METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DEPLOYING HARDWARE FILES TO A COMPUTER

• US 20090043890A1
• Filed: 08/09/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartdeploy LLC
• Original Assignee: Prowess Consulting, LLC
• Inventors: NOONAN, Donal Charles III
• Granted Patent: US 8,671,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• 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;

identifying a hardware device associated with the computer;

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;

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.

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

determining that the hardware file is associated with an action, wherein the action indicates a deployment stage specifying when to deploy the hardware file;

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 computer readable media comprising code to perform the acts of the method of claim 1.

19. A system comprising:

means for deploying a base system image to a computer;

means for identifying a hardware device associated with the computer;

means for 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;

means for analyzing the hardware device to determine whether the hardware device complies with the deployment condition; and

means for deploying the hardware file to the computer if the hardware device complies with the deployment condition.

20. A system comprising:

a processor module to deploy a base system image to a computer;

a processing logic module to;

identify a hardware device associated with the computer;

analyze 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;

analyze the hardware device to determine whether the hardware device complies with the deployment condition; and

deploy the hardware file to the computer if the hardware device complies with the deployment condition.