual machine in the plurality of virtual machines from a first host in the plurality of hosts to a second host in the plurality of hosts based on physical location characteristics of the first host and the second host.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the resource management system is configured to provide network isolation for a part of the plurality of virtual machines.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart rack further includes a plurality of chassis to house more than one of the hosts, each of the plurality of chassis including a sensor for detecting an insertion or removal of individual hosts, each of the plurality of chassis including a sensor hub.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart rack further includes a wire harness to couple the sensor with the control unit through the sensor hub in each of the plurality of chassis and a sensor adapter in the smart rack.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the inventory management system includes an administration panel to enable entering location information of the smart rack in the data center.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the inventory management system is configured to retrieve location information of the smart rack through a rack location sensor in the data center.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart rack further includes a display unit to display system messages from the inventory management system.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart rack further includes a light indicator to indicate error conditions in the smart rack, the error conditions are determined by one of the inventory management system or the resource management system or the control unit.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit includes a microcontroller to execute programming instructions to perform operations on the sensors.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit includes a network interface to couple the sensors with the network.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit includes a power interface to couple the sensors with a power supply.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit includes a database to provide local storage of the collected data.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the control unit includes a polling module to activate the sensors at pre-configured intervals.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein the control unit is configured to be operated by a designated user through the display unit.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the control unit is configured to receive new control instructions through one of the display unit or the inventory management system.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the sensors are at least one of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors, Bluetooth sensors, and bar code sensors.

18. A smart rack for housing computing resources in a data center, the smart rack comprising:

a cage for housing a plurality of chassis, each of the plurality of chassis having a plurality of slots, each of the plurality of slots is configured to receive a blade host;

a plurality of sensors to detect insertion and removal of the blade host; and

a control unit to control and manage the plurality of sensors, the control unit having a network interface to couple the plurality of sensors to a network, the control unit also having a power interface to couple the plurality of sensors to a power source, the control unit having a microcontroller to execute programming instructions to perform polling of the plurality of sensors to collect data, the collected data includes location information of a sensor related to the collected data.

19. The smart rack of claim 18 wherein the control unit further includes a database to store data collected from the plurality of sensors.

20. The smart rack of claim 18 wherein the control unit includes a polling module to perform data collection operations on the plurality of sensors at pre-configured intervals.

21. The smart rack of claim 20 wherein the control unit further includes an interface to couple the plurality of sensors with the polling module.

22. The smart rack of claim 18 wherein the plurality of sensors are at least one of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors, Bluetooth sensors, and bar code sensors.

23. The smart rack of claim 18 further including a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor.

24. The smart rack of claim 18 further including a security pad and locks to prevent unauthorized removal of the blade host.

25. The smart rack of claim 18 further including a display unit to display system messages from the control unit.

26. The smart rack of claim 18 further including a light indicator to indicate error conditions in the smart rack, the error conditions are determined by the control unit.

27. A method of live migrating all virtual machines from a source smart rack, the method comprising:

receiving a list of a plurality of physical hosts and a list of virtual machines running on each of the physical hosts;

receiving physical locations of each of the physical hosts;

selecting physical hosts in the plurality of physical hosts that are housed in the source smart rack;

determining spare capacity of a second plurality of physical hosts that are not housed in the source smart rack; and

live migrating all virtual machines running on the source smart rack to the second plurality of physical hosts according to spare capacity on the second plurality of physical hosts.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the determining of spare capacity takes into consideration a maximum utilization factor for each of the second plurality of physical hosts.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the determining of spare capacity takes into consideration a prior capacity reservation for each of the second plurality of physical hosts.