CN113721720A - Server architecture and flexible design method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses a server architecture and a flexible design method thereof, which comprises the following steps: a core server component and a peripheral server component; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly comprises a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board; the peripheral server component and the case form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly comprises a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board; the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable. Therefore, the complexity of the server can be effectively reduced, the expandability and reusability of the server are improved, different peripheral server components are selected on the basis of the core service components according to different configurations, the core components are changed or updated because of the platform, the peripheral server components do not need to be re-developed, the cost of the server is reduced, and when partial components of the server are damaged, the components can be quickly replaced, and the reliability of the server is improved.

Description

Server architecture and flexible design method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of servers, in particular to a server architecture and a flexible design method thereof.

Background

A server is a system more complex in design than a computer, and has powerful computing power, reliability, Input/Output (I/O) throughput, and high price. With the rapid development of the internet, different clients have different configuration requirements on the server, the internal structure of the server becomes more and more complex, and the configuration of the server becomes more and more variable, which provides a powerful challenge for designers of the server.

The mainstream architecture of the current server is still the accumulation of server configuration, that is, all functions required by the client are put into the same server, which is easy to cause the problems: reusability is poor, and when configuration is changed, a server needs to be redesigned; the functions are more and more, so that the interior of the server is more and more complex, and the design is more and more complex; the damage of partial components of the server can cause the failure of the whole machine, and the reliability of the server is lower.

Therefore, how to solve the problems of high complexity, poor reusability, low reliability and the like of the server is a technical problem to be urgently solved by the technical personnel in the field.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a server architecture and a flexible design method thereof, which can effectively reduce the complexity of a server, improve the reliability, availability, maintainability and expandability of the server, and reduce the development cost of the server. The specific scheme is as follows:

a server architecture, comprising: a core server component and a peripheral server component; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly comprises a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board;

the peripheral server component and the chassis form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly comprises a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board;

the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the ICM board, the first fan board, and the PDB board are connected to the motherboard by gold fingers.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the motherboard expands the I/O outwards through the first PCIE connector;

the first PCIE connector is a GENZ connector which can be connected with the cable.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the position of the first PCIE connector is close to the position of the CPU.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the peripheral expansion board expands the I/O to the outside through the second PCIE connector;

the second PCIE connector is a GENZ connector which can be connected with the cable.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the position of the second PCIE connector is close to the position of the PCIE Switch.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the timing of the peripheral server component and the timing of the core server component are kept consistent.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the cables include a signal cable for providing PCIE signals and control signals, and a Power cable for supplying Power.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the peripheral expansion board includes an IO BOX and a Storage BOX.

Preferably, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, when the IO BOX is a PCIE BOX, the PCIE BOX is connected to the motherboard through two cables of PCIE X16 and one Power cable, and a PCIE network card or a GPU display card is externally connected through PCIE Switch;

and when the Storage BOX is JBOD, the input signal of the JBOD is a PCIE signal, and the JBOD is in butt joint with a PCIE interface of the core server assembly.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a flexible design method for the server architecture provided by the embodiment of the present invention, including:

assembling and building a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board to form a core server assembly; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit;

assembling and building the peripheral expansion board and the second fan board to form a peripheral server assembly; the peripheral server component and the chassis form a server peripheral unit;

and connecting the server core unit with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

It can be seen from the above technical solutions that, a server architecture provided by the present invention includes: a core server component and a peripheral server component; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly comprises a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board; the peripheral server component and the case form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly comprises a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board; the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

The invention introduces flexible design idea into the field of server design, designs a server architecture, establishes hardware design of a core server unit part and a peripheral server unit part and interconnection among the units under the architecture, can effectively reduce the complexity of the server, improves the expandability and reusability of the server, selects different peripheral server components on the basis of a core service component according to different configurations, greatly reduces the development cost of the server because the core component is changed or updated because of platform, and can be quickly replaced when the server component is damaged, thereby greatly improving the requirements of the server on Reliability, usability and Serviceability (Reliability, Availability and Serviceability, RAS). In addition, the invention also provides a corresponding flexible design method aiming at the server architecture, so that the server architecture has higher practicability, and the method has corresponding advantages.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or technical solutions in related arts, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or related arts will be briefly introduced below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the provided drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a server architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a core server component topology diagram provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a PCIE BOX topology diagram provided in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a JBOD topology provided by embodiments of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a connection between a core unit and a peripheral unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a flexible design method of a server architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Flexibility derives from the field of mechanics, has now been extended to the field of design, and refers to the working methods and ways of thinking needed to present the same set of content on media of different attributes. The invention introduces a flexible design idea into the field of server design, in the field, the flexible design refers to one or more basic modules, and the design method compatible with various configurations and various platforms is realized through the building of the modules.

Based on the flexible design concept, the invention provides a novel server architecture on an Intel Eagle Stream platform, as shown in fig. 1, comprising: a core server component 1 and a peripheral server component 2; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the core server component 1 and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly 1 may include a Power Supply Unit (PSU), a motherboard, an I/O Control Board (ICM), a first fan Board and a Power Distribution Board (PDB), etc.;

the peripheral server component 2 and the case form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly 2 may include a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board;

the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

In the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, hardware designs and interconnections between units of a core server unit portion and a peripheral server unit portion are established under the architecture, so that complexity of the server can be effectively reduced, expandability and reusability of the server are improved, different peripheral server components are selected on the basis of the core server components according to different configurations, the peripheral server components do not need to be re-developed due to platform change or update of the core components, development cost of the server is greatly reduced, and the server components can be quickly replaced when damaged, so that requirements on Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) of the server are greatly improved.

In specific implementation, in the above server architecture provided by the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, the core server components use at most 6 PSUs for power supply. The ICM board, the first fan board and the PDB board are connected to the mainboard and provide functions of heat dissipation, power supply, control and management for the mainboard.

Preferably, the ICM board, the first fan board and the PDB board are connected with the main board through golden fingers, so that the replacement of a fault board card is facilitated.

Further, in specific implementation, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the motherboard externally expands the I/O through a first PCIE (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard) connector; the first PCIE connector can select a GENZ connector which can be connected with a cable, so that different configurations can be conveniently expanded through the cable. One CPU of Eagle Stream platform can be expanded to 5 sets of PCIE X16 ports at most.

Preferably, the first PCIE connector is located close to a Central Processing Unit (CPU) to ensure better SI characteristics when the server module is externally extended. It should be noted that, in order to ensure that sufficient POWER is provided for the peripheral server components, the board POWER is designed to have sufficient margin.

In a specific implementation, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the peripheral expansion board expands the I/O outwards through the second PCIE connector; the second PCIE connector may also select a cable-ready GENZ connector to facilitate interfacing with the core assembly.

Preferably, the location of the second PCIE connector should be close to the location of the PCIE Switch.

Further, in specific implementation, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the peripheral expansion board only includes the IO BOX and the Storage BOX, and is respectively used for external I/O and Storage of the server. The types of the I/O BOX and the Storage BOX are various because the types of the external expansion components are various, the I/OBOX is exemplified by PCIE BOX, and the Storage BOX is exemplified by JBOD.

As shown in FIG. 3, PEX88096 is PCIE SWITCH chips configurable to 1 PCIE X16 input and 5 PCIE X16 outputs. The PCIE BOX is connected to the motherboard through two PCIE X16 cables and one Power supply cable, and 10 PCIE SLOTs can be expanded through two PCIE SWITCH cables to connect with the PCIE network card or the GPU display card externally, so as to provide I/O expansion or data processing capability for the server core component.

As shown in fig. 4, the input requirement of JBOD is a PCIE signal to interface directly with the PCIE interface of the core server component. Upstream PCIE X8 goes through LSISAS3108(SAS controller) and is converted into 8 groups of SAS signals, which is then expanded by SAS35X48R (SAS Expander) into 40 groups of SAS signals, which are connected to SFF-8639 connectors (NVME, SAS, SATA compatible connectors). In addition, a group of PCIE X16 in the upper row is converted into 40 groups of NVME X2 signals after passing through PEX88096 so as to be compatible with 40 NVME hard disks.

In the above server architecture provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the timing of the peripheral server components is consistent with the timing of the core server components.

In a specific implementation, in the server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the cables may include a signal cable for providing PCIE signals and control signals, and a Power cable for supplying Power. Different peripheral units may be selected according to different configurations.

As shown in fig. 5, for example, in a configuration of a storage and I/O expansion compatible server, a core server is connected to two JBODs through cables, and is expanded into 40 hard disk configuration models, and is further connected to two PCIE BOX, and is expanded into 20 PCIE SLOT, so as to support a large amount of storage and I/O configuration required by a client. When a certain peripheral unit is damaged or needs to be upgraded, the peripheral unit can be replaced quickly without affecting other units.

It should be noted that the present invention supports the reasonable matching of different server configurations by adopting the comprehensive design of PCIE cable connection, core server components, peripheral server components, and the like. The architecture of the core server assembly is basically unchanged, but the peripheral server assembly needs to design different architectures according to configuration requirements, but the constituent elements are a fan plate for heat dissipation and a peripheral plate for expansion, which are unchanged.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the invention also provides a flexible design method of the server architecture, and as the principle of solving the problems of the method is similar to that of the server architecture, the implementation of the method can refer to the implementation of the server architecture, and repeated details are not repeated.

In specific implementation, the present invention provides a flexible design method for a server architecture, as shown in fig. 6, including the following steps:

s601, assembling and building a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board to form a core server assembly; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit;

s602, assembling and building the peripheral expansion board and the second fan board to form a peripheral server assembly; the peripheral server component and the case form a server peripheral unit;

and S603, connecting the server core unit with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

In the flexible design method of the server architecture provided by the embodiment of the invention, by executing the steps S601 to S603, the complexity of the server can be effectively reduced, the expandability and reusability of the server are improved, different peripheral server components are selected on the basis of the core server components according to different configurations, the core components do not need to be re-developed due to platform change or update, the development cost of the server is greatly reduced, and when part of the components of the server are damaged, the components can be quickly replaced, so that the RAS requirement of the server is greatly improved.

The embodiments are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same or similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other. For the flexible design method disclosed by the embodiment, since the flexible design method corresponds to the server architecture disclosed by the embodiment, the description is simple, and the relevant points can be referred to the server architecture part for description.

To sum up, a server architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention includes: a core server component and a peripheral server component; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly comprises a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board; the peripheral server component and the case form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly comprises a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board; the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable. Therefore, the complexity of the server can be effectively reduced, the expandability and reusability of the server are improved, different peripheral server components are selected on the basis of the core service components according to different configurations, the core components are changed or updated because of the platform, the peripheral server components do not need to be re-developed, the development cost of the server is greatly reduced, and when partial components of the server are damaged, the components can be quickly replaced, so that the RAS requirement of the server is greatly improved. In addition, the invention also provides a corresponding flexible design method aiming at the server architecture, so that the server architecture has higher practicability, and the method has corresponding advantages.

Finally, it should also be noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The server architecture and the flexible design method thereof provided by the invention are introduced in detail, and a specific example is applied in the text to explain the principle and the implementation of the invention, and the description of the above embodiment is only used for helping to understand the method and the core idea thereof; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present invention, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present invention.

Claims (11)

1. A server architecture, comprising: a core server component and a peripheral server component; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit; the core server assembly comprises a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board;

the peripheral server component and the chassis form a server peripheral unit; the peripheral server assembly comprises a peripheral expansion board and a second fan board;

the server core unit is connected with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

2. The server architecture of claim 1, wherein the ICM board, the first fan board, and the PDB board are connected with the motherboard by gold fingers.

3. The server architecture of claim 2, wherein the motherboard out-expands I/O via a first PCIE connector;

the first PCIE connector is a GENZ connector which can be connected with the cable.

4. The server architecture of claim 3, wherein the first PCIE connector is located near a CPU.

5. The server architecture of claim 1, wherein the peripheral expansion board extends I/O out through a second PCIE connector;

the second PCIE connector is a GENZ connector which can be connected with the cable.

6. The server architecture of claim 5, wherein the second PCIE connector is located close to a PCIE Switch.

7. The server architecture of claim 1, wherein the timing of the peripheral server components is consistent with the timing of the core server components.

8. The server architecture of claim 1, wherein the cables comprise signal cables for providing PCIE signals and control signals, and Power cables for supplying Power.

9. The server architecture of claim 1, wherein the peripheral expansion board comprises an IO BOX and a Storage BOX.

10. The server architecture of claim 9, wherein when the IO BOX is a PCIE BOX, the PCIE BOX is connected to a motherboard via two PCIE X16 cables and a Power cable, and a PCIE network card or a GPU display card is externally connected via a PCIE Switch;

and when the Storage BOX is JBOD, the input signal of the JBOD is a PCIE signal, and the JBOD is in butt joint with a PCIE interface of the core server assembly.

11. A flexible design method for a server architecture according to claims 1 to 10, comprising:

assembling and building a PSU, a mainboard, an ICM board, a first fan board and a PDB board to form a core server assembly; the core server component and the chassis form a server core unit;

assembling and building the peripheral expansion board and the second fan board to form a peripheral server assembly; the peripheral server component and the chassis form a server peripheral unit;

and connecting the server core unit with the server peripheral unit through a cable.

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