This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-123525, filed on May 21, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The embodiment discussed herein is related to an air conditioning abnormality detection apparatus and method.
In recent years, as the performance of information processing apparatus increases, an increase of heat generated from information processing apparatus has become a serious problem. In particular, in a data center or a computer room in which many information processing apparatuses are installed, temperature may easily exceed an allowable temperature on account of the increase of heat generated from the information processing apparatuses.
To solve the problem described above, a technique to prevent a temperature in a computer room from exceeding an allowable temperature by monitoring the room temperature, and automatically starting cooling operation before the temperature exceeds an upper limit value is proposed.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-170686 is an example of related art.
However, since an air conditioner is controlled by the above conventional technique by simply determining the room temperature on the basis of a threshold value, it is not always possible to appropriately cope with an occurring situation. This is because there are various causes that raise the room temperature in a data center or a computer room, and it is not possible to obtain a satisfying result unless the causes are identified and appropriate action is taken.
According to an aspect of the embodiment, An abnormality detection apparatus for detecting abnormality of air conditioning in a room which accommodates a plurality of computers having an air inlet and having an outlet, includes, a plurality of temperature detectors for detecting temperatures at each of the air inlets, a memory for storing a plurality of reference patterns, each of the reference patterns representing a set of temperatures at each of the air inlets and corresponding to one of a plurality of abnormal categories, a determining unit for determining one of the abnormal categories by comparing the detected temperatures by the temperature detectors with the reference patterns stored in the memory, an output unit for outputting information corresponding to the category of the air condition abnormality determined.
The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of a monitoring apparatus, a monitoring program, and a monitoring method disclosed by the present application will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
First, an example of a data center including a monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment will be described. The data center illustrated in
The data center illustrated in the example of
Next, a configuration of the monitoring apparatus 10 will be described with reference to
The air conditioner status acquisition section 120 acquires an air volume measured by the air volume sensor 31. Information acquired by the air conditioner status acquisition section 120 only needs to be information by which an operation state of the air conditioner 30 can be determined, and for example, the information may be a rotation speed of a fan by which the air conditioner 30 blows cooling air.
The storage section 130 is a storage apparatus for storing various data, and stores weight data 131. The weight data 131 holds weights by which a weighted average described below is calculated while associating the weights with corresponding temperature sensors 21. The farther the corresponding temperature sensor 21 is located from a path in which more than a certain amount of exhaust air 2001 flows from the exhaust air 2001 side to the intake air 2000 side of the rack 20, the smaller the value of the weight held by the weight data 131 is set.
The control section 140 is a control section for entirely controlling the monitoring apparatus 10, and includes an average temperature calculation section 141, a threshold value calculation section 142, a determination section 143, a notification section 144, and a countermeasure execution section 145. The average temperature calculation section 141 calculates a weighted average of temperatures measured by the temperature sensors 21 by using the weights which are associated with the temperature sensors 21 and held in the weight data 131.
Specifically, when rises of temperature ΔTa to ΔTn are measured by n temperature sensors 21a to 21n, and weights Wa to Wn are associated with the temperature sensors 21a to 21n and held in the weight data 131, a weighted average G is calculated by using the following formula (1).
The threshold value calculation section 142 calculates a threshold value for comparing with the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141. Specifically, the threshold value calculation section 142 calculates an arithmetic average of temperatures measured by the temperature sensors 21 and an arithmetic average of weights which are associated with the temperature sensors 21 and held in the weight data 131. Then, the threshold value calculation section 142 obtains a threshold value by multiplying both arithmetic averages and adding a predetermined value d to the multiplication result.
When rises of temperature ΔTa to ΔTn are measured by n temperature sensors 21a to 21n, and weights Wa to Wn are associated with the temperature sensors 21a to 21n and held in the weight data 131, a threshold value TH is calculated by using the following formula (2).
In this embodiment, although the rises of temperature ΔTa to ΔTn are assumed to be a difference from a temperature measured in a normal operation, the rises of temperature ΔTa to ΔTn may be a difference from a temperature measured by the same sensor at the previous time or a difference from an average of temperatures measured in the latest certain period. Instead of using the rises of temperature ΔTa to ΔTn, by using temperatures Ta to Tn measured by n temperature sensors 21a to 21n, the weighted average and the threshold value may be calculated.
The determination section 143 determines the air conditioning state on the basis of the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141, the threshold value calculated by the threshold value calculation section 142, and the information indicating the operation state of the air conditioner 30 acquired by the air conditioner status acquisition section 120.
Specifically, the determination section 143 determines that the air conditioning is normal when the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141 is smaller than a predetermined reference value. The determination section 143 determines that the air conditioning is abnormal when the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141 is greater than or equal to the predetermined reference value.
To determine whether or not the air conditioning is normal, instead of the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141, an average or maximum of the temperatures measured by the temperature sensors 21 may be used.
When the determination section 143 determines that the air conditioning is abnormal, the determination section 143 compares the weighted average calculated by the average temperature calculation section 141 and the threshold value calculated by the threshold value calculation section 142. When the weighted average is greater than the threshold value, the determination section 143 determines that an exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs. On the other hand, when the weighted average is smaller than or equal to the threshold value, the determination section 143 determines whether or not the abnormality is caused by the air conditioner on the basis of the information indicating the operation state of the air conditioner 30 acquired by the air conditioner status acquisition section 120.
When the determination section 143 determines that the air conditioning is abnormal, the notification section 144 notifies of the determination result of the determination section 143. For example, the notification section 144 performs the notification by displaying a warning text on a monitor viewed by a system administrator or sending an e-mail including the determination result to the system administrator. When the determination section 143 determines that the air conditioning is abnormal, the countermeasure execution section 145 executes a countermeasure in accordance with the determination result of the determination section 143.
Next, the weights which are associated with the temperature sensors 21 and held in the weight data 131 and the determination of the abnormality of the air conditioning will be further described in detail with reference to a specific example.
In the case of the rack 20 illustrated in
Therefore, to detect the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow, in the example illustrated in
To set the weights so that the larger the distance from the floor, the larger the weight is, for example, the weight can be determined in accordance with the distance between the floor and the temperature sensor 21. In order to significantly increase the influence of the position of the temperature sensor 21, the weight may be determined on the basis of the square of the distance between the floor and the temperature sensor 21.
Here, it is assumed that the rises of temperature measured by the temperature sensors 21 when the air conditioner 30 fails and the rises of temperature measured by the temperature sensors 21 when the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs are as illustrated in the diagram 3000 of
However, as obvious from the graph 4000 in
As illustrated in the diagram 3000 of
Therefore, when calculating the weighted average of the rises of temperature by using the formula (1), and comparing the weighted average with the threshold value which is obtained by adding a predetermined value d to the value obtained by multiplying the arithmetic average of the rises of temperature by the arithmetic average of weights as illustrated by the formula (2), it is possible to determine that the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs when the weighted average is larger than the threshold value. The predetermined value d used here is a value to absorb the influence of variations of the temperatures measured by the temperature sensors 21. The value d may be a preliminarily fixed value or a value calculated by multiplying the value obtained by multiplying the arithmetic average of the rises of temperature by the arithmetic average of weights by a predetermined coefficient.
Although, in
When an exhaust air 2001 circulation flow which passes beside the both ends of the row of the racks occurs, as illustrated in
To set the weights so that the larger the distance from the center of the row, the larger the weight is, for example, the weight can be determined in accordance with the distance between the center of the row and the temperature sensor 21. In order to significantly increase the influence of the position of the temperature sensor 21, the weight may be determined on the basis of the square of the distance between the center of the row and the temperature sensor 21.
By setting the weights in this way, in the example illustrated in the diagram 5000 of
The weights may be set so that the weights can be used in both cases of when the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs in the vertical direction and when the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs in the horizontal direction. In this case, for example, the temperature sensor 21 is provided to each information processing apparatus mounted on the racks aligned in a row, and the weights are set so that the larger the distance from the floor at the center of the row is, the larger the weight is.
Next, a processing procedure of the temperature monitoring processing performed by the monitoring apparatus 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart in
Subsequently, the average temperature calculation section 141 and the threshold value calculation section 142 read the weight data 131, and obtain weights corresponding to each temperature sensor 21 (step S103). Then, the average temperature calculation section 141 calculates the weighted average by using the formula (1) described above (step S104), and the threshold value calculation section 142 calculates the threshold value by using the formula (2) described above (step S105).
Here, when the weighted average is smaller than a predetermined reference value (step S106: Yes), the determination section 143 determines that there is no problem in the air conditioning, and the processing procedure is performed from step S101 again.
On the other hand, when the weighted average is larger than or equal to the predetermined reference value (step S106: No), the determination section 143 determines that there is an abnormality in the air conditioning, and identifies the cause of the abnormality as described below. When the weighted average is greater than the threshold value (step S107: Yes), the determination section 143 determines that the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow occurs, and the notification section 144 notifies of the occurrence of the exhaust air 2001 circulation flow (step S108). Then, the countermeasure execution section 145 executes a countermeasure such as suppressing heating of the information processing apparatus 40 to which the exhaust air 2001 circulates, or providing cooling air from underfloor through a louver to the information processing apparatus 40 to which the exhaust air 2001 circulates (step S109).
When the weighted average is smaller than or equal to the threshold value and air volume of the air conditioner 30 decreases (step S107: No, step S110: Yes), it is determined that an abnormality occurs in the air conditioner 30, and the notification section 144 notifies of the occurrence of abnormality (step S111). The countermeasure execution section 145 executes a countermeasure such as increasing air volume of another air conditioner (step S112).
When the weighted average is smaller than or equal to the threshold value and air volume of the air conditioner 30 does not decrease (step S107: No, step S110: No), it is determined that the air volume of the air conditioner 30 is insufficient, and the notification section 144 notifies of the insufficiency of the air volume (step S113). The countermeasure execution section 145 executes a countermeasure such as increasing the air volume of the air conditioner 30 (step S114).
The configuration of the monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment illustrated in
In the hard disk apparatus 1070, the monitoring program 1071 having the same function as that of the control section 140 illustrated in
When the CPU 1010 reads the monitoring program 1071 from the hard disk apparatus 1070 and develops the monitoring program 1071 on the RAM 1060, the monitoring program 1071 functions as the monitoring process 1061. The monitoring process 1061 appropriately develops information read from the weight data 1072 in an area assigned to the monitoring process 1061 on the RAM 1060, and performs various data processing on the basis of the developed data.
The above monitoring program 1071 does not necessarily need to be stored in the hard disk apparatus 1070, and the computer 1000 may read the program stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and execute the program. In addition, by storing the program in another computer (or server) connected to the computer 1000 via a public line, the Internet, LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), or the like, the computer 1000 may read the program from the computer (or server) and execute the program.
All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions, nor does the organization of such examples in the specification relate to a showing of the superiority and inferiority of the invention. Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail, it should be understood that the various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2009-123525 | May 2009 | JP | national |