Modem rack-mount server systems include single and multiple liquid heat exchangers that cool air through a rack-mount server system to enable the deployment of high density electronic modules (“blades”) within the system. However, individual blades or sets of blades within a rack-mount server system may not dissipate heat or power evenly. Thus, the heat exchangers must be designed to cool based on the worst case portion of an individual blade. Because various portions of a blade do not dissipate evenly, the heat exchangers may overcool lower power blades or sets of blades, resulting in increased utility costs for the entire server system.
A cooling system for a rack-mount server including at least one blade and a system enclosure is disclosed herein. The cooling system includes a liquid cooling line, at least one adjustable valve connected to the liquid cooling line, at least one heat exchanger connected to the at least one adjustable valve, a control module connected to the at least one valve, and a feedback module connected to the control module and comprising a sensor configured to measure a feedback control signal, where the control module is configured to adjust the at least one adjustable valve and a flow rate of liquid through the liquid cooling line based on a feedback control signal measured by the sensor.
A method of controlling the power consumption of a cooling system for a rack-mount server including at least one blade, at least one heat exchanger, at least one adjustable valve, and a liquid cooling line is disclosed herein. The method includes connecting a control module to the at least one adjustable valve, measuring a feedback control signal with a feedback module comprising a sensor and connected to the control module, and adjusting the at least one adjustable valve and a flow rate of the liquid cooling line with the control module based on the feedback control signal.
a) shows a block diagram of a control loop in accordance with embodiments disclosed herein.
b) shows a block diagram of a control loop in accordance with embodiments disclosed herein.
Specific details of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.
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The cooling capacity of each heat exchanger 105 in the cooling system 100 is proportional to the flow rate of a liquid coolant through the heat exchanger 105. Accordingly, if a set of blades corresponding to a specific heat exchanger does not generate as much heat as a set of blades corresponding to another heat exchanger, the flow rate of the liquid coolant through the specific heat exchanger may be reduced in order to reduce the total power consumption of the pump 101. Accordingly, the cooling system 100 further includes a control module 111 and a feedback module 113 that may include a sensor. The control module 111 may be configured to receive a feedback control signal corresponding to a heat exchanger 105 with the sensor from the feedback module 113 and adjust the valve 104 corresponding to the heat exchanger 105 in order to adjust the flow rate of the liquid coolant from the cooling intake/outtake line 103 through the heat exchanger 105. Advantageously, this arrangement allows the total power used by the pump 101 to be reduced when less cooling capacity is required in the cooling system 100.
The control module 111 may be any module capable of receiving a sensor measurement, determining an appropriate coolant flow rate, and outputting a control signal to an adjustable valve 104. For example, the adjustable valve 104 may be electronically controlled, and the control signal may be an electric signal transmitted from the control module 111. Examples of the control module 111 include hardware modules such as field-programmable gate arrays and software modules. The feedback module 113 may be any module capable of receiving a sensor reading and transmitting a feedback control signal to the control module 111 and may include a sensor to measure the feedback control signal from portions of the rack server. The sensor may be, for example, a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of one or more of the plurality of blades 107. In this case, the feedback control signal would be a temperature measurement from the temperature sensor.
Alternatively, the sensor may be, for example, a power consumption sensor configured to measure the power consumption of one or more of the plurality of blades 107. In this case, the feedback control signal would be a power consumption measurement from the power consumption sensor. Finally, the sensor may be, for example, a thermodynamic sensor configured to measure the heat flow per cubic unit through the intake and outtake lines of the cooling intake/outtake line 103. The heat flow through the outtake line is proportional to the total cooling capacity of the system. If, for example, the liquid flowing through the outtake line is cooler than necessary, the valves 104 may be adjusted to reduce the total liquid coolant flow rate through the cooling system 100. In this case, the feedback control signal would be a thermodynamic sensor measurement from the thermodynamic sensor.
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Further, portions of the invention may be implemented on a distributed system having a plurality of nodes, where each portion of the invention may be located on a different node within the distributed system. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the node corresponds to a computer system. Alternatively, the node may correspond to a processor with associated physical memory.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, software instructions to perform embodiments of the invention, when executed by a processor, may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a compact disc (CD), a diskette, a tape, a file, or any other computer readable storage device. Further, one or more embodiments of the invention may be implemented as an Application Program Interface (API) executing on a computer system(s), where the API includes one or more software instructions.
Embodiments of the cooling system disclosed herein may exhibit one or more of the following advantages. The cooling system disclosed herein may reduce costs for cooling a rack-mount server by reducing the pump power required for cooling the rack-mount server. The cooling system disclosed herein may also allow for cooling to be distributed according to the heat dissipation of blades or groups of blades in a rack-mount server.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments may be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.