Flap-based forced air cooling of datacenter equipment

1. An apparatus comprising:

a deflection member adapted to a piece of rack-mounted equipment within a rack enclosure, the rack-mounted equipment comprising a server configured within a chassis; and

an actuator coupled to the deflection member to control a position of the deflection member between a fully closed position and a fully opened position, wherein a variable amount of cooling airflow is to be provided to the piece of rack-mounted equipment based on the deflection member position, wherein the actuator comprises a stepper motor to control the deflection member position, the stepper motor to receive a control signal from a fan header of a motherboard of the server, the control signal to provide for control of a fan, wherein the fan header is unconnected to the fan, the server not including any fan and the deflection member comprises a baffle including a plurality of perforated panels movable with respect to each other to cause the variable amount of cooling airflow.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the deflection member is adapted to a first face of the chassis via a hinge.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the hinge comprises a first gear mechanism interconnected with a second gear mechanism.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a microcontroller to receive the control signal and to convert the control signal into a position control signal and to control the stepper motor according to the position control signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the control signal is based on a temperature associated with the server.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the fan header is to provide the control signal with a first value to cause the deflection member to be in the fully closed position when the temperature is less than a first threshold.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of deflection members adapted to the piece of rack-mounted equipment, wherein a first deflection member is adapted to a first face of the chassis and a second deflection member is adapted to a side of the chassis, and a plurality of actuators each coupled to one of the plurality of deflection members.

8. A rack-mounted enclosure comprising:

a plurality of support members each to support a piece of rack-mounted equipment, the rack-mounted enclosure to receive a flow of cooling air via a first face of the rack-mounted enclosure and to exhaust the cooling air flow via a second face of the rack-mounted enclosure, wherein at least some of the pieces of rack-mounted equipment comprise a server including a deflection member adapted thereto on the first face and an actuator coupled to the deflection member to control a position of the deflection member between a fully closed position and a fully opened position, wherein the actuator comprises a stepper motor to control the deflection member position, the stepper motor associated with a microcontroller to receive a control signal from a fan header of a motherboard of the server, wherein the fan header is unconnected to a fan, the server not including any fan, the control signal provided by a central processing unit of the server for fan control, wherein the control signal is re-routed to the microcontroller and the microcontroller is to convert the control signal into a position control signal and control the stepper motor according to the position control signal, wherein a variable amount of the cooling air flow is to be provided to the piece of rack-mounted equipment based on the deflection member position; and

a plurality of rack-mounted enclosures each including a plurality of rack-mounted pieces of equipment, at least some of the rack-mounted pieces of equipment including a deflection member adapted to the corresponding rack-mounted pieces of equipment, wherein the plurality of rack-mounted enclosures are configured in a ring of racks.

9. The rack-mounted enclosure of claim 8 , wherein the server is configured within a chassis and the deflection member is adapted to the first face of a chassis via a hinge.

10. The rack-mounted enclosure of claim 8 , further comprising an exhaust port within an interior of the ring of racks to exhaust the cooling air flow.

11. A method comprising:

receiving a control signal for control of a rotational level of a fan of a piece of datacenter equipment in a controller, wherein the piece of equipment does not include the fan, the control signal re-routed from a pin header of the datacenter equipment to the controller;

converting the control signal into a position control signal, in the controller; and

communicating the position control signal from the controller to an actuator, to cause a deflection member adapted to the piece of datacenter equipment to be placed into a desired position to enable a selective amount of a cooling airflow to be provided to the piece of datacenter equipment.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising causing the deflection member to be in a fully closed position when a temperature of the piece of datacenter equipment is less than a threshold.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein substantially none of the cooling air flow is provided to the piece of datacenter equipment when the deflection member is in the fully closed position.