GB2290389A - Monitoring arrangement for a computer system - Google Patents

Monitoring arrangement for a computer system Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2290389A
GB2290389A GB9508134A GB9508134A GB2290389A GB 2290389 A GB2290389 A GB 2290389A GB 9508134 A GB9508134 A GB 9508134A GB 9508134 A GB9508134 A GB 9508134A GB 2290389 A GB2290389 A GB 2290389A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
cabinet
cabinet control
network
status information
processors
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
GB9508134A
Other versions
GB9508134D0 (en
GB2290389B (en
Inventor
James Edward Burrows
Michael William Berry Curran
Stephen Gold
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Fujitsu Services Ltd
Original Assignee
Fujitsu Services Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from GB9412263A external-priority patent/GB9412263D0/en
Application filed by Fujitsu Services Ltd filed Critical Fujitsu Services Ltd
Priority to GB9508134A priority Critical patent/GB2290389B/en
Publication of GB9508134D0 publication Critical patent/GB9508134D0/en
Publication of GB2290389A publication Critical patent/GB2290389A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of GB2290389B publication Critical patent/GB2290389B/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Fee Related legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/30—Monitoring
    • G06F11/3055—Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/30—Monitoring
    • G06F11/3058—Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/30—Monitoring
    • G06F11/32—Monitoring with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
    • G06F11/324—Display of status information
    • G06F11/325—Display of status information by lamps or LED's

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Computing Systems (AREA)
  • Debugging And Monitoring (AREA)
  • Multi Processors (AREA)

Abstract

A computer system comprises a number of cabinets 10, 11, each including a cabinet control processor 14 for monitoring and controlling the status of components in that cabinet. The cabinet control processors are interconnected by a network, e.g. a serial, twisted-pair link, to allow them to exchange status information. One of said cabinet processors acts as a master, being responsible for collecting status information from all the other cabinet control processors in the network. The master cabinet control processor has an output serial connection for supplying status information to a host processor. <IMAGE>

Description

MONITORING ARRANGEMENT FOR A COMPUTER SYSTEM Background to the Invention This invention relates to monitoring arrangements for computer systems.
It is known to provide a special purpose control processor within a computer system cabinet, for monitoring the status of various components within the cabinet, and for taking appropriate action to report and to handle fault conditions.
For example, the control processor may be connected to sensors in the cabinet which monitor fan speed, air temperature, and power supply voltage levels.
In addition to a main system cabinet, a computer system may also include one or more expansion cabinets, for example for housing mass storage devices such as magnetic disk drive units, optical disk drives and so on. These expansion cabinets may also include sensors for monitoring fan speed etc. However, a problem with this is that complex and expensive wiring looms are required to connect the sensors in the expansion cabinets to the control processor in the system cabinet. Also, the signals passing between the sensors in the expansion cabinets and the control processor are susceptible to noise and errors. Furthermore, such a system is not easily expandible, since any further expansion cabinets added to the system require additional wiring to connect their sensors to the control processor.
The object of the present invention is to provide a novel multi-cabinet computer system in which these problems are reduced or eliminated.
Summary of the Invention According to the invention there is provided a computer system comprising a plurality of cabinets, wherein each cabinet includes a cabinet control processor for monitoring and controlling the status of components in that cabinet, and a network interconnecting the cabinet control processors to allow them to exchange status information.
Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a block diagram of a multi-cabinet computer system embodying the invention.
Figure 2 is a block diagram showing one of the cabinets in more detail.
Description of an Embodiment of the Invention One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to Figure 1, the computer system comprises a system cabinet 10 and a number of expansion cabinets 11. The system cabinet is connected to the expansion cabinets by means of a standard SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus 12. The system cabinet is also connected to a display monitor and keyboard 13.
Each cabinet includes its own cabinet control processor (CCP) 14. The CCPs in the different cabinets are linked together by an inter-cabinet network 15. The network 15 is a standard RS485 link, comprising twisted-pair cables which link together adjacent cabinets, with terminations 16 at each end.
This network of cabinet control processors is herein referred to as the cabinet control system (CCS).
Figure 2 shows the system cabinet 10 in more detail. The system cabinet includes a system motherboard 20 and a number (typically three) of disk backplanes 21. The system motherboard carries a host processor 22. Each disk backplane carries a number of magnetic disk drives 23 (typically six on each backplane). The host processor is linked to the disk drives by means of a standard SCSI bus 24.
The cabinet also includes a number of power supply units (PSUs) 25, for supplying power to the other units in the cabinet. The cabinet is cooled by a number of cooling fans 26. The cabinet also contains a number of temperature sensors 27, which measure the air temperature at various points in the cabinet. The cabinet also includes a front panel 28, which includes a number of lights for indicating system activity, and switches for controlling the system.
The switches include a keyswitch, a reset button, and a dump button.
The cabinet control processor in the system cabinet has two serial RS232 outputs 29. One of these is connected to the host processor on the system motherboard 21. The other provides an external output for connection, if desired, to an external administrative computer (not shown), either directly or by way of a telecommunications link.
The expansion cabinets are similar to the system cabinet, except that an expansion cabinet does not contain any system motherboard; instead it contains more disk backplanes (typically 5 or 6 disk backplanes). Also, the cabinet control processors in the expansion cabinets do not have any RS232 links. The disks in the expansion cabinets are linked to the host processor by way of the SCSI bus.
The cabinet control processors each gather status information from the components in their respective cabinets. More specifically, each cabinet control processor gathers the following statue information: (a) Changes in state of the front panel switches.
(b) Whether the temperature as measured by each of the temperature sensors in the cabinet is in a normal, high or critical range.
(c) Whether any of the fans in the cabinet is running slow, or has stopped.
(d) Failure of the mains supply to the cabinet.
(e) Failure of the DC supply from one of the PSUs in the cabinet.
(f) Status/control of the disk backplanes (e.g. hot-swap of disks, error monitoring, etc.) Each cabinet control processor maintains an error log in non-volatile memory, containing the current status of the front panel switches, and any errors that have been detected.
Furthermore, each cabinet control processor is responsible for switching on and off the power supply in the cabinet, and for controlling the state of the front panel lights.
As described above, the cabinet control processors in the cabinets are connected together by the inter-cabinet network, to form a cabinet control system. The cabinet control processor in the system cabinet acts as a master in this network, while those in the expansion cabinets act as slaves.
The master has responsibility for collecting the status information from the slave processors, and reporting the status information to the host processor (or to the external administrative computer). The host processor (or external computer) can then display the information on its monitor screen, in response to user requests.
The master also senses the position of the keyswitch on the front panel of the system cabinet, and in response to changes of the setting of this switch, sends signals over the inter-cabinet network to instruct the slaves to turn their local PSUs on or off, as required.
In summary, it can be seen that the cabinet control system described above provides the following advantages.
(a) It saves cost by removing the need for a complex, expensive cable loom to interconnect a large number of status signals from the expansion cabinets to the main system cabinet.
(b) It removes noise problems, since the network provides an error-free data path.
(c) It allows the system to be extended easily, since only one twisted-pair cable is needed to connect an extra cabinet.
(d) Because the cabinet control system interfaces with the host via a standard interface (RS232 in this example), the cabinet control system is independent of any base hardware architecture.
(e) The cabinet control system is independent of the host computer operating system, since all standard operating systems support an RS232 interface.
In a possible modification of the system described above, there may be a plurality of cabinet control processors within each cabinet, these processors being linked together to form a sub-network, connected to the inter-cabinet network. This would allow more parameters to be monitored within each cabinet.

Claims (5)

1. A computer system comprising a plurality of cabinets, wherein each cabinet includes a cabinet control processor for monitoring and controlling the status of components in that cabinet, and a network interconnecting the cabinet control processors to allow them to exchange status information.
2. A system according to Claim 1 wherein one of said cabinet processors acts as a master, being responsible for collecting status information from all the other cabinet control processors in the network.
3. A system according to Claim 2 wherein said master cabinet control processor has an output serial connection for supplying status information to a host processor.
4. A system according to any preceding claim wherein said network comprises a serial, twisted-pair link.
5. A computer system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
GB9508134A 1994-06-18 1995-04-21 Monitoring arrangement for a computer system Expired - Fee Related GB2290389B (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9508134A GB2290389B (en) 1994-06-18 1995-04-21 Monitoring arrangement for a computer system

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9412263A GB9412263D0 (en) 1994-06-18 1994-06-18 Monitoring arrangement for a computer system
GB9508134A GB2290389B (en) 1994-06-18 1995-04-21 Monitoring arrangement for a computer system

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB9508134D0 GB9508134D0 (en) 1995-06-07
GB2290389A true GB2290389A (en) 1995-12-20
GB2290389B GB2290389B (en) 1998-03-11

Family

ID=26305084

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB9508134A Expired - Fee Related GB2290389B (en) 1994-06-18 1995-04-21 Monitoring arrangement for a computer system

Country Status (1)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2290389B (en)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2825879A1 (en) * 2001-06-07 2002-12-13 Dell Products Lp Computer system, especially a server or server group, has management software linked to a status indicator light to show the status of the system or if there is any impending failure of any of its components
DE102004057800A1 (en) * 2004-11-30 2006-06-01 Fujitsu Siemens Computers Gmbh Computer unit to be monitored for operating status through supervisory monitor works as virtual computer unit within computer system
WO2011147580A1 (en) * 2010-05-28 2011-12-01 Christmann Informationstechnik + Medien Gmbh & Co. Kg Multiprocessor computer system having a plurality of working processors and a plurality of monitoring processors for monitoring the working processors

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2041581A (en) * 1979-02-02 1980-09-10 Hitachi Ltd Elevator control system
GB2158610A (en) * 1984-04-11 1985-11-13 Plessey Co Plc Aircraft control
EP0392209A2 (en) * 1989-03-16 1990-10-17 Fujitsu Limited Communication system having two data processing units each having function of monitoring the other data processing unit
GB2256504A (en) * 1991-05-28 1992-12-09 Kloeckner Humboldt Deutz Ag A device suitable for controlling the injection of fuel into an internal combustion engine.
GB2272611A (en) * 1992-11-05 1994-05-18 Integrated Control Platforms L Control system for machinery and/or plant apparatus

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2041581A (en) * 1979-02-02 1980-09-10 Hitachi Ltd Elevator control system
GB2158610A (en) * 1984-04-11 1985-11-13 Plessey Co Plc Aircraft control
EP0392209A2 (en) * 1989-03-16 1990-10-17 Fujitsu Limited Communication system having two data processing units each having function of monitoring the other data processing unit
GB2256504A (en) * 1991-05-28 1992-12-09 Kloeckner Humboldt Deutz Ag A device suitable for controlling the injection of fuel into an internal combustion engine.
GB2272611A (en) * 1992-11-05 1994-05-18 Integrated Control Platforms L Control system for machinery and/or plant apparatus

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2825879A1 (en) * 2001-06-07 2002-12-13 Dell Products Lp Computer system, especially a server or server group, has management software linked to a status indicator light to show the status of the system or if there is any impending failure of any of its components
FR2831685A1 (en) * 2001-06-07 2003-05-02 Dell Products Lp SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING STATUS INFORMATION OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM
GB2379058B (en) * 2001-06-07 2004-07-21 Dell Products Lp System and method for displaying computer system status information
DE102004057800A1 (en) * 2004-11-30 2006-06-01 Fujitsu Siemens Computers Gmbh Computer unit to be monitored for operating status through supervisory monitor works as virtual computer unit within computer system
DE102004057800B4 (en) * 2004-11-30 2006-08-31 Fujitsu Siemens Computers Gmbh A computer network system and method for monitoring the operating state of a computer unit within a computerized network system by a monitoring monitor
WO2011147580A1 (en) * 2010-05-28 2011-12-01 Christmann Informationstechnik + Medien Gmbh & Co. Kg Multiprocessor computer system having a plurality of working processors and a plurality of monitoring processors for monitoring the working processors

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB9508134D0 (en) 1995-06-07
GB2290389B (en) 1998-03-11

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Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PCNP Patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee

Effective date: 20140421