U.S. patent application number 16/354127 was filed with the patent office on 2019-07-11 for functional unit promotion to management unit.
The applicant listed for this patent is HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT LP. Invention is credited to Yuan Chen, Daniel J. Gmach, Dejan S. Milojicic, Vanish Talwar, Zhikui Wang.
Application Number | 20190213096 16/354127 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 53757566 |
Filed Date | 2019-07-11 |
United States Patent
Application |
20190213096 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Milojicic; Dejan S. ; et
al. |
July 11, 2019 |
FUNCTIONAL UNIT PROMOTION TO MANAGEMENT UNIT
Abstract
A system comprises a plurality of functional units powered via a
power source. The system further comprises a first functional unit
and a second functional unit, wherein the second functional unit is
to promote the first functional unit to a management unit based on
a management requirement of the system. The management unit is to
administrate operations of the system. Once the first functional
unit is promoted, the management unit is isolated from the
functional units that were not promoted via a virtual network path
and a power management unit.
Inventors: |
Milojicic; Dejan S.; (Pal
Alto, CA) ; Chen; Yuan; (Sunnyvale, CA) ;
Gmach; Daniel J.; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Talwar;
Vanish; (Campbell, CA) ; Wang; Zhikui;
(Fremont, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT LP |
Houston |
TX |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
53757566 |
Appl. No.: |
16/354127 |
Filed: |
March 14, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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15114086 |
Jul 26, 2016 |
10261882 |
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PCT/US2014/014202 |
Jan 31, 2014 |
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16354127 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 11/3433 20130101;
G06F 1/3215 20130101; G06F 9/5061 20130101; G06F 11/3055 20130101;
G06F 9/50 20130101; G06F 11/3409 20130101; Y02D 10/00 20180101;
G06F 11/3024 20130101; Y02D 10/171 20180101; G06F 11/30 20130101;
G06F 1/3287 20130101; G06F 1/3296 20130101; G06F 11/3006
20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 11/30 20060101
G06F011/30; G06F 1/3287 20060101 G06F001/3287; G06F 1/3296 20060101
G06F001/3296; G06F 1/3215 20060101 G06F001/3215; G06F 11/34
20060101 G06F011/34; G06F 9/50 20060101 G06F009/50 |
Claims
1. A computer implemented method, comprising: configuring a
management requirement of a computer system during runtime
operation of the computer system, the computing system comprising a
plurality of functional units and powered via a power source,
wherein each of the plurality of functional units are configured,
at a first instance, to perform non-management computing tasks, and
wherein the management requirement is based on one or more
management tasks for administrating the computer system; promoting,
in accordance with the management requirement configuration, one of
the plurality of functional units to operate as a management unit
to administrate the computer system, the promoting being based on
the computational capabilities of each of the plurality of
functional units; quarantining the management unit from the
functional units not promoted as the management unit via a virtual
network path and a power management unit; and administrating, at a
second time instance after the first instance, by the management
unit, the computer system, the administrating including at least
one monitoring task for monitoring at least one of the plurality of
functional units other than the functional unit promoted to operate
as the management unit.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quarantining comprises at
least one of: isolating power of the management unit from the
functional units not promoted as the management unit; isolating a
network of the management unit from the functional units not
promoted as the management unit; and isolating a resource of the
management unit from the functional units not promoted as the
management unit.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the administrating the computer
system comprises at least one of monitoring or analyzing a status
of a functional unit or programs hosted by the functional unit,
configuring a functional unit such as turning power on and off,
changing power status, configuring the plurality of functional
units or programs hosted by the plurality of functional units,
performing temperature control, performing fan control of a
functional unit, monitoring a status of inventory of a functional
unit, monitoring a status of a voltage level of a functional unit,
monitoring status of memory usage of a functional unit, adjusting
an inventory of a functional unit, and adjusting a voltage level of
a functional unit
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the promoting of the one of the
plurality of functional units to the management unit occurs
dynamically during operation of the functional unit.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual network path is only
accessible to the promoted functional unit.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the promoting comprises promoting
more than one of the plurality of functional units to management
units.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the promoting comprises promoting
more than one of the plurality of functional units to management
units thereby forming a management topology.
8. A system, comprising: a plurality of functional units powered
via a power source, each of the plurality of functional units being
configured, at a first instance, to perform non-management
computing tasks; wherein, in accordance with a management
requirement of the system configured during runtime of the system
based on one or more management tasks for administrating the
system, a first functional unit is promoted by a second functional
unit to operate as a management unit to administrate the system,
the promoting being based on the computational capabilities of each
of the plurality of functional units, wherein, responsive to the
first functional unit being promoted, the management unit is
quarantined from the plurality of functional units not promoted to
the management unit via a virtual network path and a power
management unit, and wherein, at a second time instance after the
first instance, the management unit administrates the system, the
administrating including at least one monitoring task for
monitoring at least one of the plurality of functional units other
than the functional unit promoted to operate as the management
unit.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the virtual network path is only
available for the promoted first functional unit in the system.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein more than one of the plurality
of functional units are promoted to be management units to form a
management topology, the management topology dynamically adapting
to changes in the management requirement.
11. The system of claim 8, wherein the functional unit is a core of
a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) and no functional unit
is dedicated to be promoted.
12. The system of claim 8 wherein the second functional unit is to
dynamically change which of the plurality of functional units is
promoted to a management unit, dynamically promote an additional
function unit to be a management unit, dynamically change a
frequency of a central processing unit (CPU) of an existing
management unit, dynamically change a management topology, or
dynamically create a management topology among a plurality of
functional units promoted to management units.
13. The system of claim 8, wherein the management unit is isolated
from the plurality of functional units by power, network, and
system resources.
14. A non-transitory, computer readable storage device containing
executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes
the processor to: configuring a management requirement of a
computer system during runtime operation of the computer system,
the computing system comprising a plurality of central processing
unit (CPU) cores powered via a power source, the plurality of CPU
cores including (i) a default CPU core to operate as a management
core for administrating the system and (ii) the others of the
plurality of CPU cores which are configured, at a first instance,
to perform non-management computing tasks, and wherein the
management requirement is based on one or more management tasks for
administrating the computer system; dynamically change which of the
CPU cores among the others of the plurality of CPU cores to promote
to operate as management cores, the promoting being based on the
computational capabilities of the others of the plurality of CPU
cores; quarantine the management core from the CPU cores not being
promoted, wherein the quarantining comprises isolating power,
network and a resource of the computer system administrate, at a
second time instance after the first instance, by the management
cores, the computer system, the administrating including at least
one monitoring task for monitoring at least one of the others of
the plurality of CPU cores.
15. The non-transitory, computer readable storage device of claim
14 wherein software causes the processor to quarantine the
management core via a virtual network path and a power management
unit.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Computer systems, such as servers, may have the ability to
be remotely managed. Remote management may include booting the
computers, changing a configuration setting, etc. Additional
management unit(s) (e.g., a chip) may be included to enable such
remote management. The additional management unit may be a
dedicated unit powered by an auxiliary power rail that is "live"
(as long as alternating current (AC) power is available), and has a
network connection.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0002] The present application may be more fully appreciated in
connection with the following detailed description taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference
characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
[0003] FIG. 1a shows a diagram of a computer system in accordance
with various implementations;
[0004] FIG. 1b shows an example of the computer system 100
including a promoted management unit 104 in accordance with various
implementations;
[0005] FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a functional unit in accordance
with various implementations;
[0006] FIG. 3 shows an example of a storage device in accordance
with various implementations; and
[0007] FIG. 4 shows a method for promoting a functional unit to a
management unit in accordance with various implementations.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] The following discussion is directed to promoting a
functional unit to a management unit.
[0009] As stated above, a dedicated management unit may be included
in a computer to facilitate remote management of the computer.
However, this implementation of using a separately dedicated
management unit may add to the complexity of remote management due
to its limited capacity, relatively high cost, low flexibility and
low scalability.
[0010] With increasing developments of complementary metal oxide
semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, an architecture of a multi-core
central processing unit (CPU) has been proposed to meet diverse
requirements on power and performance. The multi-core CPU may
include at least two or more independent processor cores. This fast
pace of development in hardware (e.g., the architecture of the
multi-core CPU) stimulates software to provide comparable
functionalities and parallelism, and may increase a likelihood of
managing complexity.
[0011] Example implementations described herein use a core of a
multi-core CPU to function as a management unit rather than
requiring the computer to have a dedicated management unit. The
example implementations dynamically promote one or more processor
cores, or functional units, to management units while generally
introducing no additional power, network resources, and without the
inclusion of an additional chip or component to be installed in the
computer system as a dedicated management unit.
[0012] It is appreciated that certain terms are used throughout the
following description and claims to refer to particular system
components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, computer
companies may refer to a component by different names. This
document does not intend to distinguish between components that
differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and in
the claims, the terms "including" and "comprising" are used in an
open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean
"including, but not limited to . . . . " Also, the term "couple" or
"couples" is intended to mean either an indirect, direct, optical
or wireless electrical connection. Thus, if a first device couples
to a second device, that connection may be through a direct
electrical connection, through an indirect electrical connection
via other devices and connections, through an optical electrical
connection, or through a wireless electrical connection.
[0013] FIG. 1a shows an example of a computer system 100 including
a processing unit cluster 110 in accordance with various
implementations. Although the example computer system 100 shown in
FIG. 1a includes one processing unit cluster 110, other examples of
computer system 100 may include a plurality of processing unit
clusters 110. As shown in FIG. 1a, the computer system 100 also
includes a power adapter 106 and a network adapter 108. Further,
the computer system 100 may include a promoting engine 103, which
will be described in detail in accordance with software modules in
FIG. 3.
[0014] The processing unit cluster 110 includes a plurality of
functional units (e.g., functional units 102 and 104). In one
example, the computer system 100 may be a computer including a
plurality of core processors, or simply cores. For example, the
processing unit cluster 110 is a multi-core central processing unit
(CPU), and each functional unit (e.g., functional units 102 and
104) is a core of the multi-core CPU.
[0015] The functional units of the processing unit cluster 110
(e.g., functional units 102 and 104) may be identical to or
different from one another. For example, a first functional unit
(e.g., functional unit 102) may be faster than a second functional
unit (e.g., functional unit 104). A faster core may operate at a
higher clock frequency than a slower core. However, a faster core
generally consumes more power than a slower core which computes
slower but drains less power than the faster core. Each functional
unit may be functioned to execute instructions to provide whatever
functionality is required of the system. For example, the system
100 may be configured as a back-end data processing system and each
functional unit of the processing unit cluster 110 may execute
instructions to help perform whatever back-end data processing
functions are required.
[0016] Still referring to FIG. 1a, the example power adapter 106 is
to receive power from an external power source (e.g., AC power) to
provide power for the processing unit cluster 110. Additionally or
alternatively, the power adapter 106 may include a power
controller, a control bus, and a control bus interface which may be
implemented in a variety of known ways, as may best suit a
particular application. Details of the power adapter 106 will be
described in accordance with FIG. 2.
[0017] The example network adapter 108 connects the plurality of
the functional units (e.g., functional units 102 and 104) in the
processing unit cluster 110 to an external network (e.g., a local
area network, wide area network, etc.).
[0018] Although there is one power adapter 106 shown in FIG. 1a, in
some examples there may be a plurality of power adapters and such
adapters may share a common power source (e.g., an AC power
connection). Similarly, FIG. 1 a shows one network adapter 108 but
in some examples, there may be a plurality of network adapters
sharing a common network source (e.g., an Ethernet connection).
Further, each of the functional units 102, 104 may have a dedicated
power adapter 106 or may share a common power adapter 106.
[0019] As described above, the example computer system 100 of FIG.
1a may require no dedicated component, and no additional power
source or network connection for the computer system 100 to be
remotely managed, as might otherwise be the case if the system had
a dedicated management unit. Because system 100 does not have a
dedicated management unit, the system 100 performs a promoting
process (described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 3)
to promote one or more of the functional units (e.g., functional
units 102 or 104) to function as a management unit via a virtual
power supply path and a virtual network communication path. In an
alternate implementation, the power supply path used to promote a
functional unit may be a physical power supply path.
[0020] FIG. 1b shows the computer system 100 including a promoted
management unit 104 in accordance with various implementations. In
the example of FIG. 1b, functional unit 104 is shown to have been
promoted to function as the management unit, with a virtual power
supply path 105 for power and a virtual communication path 107 for
network access. As such, according to different management
requirements for the computer system 100, one or more management
units may be promoted to administrate the computer system 100
dynamically (i.e., during run-time and without interrupting a
normal operation of the computer system 100). In accordance with an
implementation, the promoting engine 103 may perform one or more
configurations of the management requirements dynamically. Based on
each of the configured management requirements, the promoting
engine 103 promotes one or more functional units to be a management
unit via providing a virtual power supply path 105 and a virtual
network supply path 107. Functional unit 104 is shown in the
example of FIG. 1b as having been promoted to a management unit,
but in general, any of the functional units can be promoted to
function as a management unit. Further still, more than one
functional unit can be promoted at a time to function as management
units. Details of an operation of the promoting engine 103 will be
described below with reference to FIG. 3.
[0021] The administration of the computer system 100 includes any
or more of the following: monitoring or analyzing a status of a
functional unit or programs hosted by the unit, configuring a
functional unit such as turning power on and off, changing power
status, configuring the functional units or programs hosted by the
unit, performing temperature control, performing fan control of a
functional unit, monitoring a status of inventory of a functional
unit, monitoring a status of a voltage level of a functional unit,
monitoring a status of memory usage of a functional unit, adjusting
an inventory of a functional unit, and adjusting a voltage level of
a functional unit
[0022] More specifically, in accordance with some implementations,
more than one functional unit can be promoted to form a management
topology according to the management requirements on, for example,
the computing, storage, or communication resource demands of the
computer system 100, or the fault zones. A physical or a virtual
management topology may be formed for any suitable clusters of
functional units or applications. The physical management topology
may refer to a management topology that includes a dedicated
physical resource (e.g., CPUs) to the management topology. On the
other hand, the virtual management topology may refer to a
management topology that includes a virtual resource (e.g., a
virtual core over the physical CPUs) dedicated to the management
topology. The management topology may refer to a layout of the
promoted management units and the physical or virtual connections
between them. As one example, the management topology may be used
for data monitoring, data aggregation and deployment in the
computer system 100. As noted above, more than one functional unit
can be promoted concurrently as management units. For example, two
different processing unit clusters may each have one or more
functional units promoted to a management unit. The management
unit(s) of different processing unit clusters may coordinate to
share the data storage and access and management tasks internally
or between the clusters.
[0023] To dynamically administrate the computer system 100, the
promoting engine 103 may be implemented to dynamically promote a
suitable functional unit in a suitable timing based on a configured
management requirement. For example, if a management requirement
requires that a large number of computationally intensive
management tasks need to be processed, the promoting engine 103 may
promote one of the cores in a multi-core processor to run
monitoring daemons, or promote one or more cores with graphics
processing unit (GPU) accelerators to process the computationally
intensive management tasks. With respect to the suitable timing to
promote, the promoting engine 103 may dynamically configure the
management requirement, and, based on a new configured management
requirement, promote one or more functional units to be management
units. For example, still referring to FIG. 1 b, even though the
functional unit 104 has been promoted to be a management unit to
administrate the computer system 100, during runtime of the
computer system 100, a new management requirement may be configured
by the promoting engine 103. As such, a new management unit may be
promoted to meet the new management requirement. More particularly,
CPU frequencies, power management policies and scheduling intervals
may change accordingly in response to the operation of the computer
system 100 and/or changes in the management requirements. Further,
the number of the management units may change during the operation
of the computer system 100. For example, if a new management
requirement being configured requires an increasing monitoring
need, the promoting engine 103 may dynamically promote more
functional units to management units. On the other hand, if the
monitoring or processing need decreases, the promoting engine 103
may dynamically demote some of the functional units accordingly. In
addition to promoting new management units, the configuration of
existing management units can also be dynamically changed. For
example, the CPU frequencies of management units can be changed
and/or the topology among the management units can be changed. In
accordance with some implementations, the promoting engine 103 may
include a plurality of software modules, and further the promoting
engine 103 may be embedded in one of the functional units (e.g.,
functional units 102 and/or 104) in the computer system 100.
[0024] More particularly, the management requirement may include a
utilization threshold of the functional unit 104 and/or the
computer system 100 as a whole, quality of service (QoS)
requirements, or other requirements that may be suitable for a
particular application. For example, the computer system 100 may
comprise eight functional units, and each of the functional units
may process a particular task. Thus, a workload for each of the
functional units may vary, which may result in a plurality of
workload characteristics. The management requirement is based on
workload characteristics, for instance, a lower utilization
threshold defined for a heavier workload.
[0025] The virtual power supply path 105 and the virtual network
supply path 107 may be established to isolate the promoted
management unit(s) (e.g., management unit 104). Further, in one
example, the virtual power supply path 105 and the virtual network
supply path 107 may only be accessible for the promoted management
units (e.g., management unit 104). The virtual power supply path
105 and the virtual network supply path 107 may be established
through executing suitable software after a management requirement
is configured. Details of the configuration will be described
below.
[0026] After the functional unit 104 has been promoted to function
as the management unit, the now-promoted management unit 104
becomes isolated, in terms of power, network communication and/or
other resources, from other functional units (e.g., functional unit
102) which are not being promoted. The management unit 104 may
isolate itself after being promoted or a system administrator may
isolate the management unit 104 via executing a suitable
instruction. For example, the management unit 104 may share the
same power adapter 106 with other functional units (e.g.,
functional unit 102), but, as will be explained with reference to
FIG. 2, the management unit 104 includes an individual power
management unit to exclusively control a power state of the
management unit 104. In some implementations, the power management
unit within the management unit may be controlled by a power
controller 112 in the power adapter 106 via the virtual power path
105 or a dedicated power control plane. More particularly, the
power state of a management unit (e.g., management unit 104) or a
functional unit (e.g., functional unit 102) may include switching
on/off of a particular component in the respective unit (e.g.,
functional unit 102 and management unit 104).
[0027] Isolation of power, network and/or other resources may
assure an independent out-of-band management of the computer system
100. For instance, if the power for the computer system 100 is in
an off or lower power state or the computer system 100 has
malfunctioned (e.g., crashed), the power isolation may be able to
maintain the management unit 104 in an on state as long as AC power
is provided to the system. Alternatively or additionally, the power
isolation may independently reduce a power level of the management
unit 104 while other functional units (e.g., functional unit 102)
may remain in a full-power state to process a task. Similarly, the
network isolation may provide the plurality of the promoted
management units (e.g., management unit 104) a private and secure
management network for communications, and the resource isolation
may prevent other functional units (e.g., functional unit 102) not
chosen as the management unit (e.g., management unit 104) from
accessing, for example, memory and signals dedicated exclusively
for use by the management unit (e.g., 104).
[0028] FIG. 2 shows an example functional unit 200 coupled to a
power adapter 206 in the computer system 100. After the management
unit (e.g., management unit 104) has been promoted, an isolation of
power may occur in the management units (e.g., management unit 104)
from the non-promoted functional units. To isolate power of the
management units, in one implementation, a plurality of functional
units (e.g., functional unit 200) may share the same power adapter
206. The power adapter 206 includes a power controller 208 that is
to configure a power isolation plan of the computer system 100, and
based on the plan, to determine a power level of each coupled
functional unit 200.
[0029] The functional unit 200 includes a processing unit 202 and a
power management unit 204. The processing unit 202 is configured to
process a computing task or perform a management function. For
example, if the functional unit 200 is promoted to a management
unit, the processing unit 202 is to perform a management function
such as administrating the computer system 100. Example of
administration tasks are provided above. On the other hand, if the
functional unit 200 has not been promoted to function as a
management unit, the processing unit 202 is to process any
suitable, non-management unit computing tasks to be executed by the
computer system 100.
[0030] More particularly, the processing unit 202 may include a
plurality of metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors
(MOSFETs). The power management unit 204 is configured to
communicate with the power controller 208 in the power adapter 206,
and to be controlled by the power controller 208 of the power
adapter 206 to adjust a voltage level in a particular MOSFET of the
processing unit 202. For example, the power controller 208 may
control the individual power management unit 204 independently such
that electrical power is selectively provided to, or cut off from,
each of the elements (e.g., MOSFET) in the processing unit 202.
[0031] In some alternate implementations, not every one of the
functional units (e.g., functional unit 200) in the computer system
100 may have an individual power management unit (e.g., power
management unit 204). In terms of power, the functional units
without the individual power management unit (e.g., functional unit
304 of FIG. 3) may be controlled by the promoted management unit
(e.g., management unit 104) or the power controller 208.
[0032] FIG. 3 shows a promoting engine 103 to be implemented in the
computer system 100. The promoting engine 103 may promote at least
one of the functional units to a management unit. In one example,
the promoting engine 103 includes a processor 302 coupled to a
non-transitory, computer readable storage device 304. The
non-transitory, computer-readable storage device 304 may be
implemented as volatile storage (e.g., random access memory),
non-volatile storage (e.g., hard disk drive, optical storage,
solid-state storage, etc.) or combinations of various types of
volatile and/or non-volatile storage.
[0033] The non-transitory, computer-readable storage device 304
further includes a plurality of software modules that, when
executed by processor 302, cause the promoting engine 103 to
perform one or more of the functions described herein. The software
modules may include a default promoting module 306, a dynamic
promoting module 308, and a quarantining module 310. Any function
attributed to a software module is understood to be performed by
the processor 302 executing the software module.
[0034] The processor 302 of the promoting engine 103 executes the
default promoting module 306 to promote a non-dedicated functional
unit to a management unit in the computer system 100. After the
promoting engine 103 promotes the non-dedicated functional unit,
the processor 302 may subsequently execute the dynamic promoting
module 308 and the quarantining module 310. Further, the
non-dedicated management unit may be promoted based on a default
management requirement or a management requirement provided by a
management agent. As such, there may be more than one non-dedicated
functional unit being promoted. The promoted non-dedicated
management unit may dynamically configure a new management unit to
dynamically promote other functional units to management units.
[0035] The non-dedicated functional units may or may not include a
promoting engine 103 embedded thereon. If the non-dedicated
functional unit does not include an embedded promoting engine 103,
the management unit may dynamically configure a management
requirement to promote a non-dedicated functional unit. Based on
the management requirement, the management unit may dynamically
promote other functional units to be management units. Referring to
the non-dedicated functional units including an embedded promoting
engine 103, in FIG. 3, while the processor 302 executes the dynamic
promoting module 308, the promoting engine 103 configures a
management requirement of the computer system 100. Based on the
configuration, the promoting engine 103 may promote one or more
functional units to function as a management unit by executing the
default promoting module 306. Further, any functional unit that has
already been promoted to function as a management unit may be
demoted back to function as a functional unit by execution of the
default promoting engine 306, or may remain as the management
unit.
[0036] Still referring to FIG. 3, regardless of whether a
management unit is promoted through executing of the default
promoting module 306 or the dynamic promoting module 308, the
processor 302 executes the quarantining module 310 to complete the
promotion process. For example, the processor 302 executes the
quarantining module 310 to quarantine the promoted management unit
from other functional units which are not promoted.
[0037] More specifically, while the processor 302 executes the
quarantining module 310, the promoting engine 103 may quarantine
the promoted management unit from the non-promoted functional units
in terms of power, network and/or computing/storage resources. For
example, for the quarantining of power, even though an emergency
shut-off or a crash has occurred to the computer system 100, the
promoted management unit may stay on and operate normally while
other non-promoted functional units have been enforced to shut
off.
[0038] FIG. 4 is a flowchart for promoting a functional unit to
function as a management unit in accordance with an implementation.
The method 400 starts with block 402 by executing the dynamic
promoting module 308 to configure a management requirement in the
computer system 100. The management requirement may also be
configured by non-dedicated functional units that are promoted to
management units by executing the default promoting module 306 of
FIG. 3. The computer system 100 may include a plurality of
functional units.
[0039] Subsequently, in block 404, based on the configuration, one
or more functional units in the computer system 100 are promoted to
management units via the virtual power path 105 and the virtual
network path 107. The promoted management units administrate the
computer system 100. The administration may include any one or more
of the actions described above.
[0040] Despite not being shown in the method 400, the computer
system 100 may promote a non-dedicated functional unit to be a
management unit without the configuration of the management
requirement by executing the default promoting module 306 of FIG.
3.
[0041] The method 400 continues with block 406 in quarantining the
promoted management units from the functional units not being
promoted. Further, the quarantining includes power isolation,
network isolation and resource isolation.
[0042] The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the
principles and various embodiments of the present invention.
Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those
skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.
It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace
all such variations and modifications.
* * * * *