Inspur Contributes Rack Management Specification to OCP Community for Enhanced Operation of Data Centers
Rack scale servers are 100% higher in deployment density and 10 times higher in delivery efficiency than traditional servers
Inspur, a leading data center and AI full-stack solutions provider, today announced the Inspur-led OpenRMC open compute project released OpenRMC Design Specification v1.0. The new specification, which clarifies the scope of information collection, data presentation modes and hardware deployment options of collection modules in rack management, provides a reference architecture for centralized rack management and lays the foundations for smarter operation of data centers.
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“To stay ahead of the future transformation of cloud data centers, Inspur has been driving the development of converged data centers and smart computing to advance the integration of open computing technologies and help build a truly open ecosystem.”
The rapid growth of data brought about by 5G and AI applications has driven the continuous expansion of data centers, making racks a critical component of data centers thanks to its features such as high density, fast delivery, easy maintenance and high return on investment. Rack scale servers, now widely used in hyper-scale data centers, are 100% higher in deployment density and 10 times higher in delivery efficiency than traditional servers.
Along with the rapid development of big data and intelligent technology, customers in traditional industries, such as finance, are also considering or have already adopted rack products. Notably, Inspur has recently set a record for deploying 10,000 servers within 8 hours through the rack delivery model.
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OpenRMC Delivers Next-generation Open Technology Management Solutions for Intelligent Operations
Wilson Guo, Inspur’s senior technology director, said that Inspur has always been an active advocate of open source technologies ranging from Linux to OCP to OpenStack and is currently a member of three leading global open computing standards organizations. “Inspur has been involved in many open source communities in the hardware and software fields,” said Inspur’s Wilson. “To stay ahead of the future transformation of cloud data centers, Inspur has been driving the development of converged data centers and smart computing to advance the integration of open computing technologies and help build a truly open ecosystem.”
Due to the significant growth in rack uptake, the OCP community established the OpenRMC project team, in which Inspur is leading the development of a rack management architecture based on the OCP standard.
Dozens of server nodes, fans, power supply and other components are integrated into a rack. These components are centrally managed and monitored by an RMC (Rack Management Controller). The OpenRMC design specification addresses the challenges of centralized management across different racks. In addition, it meets a range of needs among small and medium-sized data centers, such as enhancing automated operations capability, improving system availability, and reducing overall energy consumption.
OpenRMC Design Specification v1.0, contributed by Inspur, unifies the format and parameters of read data by defining the northbound and southbound specifications, allowing users to manage all racks in one interface. In terms of the northbound data presentation, OpenRMC is integrated with Redfish, the next-generation data center management standard, allowing all kinds of server data to be presented through a browser, an approach that is more user-friendly than a binary display mode. Meanwhile, firmware can be flashed remotely, making it more convenient for operations personnel to control.
“The OpenRMC Sub-project aims at an opensource-based rack management solution, which is fundamental to efficient, flexible, and open data center management. As the project-lead of the OpenRMC project, Inspur’s Rack Management Specification offers a significant push to the fulfillment of that goal,” said Rajeev Sharma, Director of Software & Technologies, of the OCP Foundation. “We are confident that Inspur and participating companies will yield more designs and specifications that apply Open Compute technologies to solving data center operation challenges.”
Currently, Inspur has developed an intelligent operations management system for both equipment and data centers. By integrating OpenBMC technology for node operations, OpenRMC technology for rack operations management and ISPIM solution for overall data center operations, Inspur helps make data center operations easier, more efficient, smarter, and sustainable.
