Information handling system operational management through near field communication device interaction

• US 9,124,655 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Terwilliger, Kevin D., Ozias, Orin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R
• Application Number:
  US13/754,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215029A1
• Time in Patent Office: 944 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/228, 709220-222, 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 Validating the configuration within one network element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0202 Portable telephone sets, e.g. cordless phones, mobile phones or bar type handsets constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. of speakers or microphones H04M1/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Configuration information to configure an information handling system is obtained by sending an identifier for the information handling system to a portable information handling system, such as a mobile telephone, with a first NFC communication. The mobile telephone retrieves the configuration information, such as through a network interface, and sends the configuration information to the information handling system with a second NFC communication. Configuration information includes a variety of information, such as IP and MAC address, BIOS settings, software applications, firmware versions and end user specific settings.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

at least one processor operable to execute instructions to process information;

memory interfaced with the at least one processor and operable to store the instructions and information;

at least one network interface device interfaced with the at least one processor and operable to establish network communications using at least one network address;

a management controller interfaced with the network interface device and operable to remotely power up and power down the processor based upon communications received from the at least one network device;

a near field communications (NFC) device interfaced with the management controller and operable to communicate with an external NFC device; and

a configuration module stored in non-transitory memory and executing on the management controller, the configuration module operable to receive configuration information through communication by the NFC device with the external NFC device and to apply the configuration information with the management controller, the configuration information including at least network configuration settings that define a network interface for the at least one network interface device to establish network communications.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:

a unique identifier stored in the memory and accessible by the configuration module; and

a configuration table stored at an external storage device and having the configuration information associated with the unique identifier;

wherein the external NFC device obtains the configuration information by retrieving the unique identifier from the configuration module and applying the unique identifier to retrieve the configuration table from the external storage device through a wireless network interface.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the configuration information comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

4. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the configuration information comprises basic input/output system (BIOS) settings.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:

a configuration tester stored in non-transitory memory and executing on the management controller and associated with the configuration module, the configuration tester operable to communicate test information through the at least one network interface after the configuration module applies the configuration information, the test information communicated through the network to the external NFC.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein the external NFC is further operable to communicate the test information received through the network to the NFC device to confirm proper application of the configuration information.

7. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein the test information comprises at least an identifier to direct network communications to the NFC device.

8. The information handling system of claim 7 wherein the external NFC device is a mobile telephone information handling system having a WLAN interface to communicate with the network for receiving the test information.

9. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:

a rack having plural slots to support information handling systems; and

a chassis management controller disposed on the rack and operable to communicate with the management controller;

wherein the NFC device interfaces with the management controller through the chassis management controller.

10. The information handling system of claim 9 wherein the NFC device couples to the rack in association with visual indicators and the chassis management controller is further operable to communicate through a local area network to illuminate the visual indicators to indicate that information is stored at the NFC device for reading by an external NFC device.