Information handling system operational management through near field communication device interaction

• US 9,686,138 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2015
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• 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: Ozias, Orin M., Terwilliger, Kevin D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R
• Application Number:
  US14/830,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20150372868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: 709227, 709228, 709220-222, 709223
• 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. A method for configuration of server information handling system, the method comprising:

retrieving an identifier from the server information handling system to a portable information handling system through a first NFC communication;

applying the identifier at the portable information handling system to lookup configuration information for the server information handling system, the configuration information including at least network configuration settings that define a network interface for a network interface device of the server information handling system to initiate network communications;

communicating the configuration information from the portable information handling system to the server information handling system with a second NFC communication; and

applying the configuration information at the server information handling system to initiate network communications through the network interface device; and

communicating through a network with the network interface device using the network configuration settings.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein applying the identifier further comprises:

sending the identifier from the portable information handling system through a local area network to a configuration manager; and

sending the configuration information associated with the identifier from the configuration manager to the portable information handling system.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

in response to applying the configuration information at the server information handling system, sending test information through the local area network to the portable information handling system; and

analyzing the test information at the portable information handling system to confirm operation of the configuration information.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the portable information handling system comprises a mobile telephone.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to applying the configuration information at the server information handling system, retrieving an inventory of components with a management controller of the server information handling system; and

communicating the inventory of components from the server information handling system to the portable information handling system with a third NFC communication.

6. A system for configuring network settings at server information handling system, the system comprising:

a processor integrated in the server information handling system and operable to execute instructions;

non-transitory memory interfaced with the processor and operable to store the instructions;

a configuration module stored in the non-transitory memory and operable to run on the processor, the configuration module operable to apply network settings to configure network resources to interface with a local area network;

an NFC device integrated in the server information handling system and interfaced with the configuration module, the NFC device operable to perform NFC communication; and

a portable information handling system having an NFC device to perform NFC communication and having a configuration tool, the configuration tool operable to perform NFC communication of the network settings from the portable information handling system to the configuration module;

wherein the configuration module applies the network settings received from the portable information handling system to establish a network interface with the local area network.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the configuration tool is further operable to:

retrieve network settings with NFC communication from a legacy server information handling system;

store the retrieved network settings; and

send the network settings of the legacy server information handling system to a configuration module of a replacement server information handling system.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the configuration tool is further operable to:

retrieve an identifier from the configuration module with NFC communication;

apply the identifier to retrieve network settings from a local area network interface of the portable information handling system; and

send the network settings retrieved from the local area network to the configuration module.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the network settings include test information, the configuration module further operable to send the test information through the network resources to the local area network and to the portable information handling system to confirm operation of the network resources with the network settings applied.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the portable information handling system is a mobile telephone.