METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING A RESCUE ENVIRONMENT IN A SOFTWARE PROVISIONING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100138521A1
• Filed: 11/28/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Likins, Adrian Karstan, Vidal, Seth Kelby, DEHAAN, MICHAEL PAUL
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/24 Marginal checking or other specified testing methods not covered by G06F11/26, e.g. race tests
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405

Abstract

A provisioning server can remotely deliver a rescue environment to a malfunctioning target machine. The provisioning server can operate in conjunction with a network management server in order to identify malfunctioning target machines, for example, target machines with damaged operating systems. Once a malfunctioning target machine is identified, the provisioning server can be configured to identify a rescue environment to repair the malfunctioning target machine and provide the rescue environment to the malfunctioning target machine.

Claims

1. A method of repairing computer systems in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

identifying a target machine, in a network of target machines, as malfunctioning;

identifying a rescue environment capable of being executed on the identified target machine;

providing the rescue environment to the identified target machine over a network connection to the network of target machines; and

communicating with the rescue environment to repair the identified target machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the target machine comprises:

receiving an indication that identifies the target machine from a network management server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the rescue environment comprises:

determining specifications of the target machine, wherein the specifications comprise software installed on the target machine;

locating the rescue environment that corresponds to the specifications of the target machine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the specifications are determined from a record of the network of target machines.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining a set of software previously installed on the identified target machine; and

providing the set of software to the identified target machine over the network connection.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of software is determined from a record of the network of target machines.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

sending instructions to alter a power state of the identified target machine after providing the rescue environment.

8. A system for repairing computer systems in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

a network interface to a network of target machines; and

a provisioning server, communicating with the network interface, the provisioning server being configured to

identify a target machine, in the network of target machines, as malfunctioning;

identify a rescue environment capable of being executed on the identified target machine;

provide the rescue environment to the identified target machine over the network interface to the network of target machines; and

communicate with the rescue environment to repair the identified target machine.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying the target machine comprises:

receiving an indication that identifies the target machine from a network management server.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying the rescue environment comprises:

determining specifications of the target machine, wherein the specifications comprise software installed on the target machine;

locating the rescue environment that corresponds to the specifications of the target machine.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the specifications are determined from a record of the network of target machines.

12. The system of claim 8, the provisioning server being further configured to

determine a set of software previously installed on the identified target machine;

and

provide the set of software to the identified target machine over the network connection.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of software is determined from a record of the network of target machines.

14. The system of claim 8, the provisioning server being further configured to

send instructions to alter a power state of the identified target machine after providing the rescue environment.

15. A provisioning application, the provisioning application being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform a method comprising:

identifying a target machine, in a network of target machines, as malfunctioning;

identifying a rescue environment capable of being executed on the identified target machine;

providing the rescue environment to the identified target machine over a network connection to the network of target machines; and

communicating with the rescue environment to repair the identified target machine.

16. The provisioning application of claim 15, wherein identifying the target machine comprises:

receiving an indication that identifies the target machine from a network management server.

17. The provisioning application of claim 15, wherein identifying the rescue environment comprises:

determining specifications of the target machine, wherein the specifications comprise software installed on the target machine;

locating the rescue environment that corresponds to the specifications of the target machine.

18. The provisioning application of claim 17, wherein the specifications are determined from a record of the network of target machines.

19. The provisioning application of claim 15, the method further comprising:

determining a set of software previously installed on the identified target machine; and

providing the set of software to the identified target machine over the network connection.

20. The provisioning application of claim 19, wherein the set of software is determined from a record of the network of target machines.

21. The provisioning application of claim 15, the method further comprising:

sending instructions to alter a power state of the identified target machine after providing the rescue environment.