System and Method for Configuring Enterprise Information Handling System Storage Solutions

• US 20090150788A1
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Hayes, Robert, Deshpande, Hemant, Somasundaram, Jayavel, Lai, Hsinlin, Murray, Greg, Phadke, Asmita, Jia, Fenghua, Thex, Kevin, Wallis, Jason, Sathyanarayana, Sreenivas
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,491 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/735
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

Enterprise information handling system storage solutions are configured automatically through a graphical user interface that accepts storage device and storage topology selections from an end user to automatically present a graphical image depicting interconnection devices that interface the storage devices. For example, cables with a color selected by the end user are depicted interfacing storage devices with the selected color. In one embodiment, switches are automatically selected and depicted for the storage devices and storage topology selected by the end user.

Claims

1. A system for configuring storage device interconnections, the system comprising:

a selector interface operable to accept end user storage device selections from plural available storage devices and plural available storage topologies;

an interconnection engine operable to automatically apply the storage device selections to determine interconnection devices for interfacing the selected storage devices; and

a presentation engine operable to automatically present a graphical image of the selected storage devices interfaced by the determined interconnection devices.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the interconnection devices comprises cables to interconnect the storage devices.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the selector interface is further operable to accept end user color selections for the cables from plural available cable colors.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage topology comprises a storage area network and the interconnection device comprises a switch.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage topology comprises a redundant storage area network and the interconnection device comprises plural switches.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the interconnection engine is further operable to automatically retrieve a stock keeping unit for each storage device interconnect and interconnection device for use in generating a purchase order for the end user.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage topologies comprise direct attached storage, storage area network nonredundant fabric and storage area network redundant fabric.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the interconnection devices comprise Fibre Channel cables, Ethernet cables, and Serial Attached SCSI cables.

9. A method for configuring storage device interconnections, the method comprising:

presenting plural available storage devices and plural available storage topologies to an end user;

accepting storage device and storage topology selections from the end user;

automatically applying the storage device and storage topology selections to determine interconnection devices for interfacing the selected storage devices; and

automatically presenting a graphical image of the selected storage devices interfaced by the determined interconnection devices in the selected storage topology.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the storage topologies comprise direct attached storage and storage area network.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the storage area network topology comprises a storage area network nonredundant topology and a storage area network redundant topology.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the interconnection device comprises plural cables that interconnect storage devices.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

accepting a cable color selection made by the end user from plural colors; and

presenting the graphical image with the cables having the selected color.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

generating stock keeping unit numbers for each of the storage device interconnects and the interconnection devices; and

applying the stocking keeping numbers to generate an order for the storage devices and interconnection devices.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the interconnection device comprises a switch.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the topology comprises a storage area network redundant topology and the interconnection device comprises plural switches.

17. A graphical user interface comprising:

plural storage topology selections presented to an end user;

a storage topology selector operable to accept a storage topology selection from the end user; and

a graphical image automatically generated in response to the storage topology selection, the graphical image depicting interconnection devices that interconnect storage devices associated with the storage topology.

18. The graphical user interface of claim 17 wherein the interconnection devices comprises a cable depicted by a color selected by the end user.

19. The graphical user interface of claim 17 wherein the storage topology comprises a storage area network and the interconnection device comprises a switch.

20. The graphical user interface of claim 17 wherein the storage topology comprises a redundant storage area network and the interconnection device comprises plural switches.