System and method for increasing group level power supply unit efficiency

An information handling system, comprising:

• a plurality of servers in a server group, each including a respective management controller;
• a plurality of power supply units in the sever group, each of which supplies power to a respective one of the plurality of servers in the server group;
• a lead management controller for the server group;
• and
• a management bus over which the lead management controller and the respective management controllers of the plurality of servers in the server group communicate with each other;
• wherein the lead management controller comprises:
• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to implement a group level power supply efficiency analyzer to:
• obtain, for each of the plurality of power supply units, information including:
• a respective value representing a rated capacity of the power supply unit;
• a respective value representing a current steady state load on the power supply unit;
• data mapping load values to respective power supply efficiency values for the power supply unit;
• determine, based at least in part on the obtained information for each of the plurality of power supply units, a value representing a current group level power supply efficiency;
• determine, based at least in part on the value representing the current group level power supply efficiency, whether or not reconfiguring the server group by modifying, for at least one of the plurality of servers, which of the plurality of power supply units supplies power to the one of the plurality of servers, would increase the group level power supply efficiency over the current group level power supply efficiency;
• and
• generate, responsive to a determination that reconfiguring the server group would increase the group level power supply efficiency over the current group level power supply efficiency, a reconfiguration recommendation for the server group, the reconfiguration recommendation describing a change of the power supply unit supplying power to the one of the plurality of servers.

A management controller, comprising:

• a management controller network interface through which the management controller communicates with one or more other management controllers;
• and
• a group level power supply efficiency analyzer, the group level power supply efficiency analyzer including circuitry or logic to:
• obtain, through the management controller network interface, for each of a plurality of power supply units in a server group, each of which supplies power to a respective one of a plurality of servers, information including:
• a respective value representing a rated capacity of the power supply unit;
• a respective value representing a current steady state load on the power supply unit;
• data mapping load values to respective power supply efficiency values for the power supply unit;
• determine, based at least in part on the obtained information for each of the plurality of power supply units, a value representing a current group level power supply efficiency;
• determine, based at least in part on the value representing the current group level power supply efficiency, whether or not reconfiguring the server group by modifying, for at least one of the plurality of servers, which of the plurality of power supply units supplies power to the one of the plurality of servers, would increase the group level power supply efficiency over the current group level power supply efficiency;
• and
• generate, responsive to a determination that reconfiguring the server group would increase the group level power supply efficiency over the current group level power supply efficiency, a reconfiguration recommendation for the server group, the reconfiguration recommendation describing a change of the power supply unit supplying power to the one of the plurality of servers.