Provisioning for 32-bit or 64-bit systems

• US 20090064133A1
• Filed: 08/28/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Suchy, Miroslav, Zazrivec, Milan
• Granted Patent: US 9,652,210 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A provisioning system to automatically determine the appropriate components to install or make available for installation on a target computer system. The provisioning system ensures the provisioning of software components that are appropriate to each target computer system without requiring user input. The provisioning system can identify support for 64-bit software components. The provisioning system checks a field in the processor to determine longword, that is 64-bit support, or checks an entry in a file maintained by an operating system to determine 64 bit support. If 64-bit support is not detected then a 32-bit component is installed to ensure that the target computer system is capable of executing the software component.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

checking a profile of a processing device for a first architecture bit-size support indicator, the first architecture bit-size support indicator set based on a second architecture bit-size support indicator received from the processing device; and

determining a software component having a bit-size version compatible with the bit-size of the processing device.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second architecture bit-size support indicator is based on a flag of the processing device.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second architecture bit-size support indicator is based on an operating system configuration file.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying a user for a preferred bit-size version of the software component upon determining the processing device supports a plurality of bit-size versions of the software component.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the software component is any one of a 32-bit or 64-bit version of any one of an operating system, operating system component or application.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a version of the software component that meets a plurality of requirements of a system including the processing device, the requirements including bit-size, virtual machine extension support and instructions set support.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing the software component over a network.

8. A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations comprising:

checking a profile of a processing device for a first architecture bit-size support indicator, the first architecture bit-size support indicator set based on a second architecture bit-size support indicator received from the processing device; and

determining a software component having a bit-size version compatible with the bit-size of the processing device.

9. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the second architecture bit-size support indicator is based on a flag of the processing device.

10. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the second architecture bit-size support indicator is based on an operating system configuration file.

11. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, having further instructions stored therein which when executed cause the machine to perform a set of operations, further comprising:

querying a user for a preferred bit-size version of the software component upon determining the processing device supports a plurality of bit-size versions of the software component.

12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the software component is any one of a 32-bit or 64-bit version of any one of an operating system, operating system component or application.

13. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, having further instructions stored therein which when executed cause the machine to perform a set of operations, further comprising:

determining a version of the software component that meets a plurality of requirements of a system including the processing device, the requirements including bit-size, virtual machine extension support and instructions set support.

14. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, having further instructions stored therein which when executed cause the machine to perform a set of operations, further comprising:

installing the software component over a network.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a provisioning configuration module to store configuration data for a target computer including an architecture bit-size support indicator received from the target computer;

a provisioning manager coupled to the provisioning configuration module, the provisioning manager to determine a software component to make available for installation on the target computer based in part on the architecture bit-size support indicator.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the provisioning manager determines the software component based in part on virtual machine extension support.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the architecture bit-size support indicator is derived from a configuration file of an operating system on the target computer.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the architecture bit-size support indicator is derived from a processor flag on the target computer.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the provisioning manager includes a registration manager to collect configuration data from the target computer.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a component tracking module coupled to the provisioning manager, the component tracking module to store compatibility data for a plurality of software components.