Patent Description:
In conventional construction of infrastructure of a data center, a server, storage, and a network are separately purchased and are integrated subsequently, resulting in poor service agility, a high hardware cost, low resource utilization efficiency, and high energy consumption. The Internet overturns a conventional mode of constructing the infrastructure of a conventional data center; for example, Scale-Out distributed storage based on an X86 server and operation and maintenance automation of an ultra-large-scale platform have greatly reduced a cost of the infrastructure of a data center. With an outburst of big data applications and development of cloud computing and virtualization technologies, people pay increasing attention to costs of data centers (especially power consumption of data centers). How to use less computing, storage, and network components while ensuring services and further to minimize energy consumption has become one of goals that the industry is striving for.

However, in the prior art, access to a storage resource by each server in a data center requires that the server remains in a power-on state. For example, when a current server node accesses a storage resource of the server node, the server needs to remain in the power-on state. For another example, when a current server node accesses a storage resource of another server node, not only the current server node needs to be in the power-on state, but also the accessed server node needs to be in the power-on state. Such a resource utilization manner is not beneficial to energy saving of the data center. For example, there are abundant computing resources on a server, but a related operation cannot be performed on the server to reduce energy consumption. <CIT> relates to a data server, a host adapter system for the data server, and related operating methods facilitate data write and read operations for network-based data storage that is remotely coupled to the data server and for non-network-based data storage in a locally attached cache device. <CIT> relates to a storage adapter connected with a computing system, wherein the storage adaptor connects with storage devices via ports and connects with SSDs included within a server chassis via a daughter card.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a node interconnection apparatus, a resource control node, and a server system, so as to separate a resource access function from a computing node, thereby improving efficiency of the computing node or reducing energy consumption of the computing node.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a node interconnection apparatus, including:.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides another node interconnection apparatus, including:.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides another node interconnection apparatus, including:.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a resource control apparatus, including the resource control node according to the first aspect, second aspect, or third aspect described above.

According to a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a server system, including multiple node interconnection apparatuses that are interconnected, where:
the server system further includes an energy saving management server, where:
the energy saving management server is configured to receive a registration notification that is sent by a resource control node in each node interconnection apparatus after a power-on operation is performed on the resource control node, and send a computing node power-on indication to the resource control node in each node interconnection apparatus or a baseboard management controller in each node interconnection apparatus, so that the resource control node in each node interconnection apparatus or the baseboard management controller in each node interconnection apparatus controls a power switch according to the computing node power-on indication to close a power supply circuit between a primary power device and a computing node.

According to a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a server system, including multiple node interconnection apparatuses that are interconnected, where:.

According to a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a server system, including an integrated apparatus and multiple servers, where: each server includes a computing node, the integrated apparatus includes multiple resource control nodes, the multiple resource control nodes are interconnected, and the multiple resource control nodes are connected to the computing node in each server by using multiple device interconnection interfaces;.

Different from a conventional server, the node interconnection apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present invention uses a separate architecture in which a computing node and a resource control node are decoupled. The node interconnection apparatus includes both a computing node that is used to perform a computing task and a resource control node that is used to perform resource access, where a processor is separately configured for the computing node and the resource control node, the computing node is not responsible for accessing a storage device, and a storage resource is acquired only by using the resource control node, so that the computing task and the resource access task can be performed separately. Therefore, on the one hand, when the computing node is not powered off, a burden on the computing node is reduced, resources are concentrated in a computing function, and computing efficiency is higher; on the other hand, the resource access task is separated from the computing node, so that when energy saving is required for the computing node that performs the computing task, an energy saving operation such as an operation of not starting, a power-off operation, or an operation of entering power saving may be performed on the computing node without affecting use of a network resource or a storage resource, thereby reducing energy consumption.

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or in the prior art more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments or the prior art. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show some embodiments of the present invention.

To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the following clearly and completely describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Apparently, the described embodiments are some but not all of the embodiments of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a node interconnection apparatus, a resource control node, and a server system. In the embodiments of the present invention, a resource access function is separated from a computing node, and a resource control node is provided to implement the resource access function. The resource control node may be connected to the computing node by using a device interconnection interface, the resource control node has a resource interface used for access to a storage resource or a network resource, and the resource control node is configured to provide a storage controller or a network controller, so as to implement access to the storage resource or access to the network resource. Correspondingly, the computing node that is connected to the resource control node by using the device interconnection interface may not need to implement a related function of the storage controller or the network controller any more. The resource control node is configured to access a storage device or a network by using the resource interface, allocate a storage resource or a network resource that belongs to the computing node, receive an access request, which is sent by the computing node, for the allocated storage resource or the allocated network resource, and perform a storage operation on the allocated storage resource or access the allocated network resource by using the resource interface.

The resource interface described above includes a storage interface and/or a network interface, and the resource control node accesses a local storage device by using the storage interface, and accesses an external storage device by using the network interface.

Implementation manners of the node interconnection apparatus, which includes a resource control node and a computing node that are interconnected, provided in this embodiment of the present invention are very flexible, and may include: (<NUM>) A brand new form of server is provided, for example, a converged server, where the converged server is provided with a computing node and a resource control node. (<NUM>) A resource control node is connected as a submodule to an existing server, where the resource control node may replace an original RAID card and an original NIC card, a signal interface using which the original RAID card is connected to a hard disk is connected to a storage interface of the resource control node, a network interface using which the original NIC card is connected externally or is connected to an self-organizing network is connected to a network interface of the resource control node, and the resource control node may be deemed as a device locally connected to an existing server. (<NUM>) Multiple resource control nodes may be used to form an integrated apparatus; for example, multiple resource control nodes are deployed in a cabinet/frame, and are connected to each server by using multiple provided device interconnection interfaces. Multiple resource control nodes after integration are internally interconnected by using network interfaces, a local storage device is mounted (or not mounted) to each resource control node, and each resource control node provides a device interconnection interface for access to a computing node, where the computing node may be a computing node in a server, or may be a computing node group formed by computing nodes of multiple servers, so as to provide storage space, a node communication network, and an external network storage service for a computing node corresponding to each resource control node.

This embodiment of the present invention is described below by using a first implementation manner as an example, where in the first implementation manner, a node interconnection apparatus uses a brand new converged server.

<FIG>, and <FIG> schematically show a composition diagram of a converged server according to an embodiment of the present invention. A converged server <NUM> includes a resource control node <NUM> and a computing node <NUM>. The resource control node <NUM> and the computing node <NUM> may be separately implemented by using a general-purpose computer, and the resource control node <NUM> and the computing node <NUM> may include a respective processor, memory and communications bus, where the processor may be formed by one or more processors, and various computer executable instructions may be loaded to the memory, so that the processor executes the instructions. In a preferred implementation manner, the resource control node <NUM> uses an ARM processor, the computing node <NUM> uses an X86 processor, the resource control node <NUM> includes a CPU <NUM> and a memory <NUM>, and the computing node <NUM> includes a CPU <NUM> and a memory <NUM>.

The resource control node <NUM> is provided with a device interconnection interface <NUM>, and the resource control node <NUM> performs device interconnection with a device interconnection interface <NUM> of the computing node <NUM> by using the device interconnection interface <NUM>. The device interconnection interface <NUM> or <NUM> may be implemented by using a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCIe) interface.

The resource control node is further provided with a resource interface <NUM>, where the resource interface <NUM> may be a storage interface, or may be a network interface, the storage interface is used for access to a local storage device, and the network interface is used for access to an external storage device.

As shown in <FIG>, the converged server <NUM> further includes a local storage device <NUM>, and the resource interface <NUM> is a storage interface 102a for access to physical disks <NUM> and <NUM> of the local storage device <NUM>, where the physical disk may be a hard disk drive HDD or a solid state disk SSD. The storage interface 102a may be a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, SATA) interface, a serial attached SCSI (serial attached SCSI, SAS) interface, a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCIe) interface or the like.

As shown in <FIG>, the resource interface <NUM> is a network interface 102b for access to a network storage device <NUM>, for example, a storage area network SAN.

As shown in <FIG>, the resource interface <NUM> is the storage interface 102a and the network interface 102b, where the storage interface 102a is used for access to the physical disks <NUM> and <NUM> of the local storage device <NUM>, and the network interface 102b is used for access to a resource control node <NUM> or another computing node <NUM> of another converged server <NUM>, and a storage resource of a local storage device <NUM> of the resource control node <NUM> is acquired by using the resource control node <NUM>, for example, storage resources of physical disks <NUM> and <NUM>.

In the foregoing <FIG>, and <FIG>, the resource control node <NUM> of the converged server <NUM> is further provided with a storage controller corresponding to the storage interface 102a, or a network controller corresponding to the network interface 102b. Specifically, the storage controller or the network controller may be implemented by using a software function module, a related storage control program or network control program is stored in the memory of the resource control node <NUM>, and when the processor of the resource control node <NUM> executes the storage control program or the network control program in the memory, the resource control node <NUM> implements a function of the storage controller or the network controller.

The converged server provided in this embodiment of the present invention includes a resource control node and a computing node, and because the computing node is not provided with a resource interface, the computing node obtains a storage resource or a network resource only by using the resource control node; the resource control node is configured to access a storage device by using a resource interface, and allocate, according to a storage resource of the storage device, a storage resource that belongs to the computing node; the computing node is configured to obtain the storage resource allocated by the resource control node, and when an operation requirement of the allocated storage resource is generated, send an operation request for the allocated storage resource to the resource control node by using a device interconnection interface; and the resource control node receives the operation request, which is sent by the computing node, for the allocated storage resource, and performs, by using the resource interface, a storage operation on the allocated storage resource.

The allocated storage resource that belongs to the computing node may be all storage resources of the storage device, or may be some storage resources of the storage device.

Because computing work and work of accessing a storage resource or a network resource on a conventional server are all performed by a processor of the server, the server needs to remain in a power-on state, and such a case is not beneficial to an energy saving operation of the server. Different from a conventional server, the converged server provided in this embodiment of the present invention uses a separate architecture in which a computing node and a resource control node are decoupled. The converged server includes both a computing node that is used to perform a computing task and a resource control node that is used to perform resource access, where processors are separately configured for the computing node and the resource control node, the computing node is not responsible for accessing a storage device, and a storage resource is acquired only by using the resource control node, so that the computing task and the resource access task can be performed separately. Therefore, on the one hand, when the computing node is not powered off, a burden on the computing node is reduced, resources are concentrated in a computing function, and computing efficiency is higher; on the other hand, the resource access task is separated from the computing node, so that when energy saving is required for the computing node that performs the computing task, an energy saving operation such as an operation of not starting, a power-off operation, or an operation of entering power saving may be performed on the computing node without affecting use of a network resource or a storage resource, thereby reducing energy consumption.

Further, in a preferred implementation manner, the resource control node <NUM> in the converged server <NUM> shown in <FIG>, and <FIG> may further be provided with a shared storage scheduling module, where the shared storage scheduling module is configured to form a shared storage resource pool by using storage resources acquired by the resource control node <NUM>, and allocate a shared storage resource in the shared source pool to a related computing node. Specifically, the shared storage scheduling module may be implemented by using a software function module, and a related shared storage scheduling program is stored in the memory of the resource control node <NUM>. When the processor of the resource control node <NUM> executes the shared storage scheduling program in the memory, the resource control node <NUM> implements a function of the shared storage scheduling module.

Specifically, the shared storage scheduling module can acquire a storage resource of the local storage device or the external storage device connected to the resource interface <NUM>, form a shared storage resource by using the acquired storage resource, split the shared storage resource into multiple physical storage blocks, recombine the multiple physical storage blocks into multiple virtual disks, allocate a logical address to each virtual disk, save a correspondence between the logical address and a physical address of the virtual disk, and allocate at least one virtual disk to a connected computing node. A physical address of each virtual disk is addresses of multiple physical storage blocks that form the virtual disk. For example, in <FIG>, the storage interface 102a of the resource control node <NUM> in the converged server <NUM> is connected to the physical disks <NUM> and <NUM>, and the network interface 102b is connected to the physical disks <NUM> and <NUM>. The resource control node <NUM> splits storage resources of the physical disks <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, recombines the storage resources into <NUM> virtual disks, allocates a logical address to each virtual disk, saves a correspondence between the logical address of the virtual disk and a physical address of the physical disk, and finally, allocates the virtual disks to the computing nodes <NUM> and <NUM>. For example, the resource control node <NUM> presents a logical address of a virtual disk <NUM> to the computing node <NUM>, and presents a logical address of a virtual disk <NUM> to the computing node <NUM>, so that the computing nodes <NUM> and <NUM> respectively deem the virtual disks <NUM> and <NUM> as physical storage devices. A process of recombining the storage resources of the storage device by the resource control node <NUM> in <FIG> are similar to that in <FIG>, and details are not described again.

When the computing node <NUM> is started, the computing node <NUM> finds the resource control node <NUM> by means of scanning by using the device interconnection interfaces <NUM> and <NUM>. After a driver program of the resource control node <NUM> is loaded to the computing node <NUM>, the computing node <NUM> acquires the virtual disk <NUM> provided by the resource control node <NUM> and deems the virtual disk <NUM> as a storage resource that belongs to the computing node <NUM>.

The computing node <NUM> acquires a service request generated by an application program or a virtual machine loaded on the computing node <NUM>, and completes a related computing task. If an operation related to the storage resource needs to be performed for the service request, the computing node <NUM> sends a resource access request to the resource control node <NUM>, where the resource access request carries the logical address of the virtual disk; after receiving the resource access request, the resource control node <NUM> converts the logical address into the physical address of the storage device, and performs, according to the physical address, an operation related to storage.

In the prior art, because the function of the shared storage scheduling module is implemented by the computing node <NUM>, in other words, the shared storage scheduling program is loaded to the computing node <NUM>. If the computing node <NUM> is powered off, a shared storage scheduling function of an entire system cannot be implemented, that is, a storage resource cannot be accessed. Therefore, an operation of powering off the computing node <NUM> for energy saving cannot be implemented in the prior art. However, in this embodiment of the present invention, the function of the shared storage scheduling module is implemented by the resource control node <NUM>, and the function of the shared storage scheduling module is implemented by using another hardware device that is decoupled from the computing node <NUM>, so that scheduling of the shared storage resource no longer depends on the computing node <NUM>, and when energy saving is required for the computing node that performs a computing task, a low power consumption operation can be implemented, for example, separately powering off the computing node or the computing node entering power saving, thereby reducing energy consumption.

Further, in a preferred implementation manner, the resource control node <NUM> in the converged server <NUM> shown in <FIG>, and <FIG> may further be provided with a network scheduling module, where the network scheduling module is configured to allocate a network resource acquired by the resource control node <NUM> to a related computing node. On the other hand, the resource control node <NUM> provides, according to a service processing bandwidth allocation technology, a required processing bandwidth of storage IO and that of network IO for the computing node <NUM> connected to an uplink port of the device interconnection interface <NUM>, a sum of the bandwidth of the storage IO and that of the network IO are controlled to be within a total bandwidth allowed by the uplink port, and access to these types of IO is implemented by using an internal caching and scheduling technology, so as to meet a service QOS requirement of the computing node.

In this embodiment of the present invention, a computing node does not directly access a storage device, but access the storage device by using a resource control node. Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, it may be further implemented that the computing node is started without an operating system disk. That is, a fixed operating system boot disk (operating system startup information) does not need to be configured for the computing node, and instead, the resource control node provides the operating system starting disk to the computing node. Therefore, after being started, the resource control node is further configured to prepare operating system startup information for the computing node by using the resource interface. During startup of the computing node, the computing node is further configured to acquire, by using the resource control node, the operating system startup information prepared by the resource control node, and start an operating system of the computing node according to the operating system startup information.

The node interconnection apparatus, in which the computing node and the resource control node are decoupled, provided in this embodiment of the present invention enables the computing node to be separately powered on or powered off without affecting work of the resource control node, and therefore, a related reconstruction performed on the resource control node may further implement the following related function of a computing node that is powered off. For example:.

After a power-off operation is performed on the computing node or the computing node enters an energy saving mode of an operating system, the resource control node is further configured to receive, by using the network interface, an access request, which is sent by another computing node, for the local storage device, and perform an operation related to the access request.

Alternatively, the resource control node may further include a service interface, and after a power-off operation is performed on the computing node, the resource control node is further configured to receive, from an application by using the service interface, an access request for the storage resource of the computing node, and perform, by using the resource interface, a storage operation on the storage resource.

In the foregoing two preferred and further embodiments, on the one hand, after a local computing node is powered off or an energy saving operation is implemented, an interface is still retained for an upper-layer service in case of emergency use by the upper-layer service; on the other hand, an access request sent by another computing node may be received by using a network interface, so that after the local computing node is powered off or an energy saving operation is performed, a local storage device is still available.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the converged server described above can be obtained by reconstructing an existing X86 server. For example, the computing node <NUM> described above is implemented by reconstructing a function of a processor of the existing X86 server; in addition, a new node, that is, the resource control node <NUM> described above, is added to the existing X86 server, and the resource control node may specifically be implemented by adding one or more ARM processors.

As shown in <FIG> is a schematic diagram of a server system formed by node interconnection apparatuses (converged servers) that are interconnected according to an embodiment of the present invention. A general service form of the server system is a data center. This embodiment of the present invention uses an example in which N converged servers are interconnected to form a server system. The server system includes converged servers <NUM>, <NUM>,. , and N, where each converged server includes the resource control node and the computing node shown in <FIG>, a network interface of each converged server is connected by using the Ethernet, and each converged server may include a respective local storage device. The resource control node in at least one converged server in the server system has a shared storage scheduling function, and can form a shared storage resource pool by using the local storage device of each converged server connected to the Ethernet, and the shared storage resource pool is divided into N virtual disks that are allocated to each computing node in the server system (certainly, a quantity of virtual disks is not fixed as a <NUM>:<NUM> configuration, and some computing nodes may be configured with multiple virtual disks). It should be noted that in <FIG> of this embodiment, the converged server shown in <FIG> is used, but in practice, converged servers that form the server system may be in multiple forms, and any one shown in <FIG>, or <FIG> is acceptable, or a converged server that is an obvious variant of <FIG> is acceptable, where the resource control node includes only a network interface and does not include a storage interface, and by using the network interface, the resource control node accesses another converged server instead of accessing network storage.

Generally, for an internal interconnection network in the server system described above, the interconnection network is based on the Ethernet, or may be based on another type of interconnection work, for example, InfiniBand. The network interface provided by the resource control node can implement interconnection between converged servers, and for a networking manner, an self-organizing network between resource control nodes may be used, or a connection with a switch module may be used. An self-organizing network manner may support various topology structures, for example, various networking manners such as FullMesh, 2D Torus, 3D Torus, and CLOS.

In addition, the server system described above may further include an energy saving management server, configured to implement energy saving management of the server system. For example, the energy saving management server accepts registration of a resource control node in the server system, acquires a startup state of the resource control node in the server system, acquires load information of computing nodes in the server system, and determines, according to the startup state of the resource control node or the load information of the computing nodes, which energy saving operation, for example, a power-on operation, a power-off operation or an operation of entering a running state of a power saving mode, is to be performed on which computing node. A method of energy saving management is described in a specific embodiment in the following. For the energy saving management server, a server may be separately disposed in the server system to implement a function of the energy saving management server, or instead of separately disposing a server, a resource management node in any converged server may be selected to implement a function of the management server. Specifically, the energy saving management server may implement energy saving management according to an energy saving policy that is set on the energy saving management server, where the energy saving policy may include a startup state of a resource control node or load information of a computing node, and the energy saving policy may be flexibly set and updated any time.

<FIG> may further include at least one IP SAN network storage device to be used as a storage resource of the server system.

As shown in <FIG> is a schematic diagram of another server system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The server system is formed by connecting an integrated apparatus formed by multiple resource control nodes to existing servers <NUM>,. , and N, and the integrated apparatus includes N resource control nodes, where N is a natural number greater than or equal to <NUM>, the resource control nodes are interconnected (which may be connected by using a network or may be connected by using internal interconnection interfaces, and in this embodiment, connection by using a network is used as an example), and the interconnection apparatus further includes multiple device interconnection interfaces. In a preferred embodiment, each resource control node corresponds to one device interconnection interface, that is, in this embodiment, N device interconnection interfaces are included, so that one resource control node is connected to a computing node in one server by using one device interconnection interface.

In this embodiment of the present invention, because of a decoupling design of the computing node and the resource control node, energy saving management of the computing node can be implemented flexibly. This embodiment of the present invention provides two power supply systems when the resource control node and the computing node are interconnected, and in different power supply systems, an energy saving management method of the server systems shown in <FIG> and <FIG> is implemented in different manners, which are specifically described below.

A first power supply system for a node interconnection apparatus in which a resource control node and a computing node are interconnected according to an embodiment of the present invention: A primary power device of the power supply system separately supplies power to the resource control node and the computing node, and such a power supply system can implement that a power-on operation or a power-off operation is separately performed on the computing node without affecting a normal working state in which the resource control node remains. In specific implementation, the primary power device may directly supply power to the resource control node, and supply power to the computing node by using a power switch, where an initial state of the power switch is an off state by default, so as to achieve an effect that a power-on operation is performed on the computing node only after the resource control node is powered on, that is, before a power-on operation is performed on the resource control node, the power switch opens a power supply circuit between the primary power device and the computing node.

As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, <FIG> and <FIG> are composition diagrams of a first power supply system for a node interconnection apparatus in which a resource control node and a computing node are interconnected according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in <FIG>, the power supply system includes a primary power device <NUM>, configured to separately supply power to a computing node <NUM> and a resource control node <NUM>, and after the primary power device <NUM> is started to supply power, the primary power device <NUM> first supplies power to the resource control node <NUM>, and then supplies power to the computing node <NUM>. Specifically, the primary power device <NUM> directly supplies power to the resource control node <NUM>, a power switch <NUM> is further included between the primary power device <NUM> and the computing node <NUM>, and the resource control node <NUM> is powered on when the primary power device <NUM> is started. The resource control node <NUM> is further provided with a first baseboard management controller that is connected to a management network and configured to control, by controlling a status of the power switch <NUM>, a power-on operation or a power-off operation to be performed on the computing node <NUM>, and the first baseboard management controller controls the power switch <NUM> by using an intelligent platform management interface. The power supply system further includes a secondary power device <NUM>, configured to supply power to the resource control node <NUM> when a fault occurs in the primary power device. A power switch <NUM>' may also be used between the primary power device <NUM> and a storage device <NUM> to control a power-on operation or a power-off operation of the storage device <NUM>.

The power switch <NUM> and power switch <NUM>' described above may be implemented by using a mechanical power switch, or may be implemented by using a circuit controlled by a chip. Specific implementation may be flexibly set according to an actual requirement, and the power switch in this embodiment of the present invention is not limited to a mechanical physical power switch.

The resource control node <NUM> in <FIG> is further provided with the first baseboard management controller connected to the management network. In fact, an implementation manner of an obvious variant of <FIG> is that the resource control node <NUM> is not provided with the first baseboard management controller, and because a power-on operation is already performed on the resource control node, the resource control node can obtain information about an energy saving management server in a network, and can make a decision of energy saving management by collecting related energy saving management information. Therefore, the resource control node <NUM> can also directly (without using a node such as a baseboard management controller) control, after a power-on operation is performed on the resource control node <NUM>, the power switch <NUM> to close a power supply circuit between the primary power device and the computing node, so that a power-on operation is performed on the computing node. Correspondingly, after a power-on operation is performed on the computing node, the resource control node <NUM> may also control the power switch <NUM> to close the power supply circuit between the primary power device and the computing node, so that a power-off operation is performed on the computing node. The resource control node <NUM> may control the status of the power switch <NUM> according to a computing node power-on or power-off indication received from the energy saving management server, or make a decision of energy saving management according to information collected by the resource control node <NUM>, and control the status of the power switch <NUM> according to the decision. The resource control node <NUM> makes the decision of energy saving management according to an energy saving policy, where the energy saving policy is similar to an energy saving policy of the energy saving management server.

<FIG> is the same as <FIG>, and the power supply system also includes a primary power device <NUM> that separately supplies power to a resource control node <NUM> and a computing node <NUM>. Specifically, the primary power device <NUM> directly supplies power to the resource control node <NUM>, and a power switch <NUM> is further included between the primary power device <NUM> and the computing node <NUM>. A difference is that in <FIG>, the resource control node <NUM> is not provided with a first baseboard management controller, but the computing node <NUM> is provided with a second baseboard management controller, and the power switch <NUM> is not controlled by the resource control node <NUM>, but is controlled by the second baseboard management controller in the computing node <NUM>.

The first baseboard management controller or the second baseboard management controller may be connected to a management network, and may be used to collect an energy saving management signal (a computing node power-on indication, a computing node power-off indication or the like) sent by the energy saving management server (where the energy saving management server introduced in this embodiment may be the energy saving management server shown in <FIG>), and control the power switch to open or close according to the received energy saving management signal (indication), so that the primary power device <NUM> disconnects or connects power supply to the computing node <NUM>.

The energy saving management server determines, according to an energy saving policy, whether to perform a power-on operation or a power-off operation on the computing node <NUM>. The energy saving policy may include: (<NUM>) After a power-on operation is already performed on a resource control node in a converged server, a power-on operation is performed on a computing node in the converged server; (<NUM>) after a power-on operation is performed on a resource control node in a converged server, when load of a computing node that is powered on in a server system is greater than a set threshold, a power-on operation is performed on a computing node in the converged server; (<NUM>) if load of a computing node in a converged server is less than a set threshold, a power-off operation is performed on the computing node in the converged server. The foregoing energy saving policies are only some examples, and are not intended to make an exhaustive list of energy saving policies in this embodiment of the present invention.

The primary power device <NUM> supplies power to the resource control node <NUM> by using a direct current power supply and a standby power supply. The direct current power supply may provide a working voltage for startup of the resource control node <NUM>, for example, a voltage of <NUM> V, and the standby power supply provides a voltage lower than a working voltage to the first baseboard management controller in the resource control node <NUM> or the second baseboard management controller in the computing node <NUM>, so that the first baseboard management controller or the second baseboard management controller remains in a working state. In <FIG>, the standby power supply may further be provided to the computing node <NUM> by using the resource control node <NUM>.

If interconnection between the resource control node and the computing node uses the power supply system shown in <FIG>, the obvious variant of <FIG>, or <FIG>, an energy saving management method provided in this embodiment of the present invention includes the following aspects:.

This step is an optional step, and if the server system is not provided with the energy saving management server, the step may not be performed.

S404: After it is determined that the resource control node is started, determine whether to power on a computing node in the converged server.

Specifically, in the power supply system in <FIG>, the first baseboard management controller in the resource control node determines, according to a received computing node power-on indication, whether to power on the computing node in the converged server. In the power supply system in <FIG>, the second baseboard management controller in the computing node determines, according to a received computing node power-on indication, whether to power on the computing node in the converged server.

Because the first baseboard management controller or the second baseboard management controller is connected to the energy saving management server in the management network, the computing node power-on indication is from the energy saving management server, and the energy saving management server sends the computing node power-on indication to the first baseboard management controller or the second baseboard management controller according to an energy saving policy. The energy saving policy may include: determining whether the resource control node in the converged server is started; if yes, it may be directly determined that the computing node needs to be powered on. After it is determined that the resource control node is started, the energy saving management server may also further determine, according to collected load information of each computing node in the server system, whether the computing node needs to be powered on. For example, if load of each computing node in the server system is heavy, the computing node needs to be powered on, or if load of each computing node is light, the computing node may not need to be powered on in this case even though the resource control node is started.

S405: If it is determined that the computing node needs to be powered on, supply power to the computing node, so that a power-on operation is performed on the computing node.

Specifically, the first baseboard management controller or the second baseboard management controller controls a power switch in the converged server, so that the primary power device supplies power to the computing node.

The following steps are optional steps, which are a startup process and a registration process of the computing node. Startup in this embodiment of the present invention includes powering on a node and starting an operating system.

S406: The computing node starts an operating system OS of the computing node.

Specifically, the computing node enters a boot program of a basic input/output system BIOS, finds the resource control node by means of scanning, acquires a virtual disk provided by the resource control node, acquires an OS mirror of the virtual disk, starts the operating system according to the OS mirror, and installs a driver program of the resource control node.

S407: The computing node registers with the energy saving management server, so that the energy saving management server learns a startup state of the computing node.

In the foregoing startup manner of the resource control node and the computing node, the resource control node is first powered on and started, and then it is determined whether the computing node is to be powered on. In an architecture in which the resource control node and the computing node are separated, it can be implemented that the computing node is started without an OS disk; in addition, a power-on operation may be performed on the computing node only when there is a specific use requirement of the computing node, thereby avoiding a waste of resources and reducing energy consumption.

(<NUM>) A power-off manner of the computing node: It may be implemented that the resource control node determines to disconnect power supply to the computing node in the converged server or disconnects, according to an energy saving management signal, power supply to the computing node in the converged server, so that a power-off operation is performed on the computing node without affecting a working state in which the resource control node remains. As shown in <FIG>, the manner includes:
S501: Determine, according to an energy saving policy, a computing node on which a power-off operation needs to be performed.

Specifically, the resource control node or the energy saving management server may determine, according to load information of the computing node, whether the computing node needs to be powered off. If it is determined that load of a computing node is less than a set threshold, a working task performed in the computing node may be performed first or migration of a running virtual machine VM may be performed first, and after the migration is completed, it may be determined that a power-off operation can be performed on the computing node.

S502: After a computing node on which a power-off operation is to be performed is determined, send a computing node power-off indication.

Specifically, in the power supply system in <FIG>, the first baseboard management controller in the resource control node receives the computing node power-off indication, and in the power supply system in <FIG>, the second baseboard management controller in the computing node receives the computing node power-off indication.

S503: Disconnect power supply between the computing node and a primary power device, so that a power-off operation is performed on the computing node.

Specifically, in the power supply system in <FIG>, the first baseboard management controller in the resource control node turns off or turns on a power switch in the converged server according to a received energy saving management signal, so that the primary power device disconnects power supply to the computing node; in the power supply system in <FIG>, the second baseboard management controller in the computing node turns off or turns on a power switch in the converged management server according to a received energy saving management signal, so that the primary power device disconnects power supply to the computing node.

In the first power supply system described above, the primary power device separately supplies power to the resource control node and the computing node; therefore, when energy saving is required, the computing node may not be powered on or a power-off operation is performed on the computing node to save energy, and when the computing node needs to perform a related computing task, a power-on operation may be performed on the computing node according to a requirement.

For the first power supply system described above, because the power supply circuit is improved, an implementation manner of a newly provided converged server may be preferably used. If the resource control node in this embodiment of the present invention is implemented only by reconstructing an existing server, an existing circuit may further be used for the implementation, and description is provided in the following.

A second power supply system for a node interconnection apparatus in which a resource control node and a computing node are interconnected according to an embodiment of the present invention: Power supply to the resource control node depends on the computing node, or the resource control node and the computing node are interconnected in a same power supply circuit, and the resource control node and the computing node simultaneously obtain a power supply voltage of a primary power device. As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, <FIG> and <FIG> are composition diagrams of a second power supply system for a converged server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In <FIG> and <FIG>, the power supply system still includes a primary power device <NUM>; the primary power device <NUM> simultaneously supplies power to a resource control node <NUM> and a computing node <NUM>; when the computing node <NUM> is powered on, the resource control node also obtains power supplied by the primary power device. A specific implementation manner of <FIG> is that the resource control node <NUM> is installed in a general rack server (where an existing processor in the rack server may be deemed as the computing node <NUM>), and arranged in the rack server as a standard board or in a manner of inserting a card, and then a hard disk signal line that is connected to an original RAID card is connected to a hard disk connection interface of the resource control node.

If the power supply system shown in <FIG> and <FIG> is used, an energy saving management method provided in this embodiment of the present invention includes the following aspects:.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the power saving mode of the BIOS mainly indicates that during startup of the BIOS, the computing node does not enter a boot mode of the BIOS to start an OS of the computing node, and therefore, although the computing node is powered on, the computing node enters a running state of the BIOS with low power consumption.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, startup mode information may be preset in the resource control node; for example, Option Rom control of the resource control node is used. The startup mode information may be set to a fixed value, for example, be directly preset to the power saving mode of the BIOS. The startup mode information may also be preset to a condition value, for example, the power saving mode of the BIOS is used when the resource control node is not started, and the boot mode of the BIOS is used when the resource control node is started.

For step <NUM>, there are two implementation manners according to different settings of the preset startup mode information in the resource control node.

A first implementation manner: If the startup mode information preset in the resource control node is the fixed value, during startup, the computing node starts the BIOS, scans, in the boot mode of the BIOS, a device that is connected to the computing node, and when the resource control node is found by means of scanning, acquires the power saving mode of the BIOS preconfigured in the resource control node. Therefore, after being powered on, the computing node does not directly start the OS, but enters the power saving mode of the BIOS according to the acquired startup mode information.

A second implementation manner: If the startup mode information preset in the resource control node is the condition value, during startup, the computing node starts the BIOS, scans, in the boot mode of the BIOS, a device that is connected to the computing node, and when the resource control node is found by means of scanning, acquires the startup mode information preconfigured in the resource control node. Further, the BIOS detects a status of the resource control node. If it is determined that the resource control node is not started, after the computing node is powered on, the computing node does not directly start the OS, but enters the power saving mode of the BIOS according to the acquired startup mode information.

S703: After being powered on, the resource control node starts an OS of the resource control node.

Specifically, after being started, the resource control node may further perform a self test. If the system is provided with an energy saving management server, the resource control node may establish a connection with the energy saving management server, and register with the energy saving management server, so that the energy saving management server obtains a registration notification of the resource control node, and specifies a startup state of the resource control node according to the registration notification. Further, the resource control node may further perform initialization on a local storage device or a network device that is connected to the resource control node, or perform an operation of discovering another node and configure a shared storage resource. After an initialization configuration is performed, a storage device or a network device that is connected to the converged server can be identified and used.

S704: After it is determined that the resource control node is started, the computing node is switched from the power saving mode of the BIOS to a boot mode of the BIOS, and booted by the BIOS, starts an OS of the computing node.

Specifically, corresponding to the two modes in step <NUM>, step <NUM> described above correspondingly has two specific implementation manners.

A first implementation manner: If the startup mode information preset in the resource control node is the fixed value, after being started, the resource control node changes the preset startup mode information from the power saving mode of the BIOS to the boot mode of the BIOS, and instructs the computing node to restart. The computing node restarts, and the BIOS acquires the startup mode information in the resource control node. Because the startup mode information is changed to the boot mode of the BIOS, the computing node, booted by the BIOS, starts the operating system of the computing node.

A second implementation manner: If the startup mode information preset in the resource control node is the condition value, the computing node detects the status of the resource control node; if it is determined that the resource control node is in a started state, the BIOS of the computing node is switched from the power saving mode to the boot mode, and the computing node starts the OS of the computing node in the boot mode of the BIOS.

S705: After being started, the resource control node or the computing node registers with an energy saving management server, so that the energy saving management server learns a startup state of the computing node.

Step <NUM> is an optional step. If a server system is provided with an energy saving management server, the resource control node or the computing node notifies the energy saving management server of a status of the resource control node or the computing node after being started, so that the energy saving management server performs subsequent energy saving management according to a preset energy saving policy and by taking the status of the resource control node or the computing node into consideration. In order to implement communication with the energy saving management server, a baseboard management controller may be separately disposed in the resource control node or the computing node.

(<NUM>) A manner of an energy saving operation of the computing node: After both the computing node and the resource control node are powered on and started, when it is determined that load of the computing node is relatively light, an energy saving operation may further be performed on the computing node. Because in the second power supply system, power supply to the resource control node and power supply to the computing node depend on each other, it is relatively difficult to implement that a power-off operation is performed on the computing node without affecting normal working of the resource control node. Therefore, in the second power supply system, an energy saving operation is not implemented by powering off the computing node, but a baseboard management controller in the computing node is used to implement a reset or sleep of the computing node, so that an energy saving operation is performed on the computing node. The baseboard management controller may receive an energy saving operation indication of the resource control node to perform an energy saving operation, or may directly receive an energy saving management indication sent by the energy saving management server to perform an energy saving operation.

A possible energy saving management manner is: If the energy saving management server determines that an energy saving operation needs to be performed, the energy saving management server may send an energy saving operation indication to a corresponding computing node, so that the corresponding computing node enters an energy saving mode of an operating system, for example, sleep or a reset.

In addition, the term "and/or" in this specification describes only an association relationship for describing associated objects and represents that three relationships may exist.

It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present invention, "B corresponding to A" indicates that B is associated with A, and B may be determined according to A. However, it should be further understood that determining B according to A does not mean that B is determined only according to A, and B may further be determined according to A and/or other information.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may be aware that, in combination with the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in this specification, units and algorithm steps may be implemented by electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination thereof. To clearly describe the interchangeability between the hardware and the software, the foregoing has generally described compositions and steps of each example according to functions.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system may be implemented in other manners. For example, the described system embodiment is merely exemplary. The indirect couplings or communication connections between the nodes or units may be implemented in electronic, mechanical, or other forms.

Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the objectives of the solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

When the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the integrated unit may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention essentially, or the part contributing to the prior art, or all or some of the technical solutions may be implemented in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention. The foregoing storage medium includes: any medium that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), a random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

Claim 1:
A resource control node (<NUM>), comprising:
a second CPU (<NUM>),
a second memory (<NUM>),
a second device interconnection interface (<NUM>),
and a network interface (102b);
wherein the second device interconnection interface (<NUM>) is configured to connected to a first device interconnection interface (<NUM>) of a computing node, the first device interconnection interface and the second device interconnection interface are PCIe interfaces, wherein the computing node comprising a first CPU (<NUM>), a first memory (<NUM>), and the first device interconnection interface (<NUM>);
wherein the second CPU is configured to:
obtain storage resource from an external storage device through the network interface;
obtain storage resource from a local storage device;
provide, as a shared storage resource, both of the storage resource of the external storage device and the storage resource of the local storage device to the computing node;
characterized in that
split the shared storage resource into virtual disks;
allocate a virtual disk of said virtual disks to the computing node; and
provide an operation system mirror from the virtual disk to the computing node for operating system starting at the computing node, wherein the virtual disk comprises multiple physical storage blocks from the storage resource of the external storage device and the storage resource of the local storage device.