Blade server and detection of link status in blade systems

Abstract

A method and a computer program product for detecting link status in a blade system are provided. The method and computer program product provide for generating a first pattern of characters at a server blade of the blade system, transmitting the first pattern of characters from the server blade to an Ethernet switch of the blade system, and comparing a second pattern of characters to the first pattern of characters to determine whether a link from the Ethernet switch to a network is active in response to the server blade receiving the second pattern of characters from the Ethernet switch.

Description

Link State Detection in Blade Servers and Blade Systems technical field The present invention generally relates to blade systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to link status detection in blade systems. Background technique A blade system consists of multiple server blades that share non-core computing components (eg, those related to power, cooling, networking, etc.). Each server blade, also called a blade, is a computer server that includes only basic computing components (eg, one or more processors, memory, storage, etc.). As a result, blade systems take up more space and are more cost-effective than standard racksystems. In a blade system, each server blade may be connected to the network through an interface between a network interface component (eg, a network interface card (NIC)) of the server blade and a shared Ethernet switch of the blade system. The Ethernet switch establishes a link to the network. Due to crosstalk and / or cross-coupling i...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, using the "keep-alive" protocol requires the use of additional Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and additional Central Processing Unit (CPU) cycles

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