TWI486761B - Rack server system and test method of the same - Google Patents

Description

Cabinet server system and detection method thereof

The present disclosure relates to a server system technology, and more particularly to a cabinet server system and method of detecting the same.

The Internet is an indispensable conduit for communication and communication of information in modern life. As an important tool for providing network services, the server must have the ability to process large amounts of data. Therefore, regardless of the processing or heat dissipation capabilities of the data, the server must have a good design to achieve the most effective control.

Due to the large amount of data requirements, many servers are often boxed for storage. However, in this configuration, each server is still managed separately. For many servers that are concentrated in the same rack, failing to have a centralized control mechanism will not be able to take overall environmental conditions. Optimize management. In the current technology, each server is often controlled by the cabinet management controller. However, in the cabinet system, if a new server is added, the cabinet management controller cannot perform effective monitoring immediately, so it is difficult to control and maintain the state of the entire cabinet system.

Therefore, how to design a new cabinet server system and its detection method to overcome the above problems is an urgent problem to be solved in the industry.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a cabinet server system including: a plurality of servers and a cabinet management controller. Each server includes: a storage module, a baseboard management controller (BMC), and a basic input/output system (BIOS). The storage module includes: a first storage area for storing the factory hardware configuration table and a second storage area for storing the operating hardware configuration table. The baseboard management controller is used to extract the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table. The basic input/output system performs system hardware detection when the server is started, so that the baseboard management controller updates the operating hardware configuration table according to the system hardware detection. The cabinet management controller is used to manage the server, and the substrate management controller of each server obtains the corresponding factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table from the storage modules of the servers for querying and comparing, respectively, according to the factory. The matching situation between the hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table determines whether the server generates an error.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the system hardware is detected as a power on self test (POST) for at least one processor, at least one hard disk, at least one memory, at least A power module and at least one disk array card are detected. The factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table record the number of processor information, model information, assembly date or a combination thereof, record the number of hard disk and memory information, capacity information, brand information or a combination thereof, and Record the number of power modules and disk array cards, model information, brand information, or a combination of them.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the storage module is a flash memory or an electronic erasable rewritable read-only memory. (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory; EEPROM).

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, the cabinet management controller compares the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table when the cabinet server system is powered on or the hardware configuration is updated.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cabinet management controller is further configured to determine whether the server needs to automatically update the factory hardware configuration table when the server is online, so as to automatically update the factory hardware configuration table when copying The operating hardware configuration table is the factory hardware configuration table.

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, the cabinet management controller further generates a cabinet server hardware configuration table according to the factory hardware configuration table. The cabinet management controller generates a warning message when the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table do not match.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a cabinet server system detection method for a cabinet server system, comprising: enabling a plurality of servers of a cabinet server system to start operation; and making a basic input/output system of each server Performing hardware detection of the system, so that the baseboard management controller updates the operating hardware configuration table in the storage modules of each server according to the system hardware detection; and enables the baseboard management controller to extract the operating hardware configuration table from the storage module and the factory The hardware configuration table is configured to enable the cabinet management controller of the server server system to obtain the corresponding hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table from the storage module of each server through the baseboard management controller of each server for query and comparison, Determine whether the server generates an error based on the matching of the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the system hardware is detected as a power source The self-test is initiated to detect at least one processor, at least one hard disk, at least one memory, at least one power module, and at least one disk array card included in the server.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the cabinet server system detection method further includes: when the cabinet management controller is powered on or the hardware configuration is updated, the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table are Compare.

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the server is online, the cabinet management controller determines whether the server needs to automatically update the factory hardware configuration table; and when the factory hardware configuration table is to be automatically updated, the copy operation is performed. The hardware configuration table is the factory hardware configuration table.

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, the rack server system detecting method further comprises: causing the rack management controller to generate a rack server hardware configuration table according to the factory hardware configuration table. The cabinet server system detection method further includes a warning message when the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table do not match.

The advantage of the application of the present disclosure is that the hardware configuration at the factory and the hardware configuration in actual operation are separately recorded by operating the hardware configuration table and the factory hardware configuration table, and are compared by the cabinet management controller to determine whether there is any The situation of the server error is generated, and the above purpose is easily achieved.

Please refer to Figure 1. 1 is a block diagram of a cabinet server system 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The cabinet server system 1 includes a server 10 and a cabinet management controller 12.

The number of servers 10 may depend on the actual application and is used to process and transmit data according to the user access requirements of the remote end. The rack management controller 12 can be internally configured with a rack management network port, an inter integrated circuit (I ² C) bus, or a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmission (UART) bus and The server 10 communicates to receive relevant information of each server 10, and effectively controls the entire rack server system 1.

Please refer to Figure 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the server 10 in an embodiment of the disclosure. The server 10 mainly includes a storage module 20, a baseboard management controller (BMC) 22, and a basic input/output system (BIOS) 24. In fact, the server 10 may still include components such as a sensor, a heat sink module, a power module, a hard disk, a memory, a processor, a disk array card, and the like. However, in order to facilitate the description of the focus of the present invention, only the storage module 20, the substrate management controller 22, and the basic input/output system 24 are illustrated in FIG.

The substrate management controller 22 is configured to control the sensors in the server 10 to obtain conditions such as temperature or power in the server 10, and accordingly control the heat dissipation module or the power module in the server 10. Operation.

The basic input/output system 24 performs system hardware detection when the server 10 starts operating. In one embodiment, the system hardware is detected as a power on self test (POST) for the processor, hard disk, memory, power module, and disk array card included in the server 10. And so on. After the detection, in addition to knowing whether the hardware is faulty, the basic input/output system 24 can also know the information of each module, such as but not limited to Number, model, date of assembly, label, etc.

In different embodiments of the storage module 20, it may be a flash memory or an electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). The storage module 20 includes a first storage area 200 and a second storage area 202. The first storage area 200 is used to store the factory hardware configuration table 21, and the second storage area 202 is used to store the operating hardware configuration table 23. The factory hardware configuration table 21 is a table that is burned and stored when the server 10 is assembled, to record information of each module that the server 10 has at the time of shipment. In an embodiment, the form of the factory hardware configuration table 21 may be, for example, but not limited to, the content shown in Table 1.

On the other hand, the content of the operation hardware configuration table 23 is that the basic input/output system 24 is updated and stored by the substrate management controller 22 based on the result of the system hardware detection after the system hardware detection is performed. Therefore, the content of the operating hardware configuration table 23 is information on the hardware status of the server 10 when it is actually operating. In an embodiment, the form of the operating hardware configuration table 23 may be, for example, but not limited to, the content shown in Table 2.

Briefly, the factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operating hardware configuration table 23 can record the number, model, assembly date or combination of processors in the server 10, record the number and capacity of the hard disk and the memory, and the factory. Card information or its arrangement, and record the number of power modules and disk array cards, model information, brand information or their arrangement.

It should be noted that the format of the above-mentioned factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operation hardware configuration table 23 is only an example, and other recording methods or formats may be used in other embodiments.

The substrate management controller 22 can retrieve the hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table 23 from the storage module 20. In the present embodiment, the rack management controller 12 in FIG. 1 is connected to and managed by the baseboard management controller 22 of each server 10 to re-power the entire rack server system 1 (including the initial start) When operating or updating the information of the rack server system 1, the board management controller 22 of each server 10 obtains the corresponding factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operating hardware from the storage module 20 of each server 10. Table 23 is configured to perform a query and comparison procedure.

The rack management controller 12 determines whether the server 10 generates an error based on the matching situation of the factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operation hardware configuration table 23. When the factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operational hardware configuration table 23 generate a mismatch, the cabinet management controller 12 will generate an alert message. This alert message may include, in an embodiment, the time at which the condition was discovered and the content that did not match. When the factory hardware configuration table 21 and the operation hardware configuration table 23 match, the cabinet management controller 12 can also generate a cabinet server hardware configuration table (not shown) according to the operation hardware configuration table 23 to record all The configuration of the hardware in the server 10.

The cabinet management controller 12 can perform a maintenance procedure to determine the server 10 when a server 10 in the rack server system 1 is started up (for example, one of the servers 10 is powered on in the operation of the rack server system 1). Whether to update the factory hardware configuration table. When the server 10 needs to update the factory hardware configuration table, it can be done manually or automatically. If the update is performed manually, the user can input the updated content one by one, and store the updated factory hardware configuration table 21 in the first storage area 200 of the storage module 20.

If the update is performed in an automatic manner, the server 10 further operates the hardware configuration table after updating the operation hardware configuration table 23 by the substrate management controller 22 based on the contents of the system hardware detection by the basic input/output system 24. 23 Copy to the factory hardware configuration table 21 to complete the automatic update. The rack management controller 12 then retrieves the updated factory hardware configuration table 21 and updates the rack server hardware configuration table accordingly.

Therefore, the cabinet server system 1 of the present disclosure can separately record the hardware configuration at the factory by operating the hardware configuration table and the factory hardware configuration table. And the hardware configuration in actual operation, and the cabinet management controller performs query and comparison to determine whether there is a server error.

Please refer to Figure 3. FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method 300 for detecting a server server system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The rack server system detection method 300 can be applied to the rack server system 1 as shown in FIG. The cabinet server system detecting method 300 includes the following steps (it should be understood that the steps mentioned in the embodiment can be adjusted according to actual needs, except for the order in which the order is specifically stated, or even simultaneously or partially Simultaneous execution).

In step 301, the plurality of servers 10 of the rack server system 1 are started to operate.

In step 302, the basic input/output system 24 of each server 10 performs system hardware detection, so that the substrate management controller 22 updates the operating hardware configuration table 21 in the storage module 20 of each server 10 according to the system hardware detection. .

In step 303, the substrate management controller 22 retrieves the operating hardware configuration table and the factory hardware configuration table from the storage module 20.

In step 304, the rack management controller 12 obtains the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table from the storage module 20 through the substrate management controller 22 of each server 10 for query and comparison.

In step 305, the rack management controller 12 determines whether the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table match. When the factory hardware configuration table and the operational hardware configuration table match, the cabinet management controller 12 generates a cabinet server hardware configuration table in step 306. When the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table do not match, the cabinet management controller 12 generates an alarm in step 307. Show message.

Please refer to Figure 4. FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for detecting a cabinet server system 400 in another embodiment of the disclosure. The rack server system detection method 400 can be applied to the rack server system 1 as shown in FIG. The cabinet server system detecting method 400 includes the following steps (it should be understood that the steps mentioned in the embodiment may be adjusted according to actual needs, except for the order in which the order is specifically stated, or even simultaneously or partially Simultaneous execution).

In step 401, the rack server system detection process begins.

In step 402, it is determined whether the rack server system 1 is powered on again. It should be noted that, when the cabinet server system 1 is powered on, it refers to whether the AC power is activated. When the rack server system 1 has been powered back on, the flow proceeds to step 403 to set the variable N to one.

In step 404, it is determined whether the baseboard management controller in the Nth server can communicate with the cabinet management controller. When the baseboard management controller cannot communicate with the cabinet management controller, it is determined in step 405 that the Nth server is not online or the state is unknown, and the variable N is incremented by one in step 406, so that the flow returns to step 404 to determine. .

When the baseboard management controller can communicate with the cabinet management controller, the flow proceeds to step 407 to determine whether the server is powered on, that is, whether the DC power of the server is activated and operated accordingly. In this embodiment, when the server is powered on, the steps of steps 301-303 in FIG. 3 are actually performed, so that the substrate management controller 22 retrieves the operating hardware configuration table from the storage module 20. And the factory hardware configuration table. Therefore, in step 408, the rack management controller 12 will receive the factory hardware configuration from the baseboard management controller 22. The table and the operating hardware configuration table are queried and compared, and judged whether they do not match.

When the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table do not match, the process proceeds to step 409 to generate a warning message, and in step 410, it is determined whether the server is the last server. When the server is the last server, the flow proceeds to step 411 where the cabinet server system detection process ends. When the cabinet management controller 12 determines in step 408 that the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table are matched, the process proceeds directly to step 410 for determination.

When it is determined in step 410 that the server is not the last server, the flow will return to step 406 to increment the variable by one and repeat the above process again. When it is determined in step 407 that the server is not powered on, the process proceeds to step 412 to manually or automatically power on the server to continue the process after step 408.

When it is determined in step 402 that the rack server system is not powered on again, it is determined in step 413 whether the rack server hardware configuration table needs to be updated. When no update is required, the flow will proceed directly to step 411 to end the detection process. When the cabinet server hardware configuration table needs to be updated, the process will continue to step 403 for subsequent processing.

Please refer to Figure 5. FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method 500 for detecting a cabinet server system according to another embodiment of the disclosure. The rack server system detection method 500 can be applied to the rack server system 1 as shown in FIG. The cabinet server system detecting method 500 includes the following steps (it should be understood that the steps mentioned in the embodiment may be adjusted according to actual needs, except for the order in which the order is specifically stated, or even simultaneously or partially Simultaneously carried out).

In step 501, the server system detection process begins. In step 502, it is determined whether a server is online. When no server is online, the flow will proceed to step 503 without updating the server hardware configuration and returning to process 502 to continue the determination.

In step 504, when a server is online, it is determined whether the server needs to update the factory hardware configuration table. When it is not necessary to update the factory hardware configuration table, the flow proceeds to step 503, and the server hardware configuration is not updated. When it is necessary to update the factory hardware configuration table, the process proceeds to step 505 to determine whether automatic update is required.

When automatic update is required, in step 506, the hardware configuration of the server is collected, and in step 507, the operating hardware configuration table of the server is copied into the factory hardware configuration table, and then the new configuration is written in step 508. Enter the cabinet server hardware configuration table.

When the automatic update is not needed, in step 509, a manual update will be performed, and in step 510, it is determined whether to input the complete update data, so that when the complete update data is input, the process proceeds to step 508 to write the new configuration. Enter the cabinet server hardware configuration table.

The present disclosure has been disclosed in the above embodiments, but it is not intended to limit the disclosure, and any person skilled in the art can make various changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. The scope of protection of the disclosure is subject to the definition of the scope of the patent application.

1‧‧‧Cabinet Server System

10‧‧‧Server

12‧‧‧Cabinet Management Controller

20‧‧‧ storage module

200‧‧‧First storage area

202‧‧‧Second storage area

21‧‧‧Factory hardware configuration table

22‧‧‧Base Management Controller

23‧‧‧Operating hardware configuration table

24‧‧‧Basic input and output system

300‧‧‧Cabinet server system detection method

301-307‧‧‧Steps

401-413‧‧‧Steps

400‧‧‧Cabinet server system detection method

500‧‧‧Cabinet server system detection method

501-510‧‧‧Steps

The above and other objects, features, advantages and embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent and understood. The description of the drawings is as follows: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a cabinet server system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 2 is a block diagram of a server in an embodiment of the disclosure; FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for detecting a server server system according to an embodiment of the disclosure; FIG. 4 is a disclosure of the disclosure In the embodiment, a flowchart of a method for detecting a cabinet server system; and FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for detecting a cabinet server system according to another embodiment of the disclosure.

300‧‧‧Cabinet server system detection method

301-307‧‧‧Steps

Claims (14)

A cabinet server system includes: a plurality of servers, each of the servers comprising: a storage module, comprising: a first storage area for storing a factory hardware configuration table; and a second storage area for Storing a working hardware configuration table; a baseboard management controller (BMC) for capturing the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table; and a basic input/output system (basic input/output) System; BIOS), for performing a system hardware detection when the server is started, so that the baseboard management controller updates the operating hardware configuration table according to the system hardware detection; and a cabinet management controller, To manage the servers, the substrate management controllers of the servers are respectively obtained from the storage modules of the servers and the corresponding hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table are queried. Compared with the comparison, the server determines whether the servers generate an error according to the matching situation of the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table. The rack server system of claim 1, wherein the system hardware is detected as a power on self test (POST) for at least one processor included in the server, at least one hard The disc, the at least one memory, the at least one power module, and the at least one disk array card are detected. The rack server system of claim 2, wherein the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table record processor information of one processor, a processor model information, an assembly date information, or an arrangement thereof Combining, recording the first number information of the hard disk and the memory, a capacity information, a first brand information or a combination thereof, and recording the second number information of the power module and the disk array card , a model information, a second label information or a combination thereof. The cabinet server system of claim 1, wherein the storage module is a flash memory or an electrically erasable EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory; EEPROM) ). The cabinet server system of claim 1, wherein the cabinet management controller performs the hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table when the cabinet server system is powered on or updated. Comparison. The rack server system of claim 1, wherein the rack management controller is further configured to determine whether the servers need to automatically update the factory hardware configuration table when the servers are online, so that the automatic update is required. When the hardware configuration table is shipped, copy the operating hardware configuration table to the factory hardware configuration table. The rack server system of claim 1, wherein the rack management controller generates a rack server hardware configuration table according to the factory hardware configuration table. The rack server system of claim 1, wherein the rack management controller generates a warning message when the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware configuration table do not match. A rack server system detecting method for a rack server system includes: causing a plurality of servers of the rack server system to start operation; and one of the servers is configured to perform a system hardware detection The substrate management controller updates one of the operating hardware configuration tables of one of the storage servers according to the hardware detection of the system; and causes the substrate management controller to retrieve the operating hardware from the storage module. a configuration table and a factory hardware configuration table; and the cabinet management controller of the rack server system respectively obtains the corresponding hardware configuration from the storage module through the baseboard management controller of each of the servers The table and the operation hardware configuration table are queried and compared, and whether the server generates an error according to the matching of the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table. The method for detecting a cabinet server system according to claim 9, wherein the system hardware detects that the power source initiates self-detection, and is configured to include at least one processor, at least one hard disk, and at least one memory of the server. , At least one power module and at least one disk array card are detected. The method for detecting a cabinet server system according to claim 9, wherein the cabinet management controller further updates the factory hardware configuration table and the operating hardware when the cabinet server system is powered on or updated in a hardware configuration. The configuration table is compared. The method for detecting a cabinet server system according to claim 9, wherein when the servers start to operate, the method further includes: causing the cabinet management controller to determine whether the servers need to automatically update the factory hardware configuration table; When the factory hardware configuration table is to be automatically updated, copy the operational hardware configuration table to the factory hardware configuration table. The method for detecting a cabinet server system according to claim 9, further comprising causing the cabinet management controller to generate a cabinet server hardware configuration table according to the factory hardware configuration table. The method for detecting the cabinet server system according to claim 9 further includes generating a warning message when the factory hardware configuration table and the operation hardware configuration table do not match.