Information Handling System Operational Management Through Near Field Communication Device Interaction

• US 20140215029A1
• Filed: 01/30/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 9,124,655 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• 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 interfaced with 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.

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 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 proximate 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.

11. A method for configuration of an information handling system, the method comprising:

retrieving an identifier from an 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 information handling system;

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

applying the configuration information at the information handling system.

12. The method of claim 11 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.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

in response to applying the configuration information at the 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.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the portable information handling system comprises a mobile telephone.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

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

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

16. A system for configuring network settings at an information handling system, the system comprising:

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

memory interfaced with the processor and operable to store the instructions;

a configuration module stored in the 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 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.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the configuration tool is further operable to:

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

store the retrieved network settings; and

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

18. The system of claim 16 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.

19. The system of claim 18 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.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the portable information handling system is a mobile telephone.