US 2006/0242438 A1Published application

Multiple computer equipment and management method thereof

AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.

InventorsTakashige Baba, Kazuhide Horimoto

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Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a management technique for managing power supply modules. In multiple computer equipment 100, in response to a load state, if an operation system 1101 issues a command that changes a processor state of a processor 1021 to a sleep state, a management module 107 is notified through a management network MI that the processor state has changed. The management module 107 holds a system information 108, and performs the steps of: updating system information 108 because the processor state has changed; from this system information 108, calculating the power consumption required for the multiple computer equipment 100; determining the number of required AC-DC power supply modules 1061, 1062, . . . to be operated; and changing the number of operating AC-DC power supply modules 1061, 1062, . . . by use of a control interface PA.

Claims17

Dependent claims

Multiple computer equipment comprising:

at least one CPU module comprising a processor, and a DC-DC power supply for supplying power to the processor;
AC-DC power supply modules each being connected to a corresponding one of the CPU modules, each of said AC-DC power supply modules comprising an AC-DC power supply unit for supplying a required amount of power to the DC-DC power supply in response to an operation state of the processor;
a CPU module controller included in the CPU module, said CPU module controller controlling power supply even when the processor is not operating, said CPU module controller being connected to the AC-DC power supply modules through a power supply control interface so as to control the output of the AC-DC power supply modules;
and
a management module which is connected to the CPU module controller through a management interface so as to control the power supply of the CPU module;
wherein said management module:
holds system information including status information of the processor, operation information of the CPU module, and power consumption information provided on a processor kind basis;
on the basis of the system information, calculates power consumption required for each of the CPU modules;
calculates the number of operating AC-DC power supply modules required to ensure the calculated power consumption;
and
on the basis of the result of the calculation, determines the number of AC-DC power supply modules to be operated.

8 more elements

Multiple computer equipment comprising:

at least one AC-DC power supply module comprising an AC-DC power supply unit, said AC-DC power supply module supplying electric power to each equipment;
a CPU module comprising:
at least one processor;
a DC-DC power supply for DC-DC converting electric power supplied from the AC-DC power supply module;
and a CPU module controller for controlling the power supply even when the processor is not operating, said CPU module controller being connected to the AC-DC-power supply module through a power supply control interface so as to control the output of the AC-DC power supply module;
a management module which is connected through a management interface so as to control the power supply of the CPU module;
and
an operation system and system firmware, both of which operate on a CPU module basis when the power supply of the CPU module is turned ON,
wherein:
if said processor has a sleep state, said processor has either at least one state as a sleep state of the processor, or at least one state as a system sleep state provided on a CPU module basis;
if a state of the processor changes from a normal operation state to a sleep state, said CPU module controller comprises:
a timer function of keeping the processor state in the sleep state for a fixed period of time by a command for making a transition to the sleep state, said command being issued from the system firmware;
and
a function of notifying the management module that the processor state has changed;
if the processor state changes from the sleep state to the normal operation state, said CPU module controller comprises:
a function of, on completion of the timer function, notifying the management module that the processor state has changed;
and
a function of, on receipt of a notification from the management module that settings of the AC-DC power supply module have been completed, sending the processor an interrupt request to return from the sleep state to the normal operation state;
said management module comprises, as system information, CPU module operation information including:
CPU module power ON or OFF;
a normal operation state and a sleep state of a system of the CPU module;
and information about a kind of included processor;
as processor information, said management module comprises:
processor state information including a normal operation state and a sleep state of a processor in the CPU module;
and processor power-consumption information that is required for each state on a processor kind basis;
and
if the processor state changes from the normal operation state to the sleep state, or if the processor state changes from the sleep state to the normal operation state, said management module comprises:
a control function of:
on receipt of a notification from the CPU module controller that the processor state has changed, calculating the power consumption required for the whole multiple computer equipment from the CPU module operation information, the processor state information, and the processor power-consumption information;
on the basis of the power consumption, calculating the number of AC-DC power supply modules to be operated;
and if it is necessary to change the number of AC-DC power supply modules that are operating, changing the number of operating AC-DC power supply modules that are operating;
and
a notification function of notifying the CPU module controller of the completion of settings, said completion of settings indicating that the AC-DC power supply modules are stably operating.

30 more elements

A management method of multiple computer equipment, said multiple computer equipment comprising:

at least one AC-DC power supply module for supplying electric power to the whole equipment;
a CPU module comprising:
at least one processor;
a DC-DC power supply for DC-DC converting the electric power supplied from the AC-DC power supply module;
and a CPU module controller for controlling the power supply even when the processor is not operating, said CPU module controller being connected to the AC-DC power supply module through a power supply control interface so as to control the output of the AC-DC power supply module;
a management module which is connected through a management interface so as to control the power supply of the CPU module;
and
an operation system and system firmware, both of which operate on a CPU module basis when the power supply of the CPU module is turned ON,
wherein:
if said processor has a sleep state, said processor has either at least one state as a sleep state of the processor, or at least one state as a system sleep state provided on a CPU module basis;
if the processor state changes from a normal operation state to the sleep state,
said operation system operating on the CPU module performs the step of:
issuing to the system firmware a command for changing the processor state from the normal operation state to the sleep state;
on receipt of the command, said system firmware operating on the CPU module performs the steps of:
notifying the CPU module controller that the processor state has changed;
and performing the sleep control of the processor;
said CPU module controller performs the step of:
notifying the processor-management module that the processor state has changed;
and
on receipt of this notification, said processor management module performs the steps of:
updating processor state information including a normal operation state, and the sleep state, of the processor in the processor CPU module;
calculating the power consumption required for the whole multiple computer equipment from information including:
the processor state information;
CPU module operation information including a power ON/OFF state of the processor CPU module, the normal operation state, and the sleep state, of the system of the processor CPU module, and information about a kind of included processor;
and processor power-consumption information required for each state on a processor kind basis;
on the basis of the power consumption, calculating the number of AC-DC power supply modules to be operated;
and
if it is necessary to change the number of AC-DC power supply modules that are operating, changing the number of AC-DC power supply modules that are operating.

25 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.