Methods and systems for deploying hardware files to a computer

• US 10,055,415 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2013
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartdeploy LLC
• Original Assignee: Prowess Consulting, LLC
• Inventors: Noonan, III, Donal Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Survillo, Oleg
• Application Number:
  US14/106,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,712 Days
• Field of Search: 709220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method and system may include deploying a base system image to a computer, identifying a hardware device associated with the computer, and analyzing an archive comprising a node and a hardware file, the node comprising a deployment condition for determining whether to deploy the hardware file to the computer. The method and system may further include analyzing the hardware device to determine whether the hardware device complies with the deployment condition, and deploying the hardware file to the computer if the hardware device complies with the deployment condition.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

deploying a base system image to a computer during an initial phase of a deployment process performed in a pre-installation environment, wherein the deployment process comprises the initial deployment phase and one or more subsequent deployment phases performed outside of the pre-installation environment;

identifying a component identifier for each hardware device associated with the computer;

receiving an archive comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of hardware files, each node corresponding to a particular hardware file and comprising (i) a node component identifier corresponding to a hardware device, (ii) a deployment condition for determining whether to deploy the particular hardware file to the computer and (iii) a designation of a deployment phase in the deployment process;

processing each node in the archive to conditionally deploy one or more the hardware files to the component, wherein each node is processed by;

identifying a hardware device associated with the computer by matching the node component identifier of the node with the component identifier of the hardware device,

analyzing the hardware device to determine whether the hardware device complies with the deployment condition, and

deploying one or more hardware files to the computer during the designated deployment phase if the hardware device complies with the deployment condition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the base system image includes information common to a plurality of computers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises mounting a registry database of the computer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises querying the computer to identify a hardware configuration file.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises identifying a hardware abstraction layer type of the computer based on the hardware configuration file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises copying a hardware abstraction layer support file to the computer based on the hardware abstraction layer type.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises updating the registry database to point to the hardware abstraction layer support file.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying a hardware device further comprises enumerating a plurality of hardware devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the hardware device further comprises:

identifying a filter associated with the node, the filter comprising a rule; and

applying the filter to a hardware attribute of the hardware device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the hardware device further comprises determining that the hardware attribute of the hardware device complies with the rule.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein analyzing the archive further comprises extracting the hardware file from the archive if the hardware attribute complies with the rule.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the hardware device further comprises identifying a match between a component identification of the hardware device with a component identification of the node.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the deployment condition comprises at least one of a component identification condition, a filter condition, and an action condition.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the hardware file further comprises:

determining that the hardware device is used during booting of the computer; and

injecting the hardware file during a pre-installation environment.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein injecting the hardware file further comprises:

analyzing a registry database to identify a storage location on a hard disk associated with the hardware device; and

storing the hardware file at the storage location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein injecting the hardware file further comprises updating the registry database to point to the hardware file stored in the hard disk.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the hardware file further comprises

updating a registry database to set the action to run during the deployment stage;

and

copying the hardware file associated with the action to a storage location on a hard disk of the computer associated with the hardware device.

18. A non-transitory computer readable media comprising code to perform a method comprising:

deploying a base system image to a computer during an initial phase of a deployment process performed in a pre-installation environment, wherein the deployment process comprises the initial deployment phase and one or more subsequent deployment phases performed outside of the pre-installation environment;

identifying a component identifier for each hardware device associated with the computer;

receiving an archive comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of hardware files, each node corresponding to a particular hardware file and comprising (i) a node component identifier corresponding to a hardware device, (ii) a deployment condition for determining whether to deploy the particular hardware file to the computer and (iii) a designation of a deployment phase in the deployment process;

processing each node in the archive to conditionally deploy one or more the hardware files to the component, wherein each node is processed by;

identifying a hardware device associated with the computer by matching the node component identifier of the node with the component identifier of the hardware device,

analyzing the hardware device to determine whether the hardware device complies with the deployment condition, and

deploying one or more hardware files to the computer during the designated deployment phase if the hardware device complies with the deployment condition.