Structure and method for power sequencing of disk drives in a computer system
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsVeera Deenadhayalan, Parthiban Munusamy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and device for detecting and handling non-responsive devices in a computer system where the device non-responsiveness may be due to a powered-down status rather than a device failure, and more particularly to such computer systems when the devices are RAID disk drives. By scanning all devices connected in a configuration and maintaining a count of devices that time out without responding, a determination can be made as to whether the devices are powered off or are experiencing some other problem that requires attention of a system support technician.
Claims5
A method for handling a powered down situation in a computer system having at least one drive, the method comprising steps of:
- a) initializing the computer system at a value equal to the number of drives configured in the computer system;
- b) scanning, by the controller, each other drives to determine whether they respond within a timeout period;
- c) indicating, by the controller, that the drives are powered off if all the configured drives timed out;
- and,
- d) indicating that all drives that did not respond during the timeout period are unusable if the number of timed out drives is not equal to the number of configured drives.
A method for handling a powered down situation in a computer system having at least one drive, the method comprising steps of:
- a) initializing the computer system at a value equal to the number of drives configured in the computer system;
- b) scanning, by the controller, each other drives to determine whether they respond within a timeout period;
- c) indicating, by the controller, that the drives are powered off if all the configured drives timed out;
- and,
- d) operating normally if there is a selection timeout but the selected drive is not part of a current configuration.
A method for handling a powered down situation in a computer system having at least one drive, the method comprising steps of:
- a) initializing the computer system at a value equal to the number of drives configured in the computer system;
- b) scanning, by the controller, each other drives to determine whether they respond within a timeout period;
- c) indicating, by the controller, that the drives are powered off if all the configured drives timed out;
- and,
- d) indicating that intervention is required if the number of time outs does not indicate the number of configured drives.
A method for handling a powered down situation in a computer system having at least one drive, the method comprising steps of:
- a) initializing the computer system at a value equal to the number of drives configured in the computer system;
- b) scanning, by the controller, each other drives to determine whether they respond within a timeout period;
- c) indicating, by the controller, that the drives are powered off if all the configured drives timed out, wherein said timed out drives are put in a drive not ready state if the counter indicates the number of configured drives.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.