Enterprise Fabric Dynamic Server Provisioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current server technologies face challenges in dynamically provisioning and managing compute, storage, and network resources efficiently, leading to suboptimal datacenter availability, efficiency, and utilization.
Innovation Solution
The Enterprise Fabric (EF) architecture enables dynamic provisioning and management of fabric-backplane enterprise servers, allowing for real-time configuration of virtual servers with virtual network interfaces and virtual input/output controllers, which access external network and storage interfaces as if they were internal, and supports modular, scalable, and redundant components for high availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional server provisioning methods are used, then hardware resources are allocated statically, but resource utilization efficiency deteriorates due to inability to dynamically adjust to changing demands
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic resource allocation by enabling virtual server instances to be created, modified, and deleted in real-time based on workload demands. The system allows processing elements, memory, and I/O resources to be dynamically provisioned and de-provisioned without physical hardware changes, transforming static server infrastructure into a flexible, adaptive resource pool that responds to changing computational needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments physical server hardware into virtualized resource pools that can be independently allocated to multiple virtual server instances. By dividing processing elements, memory, and storage into discrete allocable units, the system enables fine-grained resource distribution and allows individual resources to be assigned to different virtual servers based on specific workload requirements, thereby improving overall utilization efficiency.
2Reliability
If physical hardware is over-provisioned to ensure availability, then system reliability improves, but hardware costs and resource waste increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes hardware resources universal by creating a shared resource pool that serves multiple virtual server instances simultaneously. The same physical processing elements, memory, and storage resources can be dynamically allocated to different virtual servers at different times based on demand, allowing a single set of hardware to fulfill multiple functional roles and ensure availability without requiring dedicated over-provisioned hardware for each potential workload.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements resource recovery mechanisms that reclaim unused or underutilized hardware resources from inactive or low-demand virtual server instances and return them to the available resource pool. This allows the system to dynamically recover and redistribute resources to where they are most needed, maintaining high availability while minimizing hardware waste and reducing the total quantity of physical resources required.
3Adaptability or versatility
If virtualization overhead is introduced for dynamic provisioning, then resource flexibility improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtualization layer as an intermediary between physical hardware and virtual server instances. This abstraction layer manages the complexity of dynamic resource allocation by providing standardized interfaces for provisioning and managing virtual servers, while handling the underlying complexity of resource mapping, allocation, and de-allocation automatically. The intermediary simplifies management by presenting a unified view of available resources and handling the computational overhead of virtualization transparently.
Data Source
AI summary
Real time provisioning and management of fabric-backplane enterprise servers includes monitoring system status and configuration, displaying monitoring results, accepting user commands, and providing hardware and software management and configuration commands to the system. In one embodiment, an event is generated when a pluggable module is inserted into the system. In response to the event, the availability of the pluggable module is displayed to a system operator, and the operator enters a command to provision a server that includes the pluggable module. The server provisioning command is processed, resulting in a hardware configuration command being issued to the system, and an event indicating a status associated with processing the command is returned. The recognition of the inserted module, the display to the operator, and the processing of the server provisioning command occur in real time.