Agentless method to bring solution and cluster awareness into infrastructure and support management portals

• US 10,693,722 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2018
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Ali, Rizwan, Chaganti, Ravikanth, Patel, Dharmesh M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacobs, Lashonda T
• Application Number:
  US15/938,373
• Publication Number:
  US 20190306013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/82 Miscellaneous aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A coordination point includes a persistent storage and a processor. The persistent storage stores a distributed system map. The processor obtains role information associated with computing devices from validators without interacting with user resources of the computing devices; updates the distributed system map using the obtained role information; identifies a portion of the computing devices as members of a functionality group using the updated distributed system map; and enforces a configuration, associated with the functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the computing devices.

Claims

1. A coordination point, comprising:

a persistent storage comprising a distributed system map; and

a processor programmed to;

obtain role information associated with a plurality of computing devices from a plurality of validators without interacting with user resources of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of validators execute using computing resources separate from the user resources;

update the distributed system map using the obtain role information;

identify a portion of the plurality of computing devices as members of a functionality group using the updated distributed system map and

enforce a configuration, associated with the functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

2. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein the distributed system map comprises:

a plurality of functionality groups,

wherein each functionality group of the plurality of functionality groups specifies a membership of a respective portion of the computing devices of the plurality of computing devices.

3. The coordination point of claim 2, wherein the membership of each functionality group of the plurality of functionality groups is non-overlapping.

4. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein the role information comprises one selected from a group consisting of a system type, a solution type, a cluster name, and a node name.

5. The coordination point of claim 4, wherein the system type specifies user resource characteristics of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices.

6. The coordination point of claim 4, wherein the plurality of computing devices are part of a distributed system, wherein the system type specifies a function of the distributed system.

7. The coordination point of claim 4, wherein the cluster name specifies an identifier of a distributed system comprising the plurality of computing devices.

8. The coordination point of claim 4, wherein the node name specifies an identifier of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices.

9. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein the plurality of validators are hosted by the plurality of computing devices.

10. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein updating the distributed system map using the obtained role information comprises:

associating at least two computing devices of the plurality of computing devices with a functionality group of the distributed system map.

11. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein enforcing the configuration, associated with the functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices comprises:

sending a baseline configuration to validators hosted by each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

12. The coordination point of claim 11, wherein the baseline configuration specifies a hardware configuration of the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

13. The coordination point of claim 11, wherein the baseline configuration specifies a firmware configuration of the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

14. The coordination point of claim 11, wherein the baseline configuration specifies firmware settings of the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

15. The coordination point of claim 11, wherein the baseline configuration specifies applications of the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

16. The coordination point of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

identify a second portion of the plurality of computing devices as members of a second functionality group using the updated distributed system map; and

enforce a second configuration, associated with the second functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the second portion of the plurality of computing devices.

17. The coordination point of claim 16, wherein enforcing the second configuration, associated with the second functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the second portion of the plurality of computing devices comprises:

sending a second baseline configuration to validators hosted by each computing device of the second portion of the plurality of computing devices.

18. The coordination point of claim 17, wherein the baseline configuration and the second baseline configuration are different configurations.

19. A method for configuring user resources of a plurality of computing devices, comprising:

obtaining role information associated with a plurality of computing devices from a plurality of validators without interacting with user resources of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of validators execute using computing resources separate from the user resources;

updating the distributed system map using the obtain role information;

identifying a portion of the plurality of computing devices as members of a functionality group using the updated distributed system map; and

enforcing a configuration, associated with the functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code, which when executed by a computer processor enables the computer processor to perform a method for configuring user resources of a plurality of computing devices, the method comprising:

obtaining role information associated with a plurality of computing devices from a plurality of validators without interacting with user resources of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of validators execute using computing resources separate from the user resources;

updating the distributed system map using the obtain role information;

identifying a portion of the plurality of computing devices as members of a functionality group using the updated distributed system map; and

enforcing a configuration, associated with the functionality group, on the user resources of each computing device of the portion of the plurality of computing devices.