Real time notice of new resources for provisioning and management of fabric-backplane enterprise servers

• US 7,860,961 B1
• Filed: 02/12/2005
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Habanero Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Finkelstein, Yuri, Ingrao, Fabio Onofrio, Nicolaou, Cosmos, Saraiya, Nakul Pratap, Hanson, Geoffrey H., Griffen, Jeffrey Lloyd
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US11/057,113
• Time in Patent Office: 2,145 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-205, 709/213, 709/220, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/357 Fibre channel switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/45 Arrangements for providing or supporting expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/602 Multilayer or multiprotocol switching, e.g. IP switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/65 Re-configuration of fast packet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

Real time provisioning and management of fabric-backplane enterprise servers includes monitoring system status and configuration, displaying monitoring results, accepting user commands, and providing hardware and software management and configuration commands to the system. In one embodiment, an event is generated when a pluggable module is inserted into the system. In response to the event, the availability of the pluggable module is displayed to a system operator, and the operator enters a command to provision a server that includes the pluggable module. The server provisioning command is processed, resulting in a hardware configuration command being issued to the system, and an event indicating a status associated with processing the command is returned. The recognition of the inserted module, the display to the operator, and the processing of the server provisioning command occur in real time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving notice of an addition of an adaptable computing unit to a pool of free computing units;

receiving a command to form a networked computing system according to a listing of desired networked computing system qualities;

modifying state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit according to the listing; and

wherein the adaptable computing unit comprises at least one portion of a plurality of physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors, and at least part of the state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit specifies selective hardware isolation of the portion with respect to another portion of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors;

wherein the notice comprises a description of qualities of the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the description comprises a count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the listing comprises a desired number of processors; and

wherein the act of modifying is based in part on the desired number of processors and the count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the description comprises a count of partitions available in the adaptable computing unit.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the listing comprises a desired number of partitions; and

the act of modifying is based in part on the desired number of partitions and the count of partitions available in the adaptable computing unit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the description comprises a measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit.

5. A method comprising:

receiving notice of an addition of an adaptable computing unit to a pool of free computing units;

receiving a command to form a networked computing system according to a listing of desired networked computing system qualities;

modifying state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit according to the listing; and

wherein the adaptable computing unit comprises at least one portion of a plurality of physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors, and at least part of the state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit specifies selective hardware isolation of the portion with respect to another portion of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors;

wherein the notice comprises a description of qualities of the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the description comprises a measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the listing comprises a desired memory size; and

wherein the act of modifying is based in part on the desired memory size and the measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the description comprises a count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the adaptable computing unit is comprised in a pluggable module.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the addition of the adaptable computing unit comprises insertion of the pluggable module into a backplane.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the pluggable module is a first pluggable module; and

a second pluggable module is removed from the backplane before the insertion of the first pluggable module.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first pluggable module is a replacement of the second pluggable module.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the networked computing system is a first networked computing system;

the listing is a first listing;

the state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit is first behavior defining state; and

before the removal of the second pluggable module, a second networked computing system is formed according to a second listing of desired networked computing system qualities, and second behavior defining state comprised in the second pluggable module is modified according to the second listing.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first listing and the second listing are distinct.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first listing and the second listing are identical.

14. A system comprising:

an adaptable computing unit;

a management computing unit to execute management software;

the management software including functions comprising

receiving notice of an addition of the adaptable computing unit to a pool of free computing units,

forming a networked computing system according to a listing of desired networked computing system qualities, and

modifying state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit according to the listing;

,

wherein the adaptable computing unit comprises at least one portion of a plurality of physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors, and at least part of the state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit specifies selective hardware isolation of the portion with respect to another portion of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors;

wherein the notice comprises a description of qualities of the adaptable computing unit and the description comprises a count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the listing comprises a desired number of processors; and

wherein the act of modifying is based in part on the desired number of processors and the count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the description comprises a measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the listing comprises a desired memory size and the act of modifying is based in part on the desired memory size and the measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit.

17. A system comprising:

an adaptable computing unit;

a management computing unit to execute management software;

the management software including functions comprising

receiving notice of an addition of the adaptable computing unit to a pool of free computing units,

receiving one or more commands to form a networked computing system according to a listing of desired networked computing system qualities, and

modifying state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit according to the listing;

,

wherein the adaptable computing unit comprises at least one portion of a plurality of physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors, and at least part of the state defining the behavior of the adaptable computing unit specifies selective hardware isolation of the portion with respect to another portion of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessors;

wherein the notice comprises a description of qualities of the adaptable computing unit and the description comprises a measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit;

wherein the listing comprises a desired memory size; and

the act of modifying is based in part on the desired memory size and the measure of memory size available in the adaptable computing unit.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the notice comprises a description of qualities of the adaptable computing unit and the description comprises a count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the listing comprises a desired number of processors and the act of modifying is based in part on the desired number of processors and the count of processors available in the adaptable computing unit.