RU2389058C2 - Server platform - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: server platform has a housing which is divided in the direction of motion of cooling air into a front and a rear section with guides for blade servers, blade servers, power supplies and ventilators. The guides for blade servers are made on part of the length of the housing and are located in the rear section. The ventilators are joined in pairs into cooling modules and are located in the front section of the housing, free from the guides. Between the blade servers which are mounted on the rear side of the housing inside the rear section and cooling modules there is a free cavity which functions as an air collector. The power supplies are placed over blade servers such that, the said cavity is hydraulically linked to the space of the housing in which the power supplies are put, and on end faces of the blade servers facing outside from the rear section of the housing, there are openings for inter-interface exchange.

EFFECT: design is distinguished by simplicity and convenience and has long service life of ventilators with reduction of size, reliable operation of the cooling system.

6 cl, 7 dwg, 2 tbl

Description

The present invention relates to the field of computer technology and, in particular, to server platforms designed for high-performance computing and computer simulation. Such platforms can be successfully used in the national economy for processing large amounts of information when processing seismic data, audio / video information in telecommunications, performing calculations in the field of nanotechnology, biotechnology, as well as performing a wide variety of scientific and applied research.

A housing device is known (patent RU 2321975, IPC Н05К 7/20, publ. 2008.04.10), in the internal volume of which there are electrical units, for example, blade servers. To remove the heat released during operation of the electrical units, the device is equipped with a cooling system having a supply and a discharge line of refrigerant, which are connected to the refrigeration machine. The disadvantage of this device is the complexity of the cooling system and the need to use a refrigeration unit, which provides the removal of the body emitted by electrical units.

Also known is the instrument assembly (patent RU 2316805, IPC G06F 1/20, H05K 7/20, publ. 2008.02.10), comprising a cabinet in the interior of which electrical integrated modules are located. The heat generated by these modules is removed using a cooling system containing a cooling unit, which is mounted in the bottom of the cabinet. Air through the cooling device, the supply line of heated air and the discharge of cooled air is supplied by fans. A water-air heat exchanger is used as a cooling device.

The disadvantage of this device is the need to use a separate heat exchanger, which increases the overall dimensions of the installation and requires the supply of cold water, which means complicating the design and reducing its reliability.

For the functioning of both of the above devices, which are analogues, a water cooling system is required. Structurally, a simpler technical solution could be a device with an air cooling system.

A device (US patent application US 20070207720, IPC H05K 5/00, publ. 2007.09.06) having an air cooling system and comprising a housing that is divided in the direction of movement of the cooling gas medium into the front and rear sections, with guides for blade servers, blade servers, power supplies and fans.

Fans are installed in the rear section of the case, located behind the blade servers and are designed to move cold air from the environment through the blade servers, while ensuring heat removal from the said servers. Docking of individual server blades is ensured by means of a switching board located between the blade servers and fans enclosed in separate blocks. If one or more blade servers are removed from the chassis, the cooling of the remaining blade servers may be impaired as cooling air flows through a free cavity (previously occupied by the blade server). This cavity has less hydraulic resistance than the cavities occupied by the servers. To prevent such an effect, the device uses a system of dampers that block air access into the cell cells that are not occupied by the blade servers.

This device has the following disadvantages.

- Cold air flowing around the blade servers heats up. Since the fans are located in the rear of the case, they operate in intense thermal mode, because hot air passes through them (fans provide air pumping through the heat-generating blade servers). This factor leads to a reduction in the service life of fans, reduces the reliability of their work.

- The location of the circuit board in the middle of the case leads to unambiguous hard switching blade servers. This in many cases is a great inconvenience in the operation of the entire device as a whole and, in addition, leads to the need to increase the height of the housing.

The objective of the present invention is to provide a device that is structurally simple, easy to use, has a longer fan service life, smaller dimensions and allows for operational switching between individual blade servers.

The problem is solved in that in a server platform containing a housing that is divided in the direction of movement of the cooling gas medium into the front and rear sections, with guides for blade servers, blade servers, power supplies and fans, guides for blade servers are made on parts of the length of the case and are located in its rear part, the fans are combined in pairs in cooling modules and are located in the front part of the case, free of guides. Blade servers are mounted in rails on the back of the chassis inside its rear section. The named servers and cooling modules are so placed inside the case that between them there is a free cavity that performs the function of an air collector.

Power supplies are located above the blade servers in such a way that the cavity is hydraulically connected to the space of the case in which the power supplies are installed, and the interface connectors are made on the outer end surfaces of the blade servers located on the rear side of the case.

Structurally, the cooling modules may comprise a housing with a front grill panel and two fans mounted one above the other, moreover, the module is mounted to the housing of the server platform by means of a detachable connection.

The server platform case can be made with a removable top cover and inside the case there are placed partitions directed along its length, forming guides for rear-mounted blade servers.

Inside the chassis of the server platform above the blade servers and perpendicular to the guides of the blade servers, a transverse partition is designed to install power switching nodes between the blade servers.

Power supplies can be made in the form of autonomous modules, each of which has a housing with power elements located inside it and an exhaust fan.

As interconnect connectors it is possible to use “InfiniBand” or “Ethernet”.

The invention is illustrated graphic materials.

Figure 1 presents the diagram of the server platform.

Figure 2 is a schematic front view of the platform.

Figure 3 is a schematic view of the platform from the rear.

4 is a front view of a server panel in an isometric view.

Figure 5 is a rear view of the server panel in isometry.

6 is an image of a rack with server platforms in front.

7 is an image of a rack with server platforms at the back.

The server platform contains a housing 1, which in the direction of movement of cooling air (shown by arrows) is divided into front 2 and rear sections 3. In the longitudinal guides, which are made part of the length of the housing in the rear section of the chassis, blade servers 4 are installed. body 1 housed cooling modules 5, equipped with fans 6. Between these modules and blade servers 4 there is a cavity 7, which performs the function of an air collector. Above the blade servers are located power supplies 8, equipped with exhaust fans 9. The cavity 7 is hydraulically connected through the channel 10 to the power supplies 8. On the outer end surfaces of the blade servers located on the rear side of the chassis, interface connectors 11, 12 are made, for example, " InfiniBand "or" Ethernet ".

Structurally, the cooling modules can be made in the form of a box-shaped case 13 (Fig. 4) with a front grating panel 14 and two fans mounted one above the other. The fastening of each of the modules to the chassis of the server platform is carried out by means of a detachable connection, for example a screw connection.

As can be seen from figure 4, the chassis 1 of the server platform is made collapsible and provided with a top cover 15. Inside the chassis, partitions 16 are mounted, which are guides for the blade servers 4 and form the cells in which the named blade servers are installed back to the inside of the rear section of the chassis. The connection of the blade servers with power supplies is ensured by the transverse partition 17 (Fig. 4), on which the switching nodes are located 18. The power supplies 8, as well as the blade servers, are installed on the rear side of the case and above them. In principle, power supplies can also be located under blade servers. An exhaust fan is installed in each of the power supplies inside its case.

The server platform is operated as follows. The servers are placed in a server rack in several rows in height (Fig.6, 7). When applying power to the electronic units of each of the server platforms, the air from the room in which the rack is installed by the fans 6 of the cooling unit 5 starts to be pumped into the interior of the platform 1. Cold air from the cooling unit is supplied by fans to the cavity 7, which performs the function of an air collector. From the latter, air is distributed between the cells in which the blade servers 4 are installed, and also enters the channel 10. This channel is hydraulically connected to the cavities in which the power supplies are located 8. The air passing through the cells cools the blade servers and is thrown out with back of the case. Located in each of the sides of the power supply 8, the fan 9 provides for the movement of cold air from the cavity 7 through the heat-generating elements of the unit, ensuring their cooling. Heated air in power supplies is also released into the environment.

The placement of the blade servers in the rear section of the chassis allowed for easy cable switching of the servers as a result of free access to external connectors 11, 12 inter-interface exchange, such as "InfiniBand" or "Ethernet", using an external switch 19.

The layout of the server platform in accordance with the present invention allowed to obtain the following advantages compared to the prototype:

- improving the reliability of the cooling system as a result of the location of the fans of the cooling unit in the cold zone;

- increase the service life of the fans and reduce operating costs as a result of their operation at room temperature;

- simplification of the design of the server platform;

- reducing the height of the server platform by reducing the cost of communication equipment;

- the ability to connect standard peripheral expansion cards of a reduced size (low profile) by placing a blade server in the back section of the server platform;

- increase the density of equipment in a standard server rack with a height of 42 U to 8 server platforms (usually this is not more than 4-6 platforms in a rack).

In accordance with the present invention, a server platform is developed, the main characteristics of which are shown in Table 1. The characteristics of the blade server are shown in Table 2.

Table 1 Main characteristics Values Form Factor and Number of Blade Modules 10 hot-swappable dual-processor modules in a 5U chassis Food 8 650 W power supplies with N + 1 redundancy Chassis Power Consumption (max.) 4350 watts Cooling 10 hot-swap fans in the front section of the server platform Working temperature 10-35 ° C Overall dimensions (HxWxD), mm 220 × 430 × 740

Table 2 Main characteristics Values Number of processors 2 Expansion slots 1 PCI-Express 2.0 × 16 expansion slot Interconnect any, including ConnectX DDR and QDR InfiniBand, as well as 10G Ethernet Overall dimensions (HxWxD), mm 44 × 170 × 605

Pilot operation of server platforms made in accordance with the present invention at the Scientific Research Computing Center (SRC) of Moscow State University MV Lomonosov, showed their high reliability and efficiency.

Claims (6)

1. A server platform containing a housing that is divided in the direction of movement of cooling air into the front and rear sections, with guides for blade servers, blade servers, power supplies and fans, characterized in that the guides for the blade servers are made in part length case and located in its rear section, the fans are paired in cooling modules and placed in the front section of the case, free of guides, and between the blade servers that are installed on the back of the case inside it the back section, and the cooling modules have a free cavity that acts as an air collector, power supplies are placed above the blade servers in such a way that the cavity is hydraulically connected to the space of the housing in which the power supplies are installed, and on the end surfaces of the blade servers facing out from the rear section of the case, connectors are made inter-interface exchange. 2. The server platform according to claim 1, characterized in that the cooling modules comprise a housing with a front grid panel and two fans mounted on top of each other; the module is attached to the housing of the server platform by means of a detachable connection. 3. The server platform according to claim 1, characterized in that the case of the server platform is made with a removable top cover and inside the case are placed partitions directed along its length, forming guides for rear-mounted blade servers. 4. The server platform according to claim 1, characterized in that a transverse partition is placed inside the server platform enclosure above the blade servers and perpendicular to the guides of the blade servers for installing power switching nodes between the blade servers. 5. The server platform according to claim 1, characterized in that the power supplies are made in the form of stand-alone modules, each of which has a housing, inside of which there are power elements and an exhaust fan. 6. The server platform according to claim 1, characterized in that “InfiniBand” or “Ethernet” are used as connectors for inter-interface communication.

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