Patent ID: 7809964

Claim:
A method of operating a controller of an I/O expansion module in a storage system controller, comprising: in a first management activity, managing environmental operating conditions of the I/O expansion module, including (i) monitoring and regulating operating temperature and (ii) monitoring electrical power regulating circuitry of the I/O expansion module providing electrical power to circuit components of the I/O expansion module; and in a second management activity concurrent with the first management activity, managing environmental operating conditions of an I/O interface module being a hot-pluggable sub-assembly of the I/O expansion module, including (i) monitoring insertion and removal of the I/O interface module and reporting such insertion and removal to a separate controller within the storage system controller, (ii) controlling reset status of the I/O expansion module, and (iii) monitoring and controlling electrical power regulating circuitry of the I/O interface module providing electrical power to circuit components of the I/O interface module.