Automatic server position determination

• US 8,868,738 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2012
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pagan, William G., Snyder, Devon D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hanh N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kading, Joshua A
• Application Number:
  US13/541,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20120278483A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method is provided for determining the location of a target computer device, such as a server in an array of interconnected servers. In one embodiment, the method comprises selecting a first server defining a first point of an axis of a reference coordinate system and selecting a second server defining a second point of the axis. A first cable is connected from the target server to the first server and a second cable is connected from the target server to the second server. The location of the target server is determined according to the length of the first cable, the length of the second cable, and the locations of the first and second servers. The axis may be designated using an axis cable, by connecting a first end of the axis cable to the first server and connecting a second end of the axis cable to the second server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in an array of computer devices having a plurality of rows and columns, a system management device selecting a first computer device defining a first point of an axis of a reference coordinate system in direct response to connecting a first end of an axis cable to the first computer device and selecting a second computer device defining a second point of the axis in direct response to connecting a second end of the axis cable to the second computer device, wherein the axis cable extends the full length or height of the array of computer devices;

connecting a first cable from a target computer device whose location is to be determined to the first computer device and connecting a second cable from the target computer device to the second computer device;

determining the length of the first cable connected from the target computer device to the first computer device;

determining the length of the second cable from the target computer device to the second computer device; and

the system management device determining the location of the target computer device within the reference coordinate system according to the length of the first cable, the length of the second cable, and the locations of the first and second computer devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the system management device automatically designating the first computer device as the origin in response to detecting the connection of the first end of the axis cable to the first computer device prior to detecting the connection of the second end of the axis cable to the second computer device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

automatically determining the length of the axis cable; and

determining the location of the second computer device according to the length of the axis cable.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location the target computer device with respect to the reference coordinate system comprises:

identifying a first subset of computer devices in the array that are connected to the first computer device by a cable equal to the length of the first cable;

identifying a second subset of computer devices in the array that are connected to the second computer device by a cable equal to the length of the second cable; and

determining the location of the target computer device as the intersection of the first and second subset of computer devices.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

interconnecting the array of computer devices in a fully meshed configuration, such that each computer device in the array is connected by a cable to the first computer device and by a cable to the second computer device, and the target computer device may be any computer device in the array.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing the cables in a taxi-cab configuration comprising substantially only ninety-degree cable bends along a pathway between computer devices; and

interconnecting the computer devices using cables that differ in length by multiples of a fixed increment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing the cables in a straight line configuration comprising substantially no cable bends.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

using triangulation to determine the location of the target computer device in the array of computer devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the column and row spacing of the computer devices in the array are substantially equal.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a cable length of any of the cables by transmitting a signal through the respective cable and measuring a length-dependent behavior of the signal.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

electronically storing a cable length of each cable on a storage device included on the respective cable; and

automatically reading the cable length from the storage device in response to connecting one or both ends of the respective cable to one of the computer devices in the array.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the target computer device to be located comprises one of a plurality of servers or one of a plurality of multi-server chassis.