Mini appliance

• US 9,430,622 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2011
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Kacin, Martin, Kloba, David Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Fuller, Rodney
• Application Number:
  US13/182,145
• Publication Number:
  US 20130016470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,875 Days
• Field of Search: 361/679.02, 726/26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/32 Means for saving power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level

Abstract

In one embodiment, a mini appliance comprises: one or more low-power, low-heat, and low sound processors; one or more memories; and one or more software modules performing one or more system-management functionalities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

deploying, by a network appliance in a first network domain, a first copy of a first agent to a discovery device in a second network domain, wherein the first network domain and the second network domain are distinct;

establishing a first persistent connection between the network appliance and the discovery device;

sending a discovery request via the first agent to the first copy of the first agent to the discovery device, wherein the network appliance sends the discovery request via the first agent, and wherein the discovery request comprises a request to the discovery device to discover one or more computing devices in the second network domain;

receiving, at the network appliance, information related to the discovered one or more computing devices in the second network domain;

sending a deployment request to the discovery device via the first agent to the first copy of the first agent to deploy a second copy of the first agent to at least one of the one or more computing devices;

deploying a second copy of the first agent to at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices, wherein the deploying is based, at least in part, on the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices including a copy of the first agent;

establishing a second persistent connection between the network appliance and the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices;

distinguishing visually to a web-based interface the discovered one or more computing devices with the second copy of the first agent deployed from the discovered one or more computing devices without any copy of the first agent deployed; and

sending one or more commands by the network appliance via the first agent to the second copy of the first agent to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices by at least one of the network appliance or a deployment server, wherein the deployment server is connected to the network appliance, and wherein the deployment server deploys the second copy of the first agent in response to a deployment request from the network appliance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed by a deployment server, and wherein the deployment server is the discovery device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed by a deployment server, wherein the deployment server is a second computing device, and wherein the second computing device includes a third copy of the first agent and is persistently connected to the network appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein a first deployment device is designated as a deployment server; and

designating a second deployment device as the deployment server to replace the first deployment device as the deployment server; and

deploying the second copy of the first agent by the deployment server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing in the network appliance a list of the discovered one or more computing devices, wherein the list of the discovered one or more computing devices comprises one or more entries, wherein the one or more entries comprises whether the second copy of the first agent was deployed to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

wherein the list of the discovered one or more computing devices includes the second computing device; and

updating the list of the discovered one or more computing devices to indicate that the second computing device has received the second copy of the first agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovery device is a bastion host.

9. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions executable by one or more processors; and

the one or more processors coupled to the memory and operable to execute the instructions, the one or more processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

deploy, by a network appliance in a first network domain, a first copy of a first agent to a discovery device in a second network domain, wherein the first network domain and the second network domain are distinct;

establish a first persistent connection between the network appliance and the discovery device;

send a discovery request to the discovery device, wherein the network appliance sends the discovery request via the first agent to the first copy of the first agent, and wherein the discovery request comprises a request to the discovery device to discover one or more computing devices in the second network domain;

receive, at the network appliance, information related to the discovered one or more computing devices in the second network domain;

send a deployment request to the discovery device via the first agent to the first copy of the first agent to deploy a second copy of the first agent to at least one of the one or more computing devices;

deploy a second copy of the first agent to at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices, wherein the deploying is based, at least in part, on the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices including a copy of the first agent;

establish a second persistent connection between the network appliance and the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices;

distinguish visually to a web-based interface the discovered one or more computing devices with the second copy of the first agent deployed from the discovered one or more computing devices without any copy of the first agent deployed; and

send one or more commands by the network appliance via the first agent to the second copy of the first agent to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices by at least one of the network appliance or a deployment server, wherein the deployment server is connected to the network appliance, and wherein the deployment server deploys the second copy of the first agent in response to a deployment request from the network appliance.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed by a deployment server, and wherein the deployment server is the discovery device.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the second copy of the first agent is deployed by a deployment server, wherein the deployment server is a second computing device, and wherein the second computing device includes a third copy of the first agent and is persistently connected to the network appliance.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory coupled to the processors further comprise instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to:

wherein a first deployment device is designated as a deployment server; and

designate a second deployment device as the deployment server to replace the first deployment device as the deployment server; and

deploy the second copy of the first agent by the deployment server.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory coupled to the processors further comprise instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to:

store in the network appliance a list of the discovered one or more computing devices, wherein the list of the discovered one or more computing devices comprises one or more entries, wherein the one or more entries comprises whether the second copy of the first agent was deployed to the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory coupled to the processors further comprise instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to:

wherein the list of the discovered one or more computing devices includes the second computing device; and

update the list of the discovered one or more computing devices to indicate that the second computing device has received the second copy of the first agent.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the discovery device is a bastion host.

17. A network appliance comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

one or more software modules for performing one or more system-management functionalities;

a first network domain, wherein the first network domain comprises the network appliance;

a first agent deployed at the network appliance;

a discovery device of a second domain in communication with the network appliance via a first copy of the first agent executing on the discovery device for discovering one or more network devices, wherein the first network domain and the second network domain are distinct;

wherein the network appliance comprises the first copy of the first agent and an installation script associated with the first agent for installing the first copy of the first agent on at least one of discovered the one or more network devices via the discovery device;

one or more persistent connections connecting the network appliance to at least one of the discovered one or more network devices via the first copy of the first agent;

a deployment request that comprises a request to the first copy of the first agent of the discovery device from the first agent of the network appliance to deploy a second copy of the first agent to at least one of the one or more discovered computing devices;

a konductor on the network appliance, wherein the konductor maintains a list of tasks to be performed by the first copy of the first agent on the at least one of the discovered one or more network devices, and wherein the konductor assigns one or more tasks from the list of tasks to a selected copy of the first agent at a selected network device of the discovered one or more network devices;

information related to the discovered one or more computing devices in the second network domain stored at the network appliance;

a web-based interface for interacting with the network appliance via web browser executing on one or more of the one or more network devices;

a visual representation at the web-based interface that distinguishes the discovered one or more computing devices with the second copy of the first agent deployed from the discovered one or more computing devices without any copy of the first agent deployed;

one or more commands comprising one or more instructions from the first agent to the second copy of the first agent at the at least one of the discovered one or more computing devices; and

wherein the one or more system-management functionalities is a subset of system-management functionalities of the network appliance.

18. The network appliance of claim 17, wherein each processor implements advanced reduced instruction set computer machine architecture.

19. The network appliance of claim 17, wherein the one or more memories comprise one or more double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memories and one or more solid state drives.

20. The network appliance of claim 17, wherein the one or more system-management functionalities comprise one or more of license compliance, software patching, software inventory, data backup, or device security.