US 12,750,936 B2Granted

Datacenter navigation

AssigneeDropbox, Inc.

InventorsMiron Veryanskiy, Eric Shobe

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Abstract

The present technology improves the ability of a technician to navigate within a data center by making use of lights on servers, switches, and other infrastructure devices to provide navigation queues to a technician. In particular, the present technology can instruct infrastructure devices along a path to a particular infrastructure device that a technician might need to service to operate lights, (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) in a way that signals a path to the particular infrastructure device. When a number of infrastructure devices are so instructed, an easy-to-follow and understand pattern can be created. The particular infrastructure device can be instructed to operate its lights in a way that differentiates itself from other surrounding devices that might help the technician recognize the device.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving, by an infrastructure controller, an identification of a particular infrastructure device within a data center;
determining, by the infrastructure controller, a route to the particular infrastructure device;
generating, by the infrastructure controller, a plurality of signals that indicate progress along the route to the particular infrastructure device using respective subsets of infrastructure devices along the route;
identifying, by the infrastructure controller, a first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route;
sending, by the infrastructure controller, a first control signal to the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices to modify a visual appearance of the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices;
and
sending a second control signal to a second subset of one or more infrastructure devices progressing from the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route, the second control signal modifying a visual appearance of the second subset of one or more infrastructure devices.

4 more elements

A computing system comprising:

at least one processor;
and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, configure the computing system to:
receive, by an infrastructure controller, an identification of a particular infrastructure device within a data center;
determine, by the infrastructure controller, a route to the particular infrastructure device;
generate, by the infrastructure controller, a plurality of signals that indicate progress along the route to the particular infrastructure device using respective subsets of one or more infrastructure devices along the route;
identify, by the infrastructure controller, a first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route;
send, by the infrastructure controller, a first control signal to the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices to modify a visual appearance of the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices;
and
send a second control signal to a second subset of one or more infrastructure devices progressing from the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route, the second control signal modifying a visual appearance of the second subset of one or more infrastructure devices.

7 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive, by an infrastructure controller, an identification of a particular infrastructure device within a data center;
determine, by the infrastructure controller, a route to the particular infrastructure device;
generate, by the infrastructure controller, a plurality of signals that indicate progress along the route to the particular infrastructure device using respective subsets of infrastructure devices along the route;
identify, by the infrastructure controller, a first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route;
send, by the infrastructure controller, a first control signal to the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices to modify a visual appearance of the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices;
send a second control signal to a second subset of one or more infrastructure devices progressing from the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices along the route, the second control signal modifying a visual appearance of the second subset of one or more infrastructure devices;
identify, by a data center facility visualization application, the first subset of one or more infrastructure devices on a map of the data center relative to the particular infrastructure device;
and
display, by the data center facility visualization application, directional queues pointing towards the particular infrastructure device.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.