System And Method For Assigning Addresses To Information Handling Systems

• US 20090077208A1
• Filed: 12/02/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Roberts, Michael, Nguyen, Cuong, Holmes, Bruce, Brundridge, Michael A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/645 Fibre channel identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2596 Translation of addresses of the same type other than IP, e.g. translation from MAC to MAC addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Information handling system network addresses are managed to support a consistent MAC address for iSCSI and fibre channel host bus adapter. For example, a management controller retrieves a MAC address from persistent memory, such as a network location, and assigns the MAC address to a non-persistent memory of a predetermined information handling system network component so that the MAC address remains consistent even if the network component is replaced. For example, an offload engine that supports network communications with iSCSI receives a MAC address from a network location and applies the MAC address for use by a host bus adapter. Alternatively, an offload engine supports Fibre Channel with World Wide Name or World Wide Identifier address assignments.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a processor operable to process information;

a network component interfaced with the processor and operable to communicate information with a network using a MAC address;

a management controller in communication with the processor, the management controller operable to interface with an address manager to retrieve a MAC address associated with the network component and to apply the MAC address to the network component for communication of information through the network.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the network component comprises a network interface card.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the network component comprises a storage area network.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the management controller comprises firmware running on a chipset.

5. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the management controller comprises a baseboard management controller.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 further comprising:

persistent memory associated with the network component and operable to store the MAC address;

wherein the management controller is further operable to retrieve the MAC address from the persistent memory and to apply the MAC address to the network component.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the management controller is further operable to retrieve plual MAC addresses for use by the network component.

8. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the management controller is further operable to remove the MAC address from the network component at power down of the information handling system.

9. A method for managing network MAC addresses associated with information handling system network components, the method comprising:

storing network MAC addresses in persistent memory accessible by the information handling systems;

retrieving with a management controller one or more of the network MAC addresses associated with a predetermined network component;

applying the network MAC address to the predetermined network component; and

powering up the network component to establish network communications with the network MAC address.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein applying the network MAC address further comprises applying the network MAC address with non-persistent memory so that the network MAC address is deleted at power down of the information handling system.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the network component comprises a host bus adapter.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the host bus adapter comprises an iSCSI host bus adapter.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

removing the predetermined network component from the information handling system;

inserting a replacement network component in the place of the removed predetermined network component; and

powering up the replacement network component to operate with the one or more network addresses associated with the removed predetermined network component.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the network component comprises an iSCSI offload engine that assigns a network address to a network interface card.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the network MAC addresses comprise plural MAC addresses.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the network component comprises an iSCSI host bus adpater.

17. A system for assigning network addresses to an information handling system network component, the system comprising:

a management controller operable to retrieve a network address associated with the network component and assign the network address to the network component; and

a network component interfaced with the management controller and operable to apply the network address provided by the management controller for communication through a network.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the network component comprises an offload engine and the network address comprises a MAC address, the offload engine operable to assign the MAC address to a host bus adapter.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the network component comprises an iSCSI host bus adapter.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein the network component comprises a fibre channel host bus adapter and the network address comprises a World Wide Name address.