Providing locality information via light sources

• US 9,251,451 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hesketh, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLACK-CHILDRESS, RAJSHEED O
• Application Number:
  US13/722,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20140176947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1498 Resource management, Optimisation arrangements, e.g. configuration, identification, tracking, physical location thermal management H05K7/20836
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a rack having a plurality of rack-mounted devices and a strip coupled to a portion of the rack and including a plurality of segments, each with a light source. The rack-mounted devices may each include or be associated with a photosensor to be in communication with the light source.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a rack including a plurality of rack-mounted devices;

a strip coupled to a front portion of the rack and including a plurality of segments, each including a light source to correspond with a particular one of the rack-mounted devices where each light source selectively outputs a color out of a plurality of colors; and

the plurality of rack-mounted devices, each having a photosensor on a portion thereof to be in communication with a corresponding light source, wherein the photosensor is to determine a color of light output by a corresponding light source, wherein a first rack-mounted device is to perform a configuration operation responsive to a particular color of light of its corresponding light source.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) each of a primary color.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a lens adapted about the plurality of LEDs to blend the primary colors to obtain the color.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of segments of the strip further comprises a second photosensor, and wherein the portion of each of the plurality of rack-mounted devices further includes a second light source.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a color of light output by the second light source is indicative of a type of the corresponding rack-mounted device to enable datacenter personnel to identify the type of the corresponding rack-mounted device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the strip is coupled to a management controller of the rack.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the management controller of the rack is to wirelessly communicate with a datacenter management system, wherein the datacenter management system is to communicate information to the management controller to cause a first color to be output by the light source of a first segment of the strip.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein responsive to the first color, the corresponding rack-mounted device is to perform a reconfiguration to a different type of resource to enable a downgrade of the corresponding rack-mounted device to a less compute intensive function.

9. A method comprising:

controlling a light source associated with a rack-mounted device of a rack to be of a first color to identify that the rack-mounted device is of a first type of device;

detecting the first color in a photosensor associated with a segment of the rack including the rack-mounted device and communicating information regarding the first color to a management controller of the rack;

communicating location information regarding the rack and the first color information to a datacenter management system from the management controller;

identifying a failure in the rack-mounted device, and controlling the light source to be of a second color to identify the failure in the rack-mounted device;

detecting the second color in the photosensor associated with the rack segment and communicating information regarding the second color to the management controller of the rack;

communicating the location information regarding the rack and the second color information to the datacenter management system from the management controller to provide a fault indication; and

causing, a first plurality of racks located in a first location in relation to the rack and comprising a strip having a plurality of light sources, to be a first given color, and causing, a second plurality of racks located in a second location in relation to the rack and comprising a strip having a plurality of light sources, to be a second given color, to enable datacenter personnel to identify an indication of a direction to the rack having the failure in the rack-mounted device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising identifying the type of the rack-mounted device within a controller of the rack-mounted device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating the first color with the type via a mapping table stored in the controller.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising communicating the location information and the first color information to the datacenter management system wirelessly to provide inventory information regarding the rack.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the location information comprises a MAC address of a wireless module of the rack.

14. A system comprising:

a datacenter rack including a plurality of rack-mounted devices each associated with a photosensor;

a strip coupled to a first portion of the rack and including a plurality of segments, each associated with a light source for communication with a corresponding one of the photosensors, wherein the corresponding photosensor is to detect the information output by the corresponding light source; and

a datacenter management system coupled to the datacenter rack via a management controller of the datacenter rack, wherein the datacenter management system is to communicate information to a first rack-mounted device of the plurality of rack-mounted devices via a first of the light sources and a first of the photosensors associated with the first rack-mounted device, wherein the first rack-mounted device is to perform a configuration operation responsive to the information, wherein the information includes a color of light detected by the first photosensor.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first light source comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) each of a primary color.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a lens adapted about the plurality of LEDs to blend the primary colors to obtain the color of light.