Electronic equipment chassis having storage devices and other modules configured for front-access removability

• US 9,706,687 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Frangioso, Jr., Ralph C., Wierzbicki, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hoa C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Augustin, Christopher L
• Application Number:
  US14/319,396
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/128 of the plurality of recording/reproducing devices, e.g. disk drives, onto a chassis
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/142 by air cooling
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 13/00 Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing or adjusting assemblages of electric components
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20563 within sub-racks for removing heat from electronic boards
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20709 for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20736 within cabinets for removing heat from server blades

Abstract

An electronic equipment chassis in one embodiment comprises a housing having a front portion and a rear portion, first and second rows of cooling modules disposed at respective upper and lower levels of the front portion, and a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion between the first and second rows of cooling modules. At least a subset of the cooling modules and the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment chassis comprising:

a housing having a front portion and a rear portion;

first and second rows of cooling modules disposed at respective upper and lower levels of the front portion; and

a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion between the first and second rows of cooling modules;

wherein the electronic equipment chassis has a rack mount configuration for mounting of the electronic equipment chassis in an electronic equipment rack;

wherein at least a subset of the cooling modules and at least a subset of the storage devices are configured for each such cooling module and storage device to be individually removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

a given one of the cooling modules of the subset of cooling modules thereby being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the cooling modules in a same one of the first and second rows as the given one of the cooling modules; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices thereby being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices.

2. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the cooling modules comprise respective blower assemblies.

3. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the first row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a first lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing.

4. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the second row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a second lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing.

5. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are vertically oriented and arranged in parallel with one another in the front portion of the housing.

6. The chassis of claim 1 wherein each of the first and second rows of cooling modules comprises at least four cooling modules.

7. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the chassis has a 4U rack mount configuration.

8. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the housing further comprises a middle portion between the front and rear portions, the chassis further comprising a plurality of dual in-line memory modules arranged in the middle portion.

9. The chassis of claim 1 further comprising additional electrical equipment arranged in the rear portion of the housing, said additional electrical equipment comprising one or more processors, circuit boards, interface cards and power supplies.

10. The chassis of claim 1 wherein each of said at least a subset of the cooling modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices configured so as to be removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion is configured as a hot-pluggable module.

11. The chassis of claim 1 wherein the chassis further comprises a front panel coincident with the vertical plane and wherein said at least a subset of the cooling modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through at least one opening in the front panel.

12. An electronic equipment rack comprising:

a first electronic equipment chassis mounted in the electronic equipment rack; and

at least one additional electronic equipment chassis mounted in the electronic equipment rack;

wherein at least one of the first electronic equipment chassis and the additional electronic equipment chassis each comprises;

a housing having a front portion and a rear portion;

first and second rows of cooling modules disposed at respective upper and lower levels of the front portion; and

a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion between the first and second rows of cooling modules;

wherein at least a subset of the cooling modules and at least a subset of the storage devices are configured for each such cooling module and storage device to be individually removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

a given one of the cooling modules of the subset of cooling modules thereby being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the cooling modules in a same one of the first and second rows as the given one of the cooling modules; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices thereby being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices.

16. The electronic equipment rack of claim 12 wherein the first row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a first lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing and the second row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a second lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing.

17. The electronic equipment rack of claim 12 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are vertically oriented and arranged in parallel with one another in the front portion of the housing.

18. The electronic equipment rack of claim 12 wherein the chassis further comprises a front panel coincident with the vertical plane and wherein said at least a subset of the cooling modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through at least one opening in the front panel.

13. A method comprising:

configuring an electronic equipment chassis to include first and second rows of cooling modules disposed at respective upper and lower levels of a front portion of a housing of the chassis;

configuring the electronic equipment chassis to further include a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion of the housing between the first and second rows of cooling modules; and

removing at least a subset of the cooling modules and at least a subset of the storage devices individually from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing;

wherein the electronic equipment chassis has a rack mount configuration for mounting of the electronic equipment chassis in an electronic equipment rack;

a given one of the cooling modules of the subset of cooling modules being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the cooling modules in a same one of the first and second rows as the given one of the cooling modules; and

a given one of the storage devices of the subset of storage devices being removable from the chassis through the vertical plane of the front portion of the housing separately from one or more other ones of the storage devices.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising mounting the electronic equipment chassis in the electronic equipment rack, and wherein said removing occurs while the electronic equipment chassis is mounted in the electronic equipment rack.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein said removing comprises removing said at least a subset of the cooling modules and said at least a subset of the storage devices from the chassis through at least one opening in a front panel coincident with the vertical plane.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the first row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a first lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing and the second row of cooling modules comprises respective blower assemblies oriented to direct air in a second lateral direction away from the storage devices and towards the rear portion of the housing.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the storage devices comprise respective hard disk drives that are vertically oriented and arranged in parallel with one another in the front portion of the housing.