Method and apparatus for provisioning heterogeneous operating systems onto heterogeneous hardware systems

• US 20070118654A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Couture, Pierre, Jamkhedkar, Prashant, Prasad, Amresh, Kode, Ushasree, Bhalerao, Anand, Chitloor, Ravi
• Granted Patent: US 7,600,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method for provisioning a plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on a plurality of target hosts that includes for each of the plurality of target hosts, obtaining a type of operating system (OS) to be provisioned on the target host, populating an OS profile model based on the type of operating system obtained, activating a deployment service based on the type of operating system, and provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model.

Claims

1. A system for provisioning a plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on a plurality of target hosts comprising:

an operating system profile model for maintaining operating system information about a selected operating system (OS) of the plurality of heterogeneous operating systems;

a plurality of pluggable hardware services accessing the operating system profile model and configured to;

for a target host of the plurality of target hosts;

determine the selected OS of the plurality of heterogeneous operating systems;

activate a deployment service associated with the selected OS; and

provision the selected OS of the plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on the target host using the OS profile model and the deployment service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operating system information comprises name, type, version, and boot-server information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pluggable hardware services comprise a deployment service, a boot service, and a power service.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pluggable hardware services further comprises a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Service and a Console service.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a target host model for maintaining information about the target host.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

a resource abstraction layer for providing a set of application programming interfaces to support the target host using the target host model.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the target host model comprises remote management information for a power controller and a boot controller of the target host.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the target host model further comprises remote management information for a device discovery controller, a graphical console controller, and a serial terminal controller.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of target hosts comprises heterogeneous hardware systems.

10. A method for provisioning a plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on a plurality of target hosts comprising:

for each of the plurality of target hosts;

obtaining a type of operating system (OS) to be provisioned on the target host;

populating an OS profile model based on the type of operating system obtained;

activating a deployment service based on the type of operating system; and

provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model further comprises configuring a boot and install server, wherein the boot and install server is based on the type of OS.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model further comprises tracing and monitoring the OS installation on the target host.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein provisioning the target host further comprises outputting the provisioning from the target host using a console service.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of target hosts comprises heterogeneous hardware systems.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein provisioning the plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on the plurality of target hosts is performed in one single way for all of the plurality of target hosts.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein provisioning the target host further uses a target host model.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model further comprises turning on the target host using the target host model.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model further comprises setting a boot mode on the target host using a target host model.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein provisioning the target host using a deployment service and the OS profile model further comprises setting Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) parameters for the target host using the target host model.

20. A data center for provisioning a plurality of heterogeneous operating systems on a plurality of target hosts comprising:

a server executing an OS provisioning framework configured to;

for each of the plurality of target hosts;

obtain a type of operating system (OS) to be provisioned on the target host;

populating an OS profile model based on the type of operating system obtained;

activate a deployment service based on the type of operating system; and

provision the target host using a deployment service, the OS profile model, and code for the OS; and

a boot and install server connected to the server executing an OS provisioning framework configured to store the code for the OS for the target host.