WO2024108938A1

WO2024108938A1 - Hard drive control apparatus and method, device, nonvolatile readable storage medium, and server

Info

Publication number: WO2024108938A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/095609
Authority: WO
Inventors: 邱连兴
Original assignee: 苏州元脑智能科技有限公司
Priority date: 2022-11-24
Filing date: 2023-05-22
Publication date: 2024-05-30
Also published as: CN115757219A

Abstract

The present application discloses a hard drive control apparatus and method, a device, a nonvolatile readable storage medium, and a server in the technical field of computers. According to the hard drive control apparatus in the present application, an expansion card in the form of a hard drive is provided, and the expansion card can be inserted like a hard drive. When the expansion card needs to be replaced, the expansion card is directly pulled out from an expansion connector without the need to remove a server chassis cover. Thus, the present application provides a hard drive expansion solution facilitating maintenance, can achieve server hard drive control and expansion, and can also reduce the cable complexity in the chassis, save server chassis space, and provide more possibilities for design of high-density storage solutions. Correspondingly, the hard drive control method, the device, the nonvolatile readable storage medium, and the server provided by the present application also have the above technical effects.

Description

Hard disk control device, method, equipment, non-volatile readable storage medium and server

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on November 24, 2022, with application number 202211482036.9 and application name “A Hard Disk Control Device, Method, Equipment, Readable Storage Medium and Server”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of computer technology, and in particular to a hard disk control device, method, equipment, non-volatile readable storage medium and server.

Background technique

At present, the expansion card used to expand the hard disk in the server is inside the server chassis, and it connects the server motherboard and the hard disks outside the chassis through corresponding cables. In this way, the expansion card itself and the corresponding cables will occupy the limited chassis space. In addition, the expansion card is a fragile device. Every time the expansion card is replaced, the server power needs to be turned off and the chassis cover needs to be removed, which makes maintenance inconvenient.

Therefore, how to provide a hard disk expansion solution that is easy to maintain is a problem that those skilled in the art need to solve.

Summary of the invention

In view of this, the purpose of this application is to provide a hard disk control device, method, equipment, non-volatile readable storage medium and server to provide an easy-to-maintain hard disk expansion solution. The specific solution is as follows:

In a first aspect, the present application provides a hard disk control device, comprising: a plurality of hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, the appearance of the expansion card being consistent with the hard disk;

Wherein, the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable;

The expansion connector is used to receive hard disk control signals sent by the server through the cable;

The expansion card is used to expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged on each hard disk connector.

In some embodiments, the device further comprises:

A detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector and expansion connector;

Correspondingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the devices plugged into each connector to which it is connected.

In some embodiments, the device further comprises:

A power module connected to each hard disk connector and expansion connector;

The power module is used to supply power to each hard disk connector and expansion connector.

In some embodiments, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a first enabling control module;

Correspondingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is unplugged from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is plugged into the expansion connector.

In some embodiments, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a physical switch;

Accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation.

In some embodiments, any hard disk connector and the power module are connected via a second enabling control module;

Correspondingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector.

In some implementations, the expansion chip in the expansion card is an expander chip, a SAS chip, or a RAID chip.

In some implementations, if the expansion chip is an expander chip, the expansion connector is connected to a SAS card or a RAID card in the server through a cable.

In some implementations, each hard disk connector and expansion connector is provided with a device status indicator light.

In some implementations, there are multiple expansion connectors.

In some embodiments, the devices in the apparatus are connected via a backplane.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a hard disk control method, which is applied to any hard disk control device as described above, the device comprising: a plurality of hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, the appearance of the expansion card being consistent with the hard disk; wherein the expansion connector is connected to a server via a cable;

The method includes: when the expansion connector receives a hard disk control signal sent by the server through a cable, the expansion card expands the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

In some implementations, the hard disk control signal includes: a read/write signal, a configuration signal and/or an alarm signal.

In some embodiments, if the hard disk control signal is a read/write signal, when the expansion connector receives the read/write signal sent by the server through a cable, the expansion card expands the read/write signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the read/write operations of the hard disks plugged into each hard disk connector.

In some embodiments, if the hard disk control signal is a configuration signal, when the expansion connector receives the configuration signal sent by the server through a cable, the expansion card expands the configuration signal into multiple signals and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to configure the hard disks plugged into each hard disk connector.

In some embodiments, if the hard disk control signal is an alarm signal, when the expansion connector receives the alarm signal sent by the server through a cable, the expansion card expands the alarm signal into multiple signals and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to alarm the hard disks plugged into each hard disk connector.

In some embodiments, the device further includes: a power module connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector; the power module is used to supply power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector.

In some embodiments, the device further includes: a detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector, expansion connector and power module; accordingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the devices plugged into each connector to which it is connected.

In some embodiments, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a first enabling control module; accordingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is unplugged from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is plugged into the expansion connector.

In some implementations, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a physical switch; accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation.

In some embodiments, any hard disk connector and power module are connected through a second enabling control module; accordingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector.

In some implementations, there are multiple expansion connectors.

In some implementations, the expansion card has a tamper-resistant housing.

In a third aspect, the present application provides an electronic device, including:

Memory for storing computer programs;

The processor is used to execute a computer program to implement the hard disk control method disclosed above.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a non-volatile readable storage medium for storing a computer program, wherein the computer program implements the aforementioned disclosed hard disk control method when executed by a processor.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a server, comprising: a hard disk control device according to any one of the above items, wherein the device is arranged on an outer side wall of a chassis of the server.

In some embodiments, the device includes: multiple hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, the appearance of the expansion card being consistent with the hard disk; wherein the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable; the expansion connector receives a hard disk control signal sent by the server via the cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

In some implementations, there are multiple expansion connectors.

It can be seen from the above scheme that the present application provides a hard disk control device, including: multiple hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, and the appearance of the expansion card is consistent with the hard disk; wherein the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable; the expansion connector is used to receive the hard disk control signal sent by the server via the cable; the expansion card is used to expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

It can be seen that the hard disk control device in the present application provides an expansion card with a hard disk form, which can be plugged into the expansion connector like a hard disk. In this way, when the expansion card needs to be replaced, the expansion card can be directly unplugged from the expansion connector without removing the server chassis cover, which is easy to repair. It can be seen that the present application provides an easy-to-maintain hard disk expansion solution. In the hard disk control device provided in the present application, it includes multiple hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector and consistent with the appearance of the hard disk; and the expansion connector is connected to the server through a cable; the expansion connector can receive the hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable; the expansion card can expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working state of the hard disk plugged in each hard disk connector. It can be seen that the present application enables the expansion card to be moved from the server chassis to the area where the hard disk is located, which can not only realize the control and expansion of the server hard disk, but also reduce the complexity of the cables in the chassis, save the server chassis space, and provide more possibilities for the design of high-density storage solutions. At the same time, the present application makes the expansion card consistent with the hard disk shape, the expansion card can be flexibly replaced without opening the chassis cover, and the thermal maintenance of the expansion card is easier to achieve.

Correspondingly, a hard disk control method, device, non-volatile readable storage medium and a server provided by the present application also have the above-mentioned technical effects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the related technologies, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the related technical descriptions are briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are merely embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on the provided drawings without paying any creative work.

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a hard disk control device in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of another hard disk control device in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of pin definition of an expansion connector in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the working principle of an extension chip in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the connection between an expansion connector and a hard disk connector on a backplane in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a connection relationship between an expansion chip and an expansion connector in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of another hard disk control device in some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the appearance of an expansion card in some embodiments of the present application.

Detailed ways

The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of this application.

At present, the expansion card used to expand the hard disk in the server is inside the chassis of the server, and it connects the server motherboard and each hard disk outside the chassis through corresponding cables. In this way, the expansion card itself and the corresponding cables will occupy limited chassis space. In addition, the expansion card is a fragile device. Every time the expansion card is replaced, the server power needs to be turned off and the chassis cover needs to be removed, which makes maintenance inconvenient. To this end, the present application provides a hard disk control solution that can realize server hard disk control and expansion, and can also reduce the complexity of cables in the chassis, save server chassis space, and provide more possibilities for the design of high-density storage solutions.

As shown in Figure 1, an embodiment of the present application discloses a hard disk control device, including: multiple hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card in the form of a hard disk plugged into the expansion connector; and a power module connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector.

The expansion connector is connected to the server through a cable. The power module is used to supply power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector; the expansion connector is used to receive the hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable; the expansion card is used to expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

In this embodiment, the expansion card in the form of a hard disk means that the appearance of the expansion card is consistent with the appearance of the hard disk, so it can be hot-swapped like a hard disk. In addition, the expansion card has an anti-interference shell, which can prevent static electricity and radiation, and is convenient for manually plugging and unplugging the expansion card. The size of the anti-interference shell can be designed with reference to the size of the hard disk, such as: the size of the anti-interference shell includes but is not limited to 2.5 inches and 3.5 inches. Among them, the appearance of the anti-interference shell of the expansion card is generally a rectangular parallelepiped, such as: the length, width and height of the 3.5-inch anti-interference shell are: 147 mm, 101.6 mm, 26.1 mm; the length, width and height of the 2.5-inch anti-interference shell are: 100.2 mm, 69.85 mm, 14.8 mm. The appearance of the anti-interference shell is the appearance of the expansion card.

It can be seen that the power module in the hard disk control device can supply power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector; the expansion connector can receive the hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable; the expansion card can expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged in each hard disk connector. Among them, the hard disk control signal includes: read and write signals, configuration signals and/or alarm signals. Therefore, the server can perform read and write control, information configuration and/or alarm errors on multiple hard disks through the hard disk control device. Information configuration includes: hard disk upgrade, partition and other operations.

Among them, each hard disk connector and expansion connector can be collectively referred to as a connector, and the hard disk and expansion card plugged thereon can be collectively referred to as a device. Referring to FIG2 , the hard disk control device also includes: a detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector, expansion connector and power module; accordingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the device plugged into each connector to which it is connected, such as: detecting the in-place signal of the device plugged into each connector. The detection circuit is also used to control the on and off or color of the device status indicator light according to the signal reaching the corresponding connector when each connector corresponds to a device status indicator light. For example: when a normal operating device is plugged into a certain connector, the detection circuit controls the device status indicator light corresponding to the connector to be always green. When a faulty device is plugged into a certain connector, the detection circuit controls the device status indicator light corresponding to the connector to flash red. Of course, a strategy table can be preset so that the detection circuit controls the on and off and color of the device status indicator light according to the strategy table. In a specific embodiment, each hard disk connector and expansion connector is provided with a device status indicator light. The detection circuit can be based on CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device, Complex Programmable Logic Device Devices), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) and other logic circuits.

Please refer to Figure 2. The expansion connector and the power module are connected through the first enabling control module; accordingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is unplugged from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is plugged into the expansion connector. In this way, the hot plugging of the expansion card can be realized. This hot plugging function can be specifically implemented with reference to the hot plugging function of the hard disk. Of course, the expansion connector and the power module can also be connected through a physical switch; accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation. This method is easier to implement than hot plugging, and no more software changes are required, but the user needs to manually control the expansion card to be powered off or powered on. When the user operates the physical switch to power off the expansion connector and the expansion card, the user can unplug the expansion card from the expansion connector, or plug the expansion card into the expansion connector; after plugging the expansion card into the expansion connector, the user operates the physical switch to power on the expansion connector.

Please refer to FIG2 , any hard disk connector and the power module are connected via the second enabling control module; accordingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector. This is the hot-swap function of the hard disk, and the details can be referred to the existing related technology, and this embodiment will not be repeated here.

In a specific implementation, the expansion chip in the expansion card is an expander chip, a SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) chip, or a RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) chip. When the expansion chip in the expansion card is a separate expander chip, a SAS chip or a RAID chip can also be provided in the expansion card. That is, the expansion chip in the expansion card can also be: an expander chip + a SAS chip, or an expander chip + a RAID chip.

In a specific implementation, if the expansion chip is an expander chip, the expansion connector can be connected to a SAS card or a RAID card in the server through a cable.

In a specific implementation, there are multiple expansion connectors. When there are multiple expansion connectors in a hard disk control device, these expansion connectors can be respectively connected to some of the hard disk connectors in the device, so that any hard disk connector can be connected to at least one expansion connector. For example: If a hard disk control device has 2 expansion connectors A and expansion connector B, and 8 hard disk connectors: hard disk connector 1 to hard disk connector 8, then expansion connector A is connected to hard disk connector 1 to hard disk connector 4, and expansion connector B is connected to hard disk connector 5 to hard disk connector 8. Of course, it is also possible to connect expansion connector A and expansion connector B to 8 hard disk connectors at the same time, then the expansion connector The expansion cards plugged into expansion connector A and expansion connector B can serve as backup for each other. In this case, expansion card selection logic needs to be designed to determine which expansion card controls the hard disk on which hard disk connector. The expansion card selection logic can be implemented in the expansion chip as a software program, or can be implemented using a selection circuit in the detection circuit.

In a specific implementation, the components in the hard disk control device are connected via a backplane, thereby simplifying the circuit connection relationship and making the hard disk control device easier to implement.

It can be seen that the hard disk control device in this embodiment provides an expansion card in the form of a hard disk, which can be plugged in like a hard disk. When the expansion card needs to be replaced, the expansion card is directly unplugged from the expansion connector without removing the server chassis cover. Therefore, this embodiment provides an easy-to-maintain hard disk expansion solution, which can not only realize server hard disk control and expansion, but also reduce the complexity of cables in the chassis, save server chassis space, and provide more possibilities for the design of high-density storage solutions.

A hard disk control method provided in an embodiment of the present application is introduced below. The hard disk control method described below and the hard disk control method described above can be referenced to each other.

The hard disk control method disclosed in the embodiment of the present application is applied to the hard disk control device of the above embodiment, which includes: multiple hard disk connectors; expansion connectors connected to each hard disk connector; expansion cards in the form of hard disks plugged into the expansion connectors; and power modules connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connectors; wherein the expansion connectors are connected to the server via cables. It can be seen that the appearance of the expansion card is consistent with that of the hard disk.

The hard disk control method disclosed in the embodiment of the present application includes: when the power module supplies power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector, the expansion connector receives the hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and sends the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

In a specific implementation, the hard disk control signal includes: a read/write signal, a configuration signal and/or an alarm signal. In an example, the hard disk control method specifically includes: the expansion connector receives the hard disk read/write signal sent by the server through the cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk read/write signal into multiple signals, and sends the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the read/write operation of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.

In one example, the hard disk control method specifically includes: the expansion connector receives the hard disk configuration signal sent by the server through a cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk configuration signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the upgrade, partition and other configuration operations of the hard disk plugged in each hard disk connector.

In one example, the hard disk control method specifically includes: the expansion connector receives the hard disk alarm signal sent by the server through a cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk alarm signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to alarm the hard disk plugged in each hard disk connector.

In this embodiment, the hard disk control device further includes: a detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector, expansion connector and power module; accordingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the devices plugged into each connector to which it is connected.

In this embodiment, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a first enabling control module; accordingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is removed from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is inserted into the expansion connector.

In this embodiment, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a physical switch; accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation.

In this embodiment, any hard disk connector and power module are connected through a second enabling control module; accordingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector.

In this embodiment, the expansion chip in the expansion card is an expander chip, a SAS chip or a RAID chip. If the expansion chip is an expander chip, the expansion connector is connected to the SAS card or the RAID card in the server through a cable.

In this embodiment, each hard disk connector and expansion connector is provided with a device status indicator light. In a specific implementation, there are multiple expansion connectors. In a specific implementation, each device in the hard disk control device is connected via a backplane.

It can be seen that the present embodiment provides a hard disk control method, based on which operations such as read and write control and alarm can be conveniently performed on each hard disk in the server. The hard disk control device used therein provides an expansion card in the form of a hard disk, which can be plugged in like a hard disk. When the expansion card needs to be replaced, the expansion card is directly unplugged from the expansion connector without removing the server chassis cover. Therefore, the present embodiment provides an easy-to-maintain hard disk expansion solution, which can not only realize server hard disk control and expansion, but also reduce the complexity of cables in the chassis, save server chassis space, and provide more possibilities for the design of high-density storage solutions.

Based on the above embodiment, it should be noted that in order to maximize the number of expansion hard disks, a connector with a higher pin density can be selected as an expansion connector. The definition of each pin in the expansion connector can be Refer to Figure 3. As shown in Figure 3, the expansion connector is defined with power pins, ground pins, pins connected to the upstream signal and isolated ground, pins connected to the downstream signal and isolated ground, and pins connected to the sideband control signal. Among them, the upstream signal is the signal sent by the server, and the downstream signal is the signal sent to each hard disk connector. The more pins used to connect the downstream signal, the more hard disks can be expanded.

The power pin can supply power to the expansion chip and peripheral circuits on the expansion card. The expansion chip can be a SAS chip, expander chip, etc. as needed. The expansion chip can expand a small amount of upstream signals into more downstream signals to be sent to each hard disk connector to achieve the purpose of hard disk expansion. As shown in Figure 4, one upstream signal can be converted into 4 downstream signals through the expansion chip.

In order to simplify the circuit relationship in the hard disk control device, the hard disk connector, the expansion connector and other devices can be arranged on the backplane, and the circuit connection can be realized with the help of the backplane. As shown in FIG5 , a backplane is provided with a plurality of hard disk connectors and an expansion connector, each hard disk connector is plugged into an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) disk, and the expansion connector is plugged into the expansion card, and all hard disk connectors are connected to the expansion connector circuit. It can be seen that the expansion card can be plugged into the backplane like a hard disk, so the present application claims that the expansion card is in the form of a hard disk. Thus, the expansion card can have the advantage of being easy to maintain like the hard disk, and the expansion card can be replaced without removing the chassis cover. Of course, referring to the hot-swap function of the hard disk, the hot-swap of the expansion card can be realized, thereby realizing the hot maintenance of the expansion card. Since the expansion card is on the backplane, there is plenty of space in the chassis, which is more convenient for the cable routing in the chassis, so that a high storage density solution can be designed. It can be seen that the appearance of the expansion card is consistent with the appearance of the hard disk.

In one example, the specific connection relationship between an expansion chip and an expansion connector can be referred to FIG6. FIG6 selects LSISAS35x24R as the expansion chip, and the expansion connector introduces SAS_TX/RX_HDD＜0..3＞ 4i SAS signals to the expansion chip. After expansion by LSISAS35x24R, EXP_TX/RX_HDD＜0..14＞ 15i SAS signals are obtained. This 15i SAS signal is sent to each hard disk connector via the expansion connector. The normal operation of the expansion chip also requires the support of other signals, such as 12C and POR_RESET_N shown in FIG6. For details, please refer to the user manual of LSISAS35x24R.

In one example, please refer to Figure 7. 16 connectors can be designed on a backplane, of which 0-7 and 9-15 are hard disk connectors, and each hard disk connector is plugged into an HDD disk. 8 is an expansion connector. At the same time, a slimSAS x4 connector connected to the upstream cable can be set on the backplane. This connector obtains the 4i SAS signal and transmits it to the hard disk expansion card through the backplane. After the expansion of the expansion chip of the expansion card, 15 signals are obtained. Then, these 15 signals are sent to the hard disk connectors 0-7 and 9-15 through connector 8 and the PCB traces on the backplane. A power connector connected to the power supply can also be set on the backplane. In Figure 7 EFUSE is the enabling controller, and CPLD is the detection circuit. CPLD can detect the hard disk or expansion card presence signal, control the corresponding indicator light, etc. It can be seen that the uplink only has x4 high-speed signals, and the high-speed routing also has only one x4 line. After the expansion of the expansion card, 15 downlink signals can be obtained, thereby realizing hard disk expansion.

Among them, the ground pin of the expansion connector can be designed as a long pin, so that the CPLD is convenient to control EFUSE, thereby realizing the hot-swap function of the expansion card. In addition, the expansion card has an anti-interference shell, which can prevent static electricity and radiation, and is convenient for manually plugging and unplugging the expansion card. The size of the anti-interference shell can be designed with reference to the size of the hard disk, such as: the size of the anti-interference shell includes but is not limited to 2.5 inches and 3.5 inches. Among them, the appearance of the anti-interference shell of the expansion card is generally a rectangular parallelepiped, such as: the length, width and height of the 3.5-inch anti-interference shell are: 147 mm, 101.6 mm, and 26.1 mm. The appearance of the anti-interference shell is the appearance of the expansion card. The 3.5-inch expansion card can refer to Figure 8, and the plug interface in Figure 8 is provided with metal pins for connecting the expansion connector. Of course, the appearance of the anti-interference shell of the expansion card can also be other similar hard disk-like shapes.

In summary, this application can reduce the number of cables in the chassis, expand the number of hard disks, and provide more possibilities for the design of high-density storage solutions. In addition, the expansion card is in the form of a hard disk, and the expansion card can be maintained without opening the chassis cover, and it is easier to implement hot maintenance. After unifying the form and pin definition of the hard disk expansion card, the expansion card can be replaced more flexibly to support different applications. Of course, more expansion connectors can also be set on the backplane as needed to achieve a higher-density storage solution.

Among them, a higher density storage solution is to increase the hard disk density by plugging more hard disks into a server. For example, in a 4U server height space, 60, 72 or 100 hard disks can be configured to achieve different storage densities. Among them, the increase in hard disk density will inevitably lead to an increase in cable density, and the server chassis space is limited. Therefore, with the help of this application, the number of cables in the chassis is reduced, making it easy to complete large-capacity storage in a small space.

An electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present application is introduced below. The electronic device described below and the hard disk control method and device described above can be referenced to each other.

The present application discloses an electronic device, including:

Memory, used to store computer programs;

A processor is used to execute a computer program to implement the method disclosed in any of the above embodiments.

A non-volatile readable storage medium provided in an embodiment of the present application is introduced below. The non-volatile readable storage medium described below and the hard disk control method, device and apparatus described above can be referenced to each other.

A non-volatile readable storage medium is used to store a computer program, wherein the computer program implements the hard disk control method disclosed in the above embodiment when executed by a processor.

A server provided in an embodiment of the present application is introduced below. The server described below and the hard disk control method and device described above can be referenced to each other.

An embodiment of the present application discloses a server, comprising: a hard disk control device of any of the above embodiments, the device being arranged on an outer side wall of a chassis of the server to implement hot plugging of an expansion card and a hard disk.

In a specific embodiment, the device includes: multiple hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card in the form of a hard disk plugged into the expansion connector; and a power module connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector; wherein the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable; when the power module supplies power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector, the expansion connector receives a hard disk control signal sent by the server via the cable, so that the expansion card expands the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and sends the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working state of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector. It can be seen that the appearance of the expansion card is consistent with the appearance of the hard disk.

In a specific implementation, the device further includes: a detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector, expansion connector and power module; accordingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the devices plugged into each connector to which it is connected.

In a specific implementation, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a first enabling control module; accordingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is unplugged from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is plugged into the expansion connector.

In a specific implementation, the expansion connector and the power module are connected via a physical switch; accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation.

In a specific embodiment, any hard disk connector and power module are connected through a second enabling control module; accordingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector.

In a specific implementation, the expansion chip in the expansion card is an expander chip, a SAS chip or a RAID chip. If the expansion chip is an expander chip, the expansion connector is connected to the SAS card or the RAID card in the server through a cable.

In a specific implementation, each hard disk connector and expansion connector is provided with a device status indicator light.

In a specific implementation, there are multiple expansion connectors.

In a specific embodiment, the devices in the apparatus are connected via a backplane.

Furthermore, the server provided in the embodiment of the present application may specifically include: at least one processor, at least one memory, a power supply, a communication interface, an input/output interface, and a communication bus. The memory is used to store a computer program, and the computer program is loaded and executed by the processor.

In this embodiment, the power supply is used to provide working voltage for each hardware device on the server; the communication interface can create a data transmission channel between the server and external devices, and the communication protocol it follows is any communication protocol that can be applied to the technical solution of the present application, and is not specifically limited here; the input and output interface is used to obtain external input data or output data to the outside world, and its specific interface type can be selected according to specific application needs and is not specifically limited here.

In addition, the memory as a carrier for resource storage can be a read-only memory, random access memory, disk or CD, etc. The resources stored thereon include operating system, computer programs and data, etc. The storage method can be temporary storage or permanent storage.

The operating system is used to manage and control the hardware devices and computer programs on the server to realize the operation and processing of the data in the memory by the processor. It can be Windows Server, Netware, Unix, Linux, etc. The computer program can be a computer program that can be used to complete other specific tasks. In addition to data such as virtual machines, data can also include data such as the developer information of the virtual machine.

Furthermore, the server provided in the embodiment of the present application can communicate with a terminal. The terminal may specifically include but is not limited to a smart phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a desktop computer.

Typically, a terminal may include: a processor and a memory.

Among them, the processor may include one or more processing cores, such as a 4-core processor, an 8-core processor, etc. The processor can be implemented in at least one hardware form of DSP (Digital Signal Processing), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), and PLA (Programmable Logic Array). The processor may also include a main processor and a coprocessor. The main processor is a processor for processing data in the awake state, also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit); the coprocessor is a low-power processor for processing data in the standby state. In some embodiments, the processor may be integrated with a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), which is responsible for rendering and drawing the content that needs to be displayed on the display screen. In some embodiments, the processor may also include an AI (Artificial Intelligence) processor, which is used to process Process computational operations related to machine learning.

The memory may include one or more computer non-volatile readable storage media, which may be non-transitory. The memory may also include high-speed random access memory, and non-volatile memory, such as one or more disk storage devices, flash memory storage devices. In this embodiment, the memory is at least used to store computer programs. In addition, the resources stored in the memory may also include operating systems and data, etc., and the storage method may be temporary storage or permanent storage. Among them, the operating system may include Windows, Unix, Linux, etc. The data may include but is not limited to update information of the application.

In some embodiments, the terminal may also include a display screen, an input and output interface, a communication interface, a sensor, a power supply, and a communication bus.

The "first", "second", "third", "fourth", etc. (if any) referred to in this application are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchangeable where appropriate, so that the embodiments described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, for example, a process, method, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units that are clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or inherent to these processes, methods, or devices.

It should be noted that the descriptions involving "first", "second", etc. in this application are only for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying their relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In addition, the technical solutions between the various embodiments can be combined with each other, but they must be based on the ability of ordinary technicians in this field to implement them. When the combination of technical solutions is contradictory or cannot be implemented, it should be deemed that such combination of technical solutions does not exist and is not within the scope of protection required by this application.

The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. The same or similar parts between the various embodiments can be referenced to each other.

The steps of the methods or algorithms described in the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented directly using hardware, software modules executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software modules may be placed in random access memory (RAM), internal memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically programmable ROM, electrically erasable Program ROM, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of non-volatile readable storage medium known in the technical field.

Specific examples are used herein to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of the present application. The description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method and core idea of the present application. At the same time, for those skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present application, there will be changes in the specific implementation methods and application scope. In summary, the content of this specification should not be understood as a limitation on the present application.

Claims

A hard disk control device, comprising: a plurality of hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, the appearance of the expansion card being consistent with the hard disk;

Wherein, the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable;

The expansion connector is used to receive a hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable;

The expansion card is used to expand the hard disk control signal into multiple signals, and send the multiple signals obtained by the expansion to each hard disk connector to control the working state of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.
The hard disk control device according to claim 1, wherein the device further comprises:

A detection circuit connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector;

Correspondingly, the detection circuit is used to detect the working status of the devices plugged into each connector to which the detection circuit is connected.
The hard disk control device according to claim 1, wherein the device further comprises:

A power module connected to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector;

The power module is used to supply power to each hard disk connector and the expansion connector.
The hard disk control device according to claim 3, wherein:

The expansion connector and the power module are connected via a first enabling control module;

Correspondingly, the first enabling control module is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off when the expansion card is unplugged from the expansion connector; and to control the expansion connector to be powered on when the expansion card is plugged into the expansion connector.
The hard disk control device according to claim 3, wherein:

The expansion connector and the power module are connected via a physical switch;

Accordingly, the physical switch is used to control the expansion connector to be powered off or powered on under user operation.
The hard disk control device according to claim 3, wherein:

Any hard disk connector and the power module are connected via a second enabling control module;

Correspondingly, the second enabling control module is used to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered off when the hard disk is unplugged from the corresponding hard disk connector; and to control the corresponding hard disk connector to be powered on when the hard disk is plugged into the corresponding hard disk connector.
The hard disk control device according to claim 1, wherein the expansion chip in the expansion card is an expander chip, a SAS chip or a RAID chip.
The hard disk control device according to claim 7, wherein if the expansion chip is an expander chip, the expansion connector is connected to a SAS card or a RAID card in the server through the cable.
The hard disk control device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein each hard disk connector and the expansion connector are provided with a device status indicator light.
According to the hard disk control device of claim 9, wherein the detection circuit is also used to control the lighting or color of the device status indicator light corresponding to the connector according to the signal reaching each of the connectors, wherein the connectors include the hard disk connector and the expansion connector.
The hard disk control device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein there are multiple expansion connectors.
The hard disk control device according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of expansion connectors are respectively connected to some hard disk connectors in the hard disk control device, so that any hard disk connector is connected to at least one of the expansion connectors.
The hard disk control device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the components in the device are connected via a backplane.
The hard disk control device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the expansion card has an anti-tampering housing.
A hard disk control method, wherein:

The hard disk control device according to any one of claims 1 to 14 comprises: a plurality of hard disk connectors; an expansion connector connected to each hard disk connector; an expansion card plugged into the expansion connector, the appearance of the expansion card being consistent with the hard disk; wherein the expansion connector is connected to the server via a cable;

The method includes:

When the expansion connector receives the hard disk control signal sent by the server through the cable, the expansion card expands the hard disk control signal into multiple signals and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the working status of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.
The hard disk control method according to claim 15, wherein the hard disk control signal includes: a read/write signal, a configuration signal and/or an alarm signal.
According to the hard disk control method of claim 16, if the hard disk control signal is a read-write signal, when the expansion connector receives the read-write signal sent by the server through the cable, the expansion card expands the read-write signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to control the read and write operations of the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.
According to the hard disk control method of claim 16, if the hard disk control signal is a configuration signal, when the expansion connector receives the configuration signal sent by the server through the cable, the expansion card expands the configuration signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to configure the hard disk plugged into each hard disk connector.
According to the hard disk control method of claim 16, if the hard disk control signal is an alarm signal, when the expansion connector receives the alarm signal sent by the server through the cable, the expansion card expands the alarm signal into multiple signals, and sends the expanded multiple signals to each hard disk connector to alarm the hard disks plugged into each hard disk connector.
An electronic device, comprising:

Memory for storing computer programs;

A processor, configured to execute the computer program to implement the method according to any one of claims 15 to 19.
A non-volatile readable storage medium, wherein the medium is used to store a computer program, wherein the computer program implements the method according to any one of claims 15 to 19 when executed by a processor.
A server, comprising: a hard disk control device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the device is arranged on an outer side wall of a chassis of the server.