Dynamically Controlled Server Rack Illumination System
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorJoshua Jon Adams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described is a technology by which a server in a server rack is illuminated to indicate its state with respect to an operating mode (e.g., a power mode, a environmental mode, or a performance mode). Data is collected for a server via sensors, power meters and/or the server. Depending on a user-selected operating mode, the server is illuminated at its physical location to indicate its data state based upon the data collected. The mode and collected data result in an illumination of the physical server location that varies by color, intensity and/or flash pattern to indicate the current (or a prior historical) state.
Claims20
In a computing environment, a method performed on at least one processor, comprising:
- obtaining data collected with respect to a server;
- determining an operating mode;
- and
- illuminating the server at its physical location with an output illumination based upon the data collected and the operating mode.
A system, comprising, a display mechanism that illuminates servers of a rack of servers, the display mechanism comprising independent displays that are separately controllable to illuminate a subset of the servers, and a controller that controls the independent displays to illuminate a selected subset of the servers according to a selected operating mode and data corresponding to the selected subset of the servers.
One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:
- (a) determining an operating mode;
- (b) selecting a selected server set comprising at least one server;
- (c) querying for data collected with respect to at least some of the servers of the selected server set;
- (d) receiving the data in response to querying for the data;
- (e) determining an output illumination based upon the operating mode and the data;
- and
- (f) outputting a signal to illuminate a physical location corresponding to at least some of the servers of the selected server set with the output illumination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.