Hot-plugging (also known as Hot Swap) refers to the process of plugging in or removing components while the system is powered on. The hot-plugging function allows users to remove and replace damaged hard drives, power supplies, or boards and cards without shutting down the system or cutting off the power supply, thereby enhancing the system’s ability to recover from disasters, scalability, and flexibility. For example, some disk mirroring systems for high-end applications can provide hot-plugging functionality. In academic terms, hot replacement, hot expansion, and hot upgrade are involved. The hot-plugging technology is a key technology for achieving continuous power supply and maintenance without system shutdown. Redundantly backing up key components of the power supply equipment and replacing the faulty power supply and expanding the system without interrupting the system operation is the most effective method to improve the reliability of the power system. Therefore, the hot-plugging technology for power supply has received increasing attention. [2]
The hot-plugging function is very important in power supply design. In application systems using fault-tolerant power supply architectures, it is required to have hot-plugging functionality to meet the requirement of zero downtime. During the hot-plugging process, the hot-plugging function should avoid significant fluctuations in voltage and current.
Hot-plugging first appeared in the server field to improve the usability of servers. In the computers we usually use, there are generally USB interfaces, and this interface can achieve hot-plugging. Without hot-plugging functionality, even if the disk is damaged, data will not be lost, but users still need to temporarily shut down the system to be able to replace the hard disk.
However, with hot-plugging technology, simply opening the connection switch or turning the handle can directly remove the hard disk, and the system can still operate continuously without interruption.