Patent Application
20060179431
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice shall apply to this document: Copyright © 2004, Unisys Corp.
The present invention relates to the field of computing systems and, more specifically, to systems and methods for server consolidation. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
04 As technology has become more prevalent in business organizations, organizations have created server farms in an ad hoc fashion. For instance, as a new application become available or needed, organizations often add a new server to provide the computing support for that application. Often times, the server would have enough computing power only to run that particular application. Such ad hoc server farms become an unwieldy combination of overlapping applications, multiple versions of the same application, redundant data storage and disparate computing power. The result is duplicate applications and incompatible hardware. In some cases, businesses may not even have a complete understanding of their computing inventory.
Ideally, an organization's server farms would be a more homogeneous group of servers and applications with applications adequately balanced across the servers in the most efficient and effective way. But more typically, companies have an eclectic mix of computing products and hardware. The result is not only an inefficient computing system but also a burdened staff that needs to be proficient on all of the various hardware and software applications. To confront the issue, organizations are consolidating their applications onto fewer, larger servers that have increased availability and scalability.
Server consolidation can provide significant benefits, including a reduction in the total cost of ownership, creation of a streamlined, manageable operation, increased system reliability, increased capacity utilization, and so on. Server consolidation can give an enterprise the ability to scale processing and storage capacity without adding physical devices or subsystems, as well as the flexibility to partition and allocate resources as needed. Server consolidation can lead to a standardized computing environment, reducing the number of platforms, consolidating software products and system interfaces, and centralizing operation and systems management procedures. The result is a reduction in staff training.
Server consolidation generally can be physical or logical consolidation. Physical consolidation extends a system's scalability and logical consolidation migrates multiple applications or databases into a centralized application or database. In addition, Physical consolidation can thought of as two major sub-categories, server consolidation and storage consolidation. Physical server consolidation takes a number of servers and places their operating system instances into partitions or domains of a larger server. Storage consolidation combines data from different sources into a single repository and format. Storage is one of today's most important asset-procurement considerations in the data center, with costs that can often rival or exceed server costs. Since the economic life of the storage exceeds that of most servers, today's storage decisions will affect operations for years to come.
For example, if a given server has excess capacity additional applications can be moved to that server resulting in a reduction of the overall physical number of servers. Moreover, organizations typically configure systems to run at 50 to 60% utilization, leaving the extra capacity for peak workloads. If this unused capacity on various servers is consider for the number of servers in a large server farm, the amount of wasted resources can be enormous. By consolidating servers, the amount of unused capacity drops as dramatically as the number of servers no longer needed.
The subject patent document describes various methods and systems for automating aspects of server consolidation.
The above-mentioned features are provided by a system and method for deploying components such as computer programs on one or more of computing devices such as servers in a server farm. A communication device communicates over a network connection with one or more computing devices. As a result, a data set is received over the network from each computing device and the data set contains information indicative of characteristics of the computing devices. Computer-executable instructions capable of comparing characteristics of the at least one computing device to a set of predefined characteristic constraints are executed to determine whether the computing device meets predefined installation rules. Installation will only proceed if the characteristics meet the predefined characteristic constraints.
The data set is received in a markup language such as XML. In that way, computer readable instructions for performing an XPATH query can be used on the data set to retrieve a predetermined characteristic. The characteristic constraints comprise minimum disk space on a drive, minimum memory, minimum number of processors, application not already installed, a conflicting application is not installed, or whether a required application is already installed.
A consolidation system and method in accordance with the invention is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
A detailed description of illustrative embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to
14
A typical server farm, e.g., server farm 110 may have a variety of servers 110a through 110f. The servers 110a through 110f in the example server farm 110 may be of a variety of manufacturers, capabilities, power, etc. Moreover, as illustrated, the various servers contain a mix of applications and data. For example, server 110a runs applications App A and App B, server 110b runs application App A1 and maintains database Data 1, server 110c runs application App B1, server 110d runs application App C, server 110e runs application App C1, and server 110f runs application App D and maintains database Data 2. Notably, the various applications may be various versions of the same application. For example, application App A1 may be another instance of application App A, whether the same or different version. Similarly application App B1 may be another instance of application App B. Additionally, databases Data 1 and Data 2 may have a number of fields in common such that the two databases could be merged into a single database.
As noted above, consolidation service 115 provides tools to discover the various servers, hardware configuration, applications, databases, etc. contained with in server farm 110 for the primary purpose of consolidating the server farm into server farm 120.
Server farm 120 provides at least all of the functionality previously provided by server farm 110, unless of course some of the functionality was intentionally removed during the consolidation. In the consolidated server farm 120, hardware may be combined, eliminated, upgraded etc. Similarly, applications may be consolidated to run on a single server, eliminated, or various version of a single application upgraded and combined, e.g., applications App A and App A1 have been consolidated into application App A and applications App B and App B1 have been consolidated into application App B. Additionally, database Data 1 and Data 2 have been consolidated into database Data 1+2.
Discovery services 202 that run as part of the consolidation service comprise a variety of discovery services, e.g., Application/System Discovery, SQL Server Discovery, and so on. The various discovery services are agents that are dispensed over network 210 to discover and inventory the various assets in the server farm, e.g., server farm 110. The discovered information on the various servers, e.g., 110a-110f, are then stored in consolidation database 206. After a sufficient portion of the assets on the server farm has been discovered, analysis service 204 can then be used to analyze various aspects of the server farm. Finally, the analyzed information can be used to manage and deploy a consolidated server farm, e.g., server farm 120.
Primarily, there are two types of inventory agents: System and Application Agent and SQL Server Discovery Agent. There could be other agent types as well. For example, an agent type could be designed to gather information on Oracle databases, IBM databases, Object oriented databases, etc. Together these agents capture a number of data points relative to system hardware, application and database configurations in a Microsoft Windows operating environment. The System and Application Agent assists in the process of retrieving those data points necessary for analyzing existing applications to determine their suitability for consolidation and to assist in the design of a consolidated application infrastructure. System and Application Agent facilitates the capture of a detailed inventory of the client's existing server estate, including servers, applications, databases, devices, processors, memory and much more including the relationships of such information as defined in the System and Application Agent Inventory Model (described in further detail in connection with
SQL Server Database Agent facilitates the capture of a detailed inventory of the client's existing SQL Server estate including servers. SOL instances, databases, users and much more much more including the relationships of such information as defined in the SQL Server Database Inventory Model (described in further detail in connection with
Notably, the targets box 306 illustrates on technique for specifying a target server by host name. Other techniques are also possible. For example, the system 117 could accept a comma separated list of servers or the system could query the domain controller and obtain a subnet list of IP addresses in the server farm. In general, the servers could be identified by host name, host list, TCP/IP subnet, Microsoft Active Directory site name, or domain name. Host name enables the user to select a single server for inventory. In that instance, the user specifies the name of the host machine, and a user name and password with administrator privileges. Host list enables a user to select a group of servers from a host list for inventory. TCP/IP subnet enables a user to select all servers within a specific TCP/IP subnet. In that instance, the user enters the network subnet address and a user name and password with administrator privileges for all systems in the subnet. Site name, enables a user to select all servers in a specific site. In this instance, a user enters the site name and a user name and password with administrator privileges for all systems within the site. Domain name enables a user to select all servers in a domain. The user of the discovery tool must enter the domain name and a user name and password with administrator privileges for all systems within the domain. After determining the list of server addresses in the server farm, e.g., server farm 110, the system logs-in to the target server, e.g., 110a, and invokes the discovery process.
In general, the user will have to login to a target server as an administrator to complete the discovery process. Hence, the discovery service will have to have access to an administrator account and password. This account and password will in general, but not necessarily be the same on all of the servers throughout the server farm, e.g., server farm 110. The discovery process looks up account name and password information for each system as it is processed. As a result, the login process can be automated to login to each of the plurality of servers 110a-110f in server farm 110 using the username and password and thereafter invoking the discovery process. The discovery operation generally requires the organization to make available an existing user ID and password or create a new user ID and password for the servers that are targeted for discovery. The user ID should have administrator privileges, including the rights to debug programs and to load and unload device drivers, and can be removed from the systems as soon as the discovery task is completed
The Discovery tool launches a remote agent into each designated servers, e.g., 110a, to capture information about all of the applications and processes running in that system. The agent writes the captured information back to the consolidation computer system 117 as an XML file, where it is stored in consolidation database 206. The remote agent is then removed from the target server, e.g., 110a, leaving no trace of itself.
The discovery process generally employs remote procedure calls (RPC), interprocess communication (IPC), and named pipes to tightly couple the parent process running on one computing device (i.e. the computing device hosting the consolidation system 117) with the server computer, e.g., 110a, that is being discovered. RPC enables applications to call functions remotely. Therefore, RPC makes IPC as easy as calling a function. RPC operates between processes on a single computer or on different computers on a network.
Named pipes are used to transfer data between processes that are not related processes and between processes on different computers. Typically, a named-pipe server process creates a named pipe with a well-known name or a name that is to be communicated to its clients. A named-pipe client process that knows the name of the pipe can open its other end, subject to access restrictions specified by named-pipe server process. After both the server and client have connected to the pipe, they can exchange data by performing read and write operations on the pipe.
Discovery is the process of harvesting system information and information about running processes on specified servers located in a server farm, and storing the information in database 206 of
Multiple discoveries can be done by scheduling discovery at specific time intervals to capture those applications or processes that run only at a particular time or the discovery operation can be run again manually. Each time the discovery operation is repeated, a new revision of the server XML file is created. All revisions are stored and available in the version history.
The type of information discovered by Application and Process Discovery includes hardware information, such as the number of processors on a given system, available processors on a given system, processor level and revision, devices, disk drive characteristics and capacities, as so on. System information discovered includes system name, page size, operating system version, operating system build, network connectivity, and so on. Process and dependency information discovered includes active processes and their associated dependencies (both component and configuration), processor usage at both the system and the process level, memory usage at both the system and the process level, process creation time, process ID, process owner, process handles, process and dependency versions and timestamps, process and dependency descriptions.
SQL Server Database discovery is designed to facilitate SQL server Consolidation. It automates much of the information gathering and analysis process. It complements the information gathered through Process discovery. The information gathered is a detailed inventory of the customer's existing SQL Server estate—Servers, Instances, Databases, User and so on. The information collected is stored in database 206 and is used by consolidation system 117 during the analysis process.
The consolidation database 206 is used to store the information collected from target SQL servers. The database type is preferably a relational database. In addition and not to be confused with consolidation database 206, there are target databases, e.g., target SQL server databases: Such databases are the instances where the inventory is taken from. To access these databases, the database discovery process requires SQL admin privileges account on the target SQL server.
To connect to an instance of SQL Server, typically two or three pieces of information are required, including the network name of the computer on which the SQL Server instance is running, and the instance name (this is necessary in the case where only a particular instance is to be discovered).
Initially, after login, consolidation system 117 copies a procedure over to the target server, e.g., 110a. In particular, it copies a remote service executable program 404 to admin$ share on the server computer. Thereafter, four named pipes 402 are started up as shown in
When the discovery process 406 is in place on target server 110a, the control pipe is used to run discovery procedure 406. The named pipes 402, i.e. stdin, stdout, stderr, and control are routed to the discovery procedure. The discovery process 406 then performs the appropriate inventory collection, as described more fully below, and sends back an XML file that includes the data describing the assets on target server 110a. Thereafter, the discovery process 406 terminates and then is preferably shut down and also removed from target server 110a. The process is then repeated for the remaining servers in the server farm 110, e.g., 110b, 110c, and so on.
When the Application and System discovery agent starts on the target server 110a, the processes and DLLs information is collected using various system calls. To obtain a list of all processes in a Windows 2000 Server operating system environment, the following calls are used:
NtQuerySystemInformation is an internal Windows function that retrieves various kinds of system information.
SystemInformationClass indicates the kind of system information to be retrieved. The information includes: the number of processors in the system, information about the resource usage of each process, including the number of handles used by the process, the peak page-file usage, and the number of memory pages that the process has allocated.
SystemInformation points to a buffer where the requested information is to be returned. The size and structure of this information varies depending on the value of the SystemnInformationClass parameter:
SystemInformationLength is the size of the buffer pointed to by the SystemInformation parameter, in bytes.
ReturnLength is an optional pointer to a location where the function writes the actual size of the information requested.
Another call is used that provides a starting address to obtain the information about what DLLs are loaded by a process. That call is as follows:
ProcessHandle specifies the handle to the process for which information is to be retrieved.
ProcessInformationClass specifies the type of process information to be retrieved. This parameter can either retrieves a pointer to a PEB structure that can be used to determine whether the specified process is being debugged, and a unique value used by the system to identify the specified process or whether the process is running in the WOW64 environment (WOW64 is the x86 emulator that allows Win32-based applications to run on 64-bit Windows).
ProcessInformation is a Pointer to a buffer supplied by the calling application into which the function writes the requested information.
ProcessInformationLength is the size of the buffer pointed to by the ProcessInformation parameter, in bytes.
ReturnLength is a pointer to a variable in which the function returns the size of the requested information.
The information so collected is then put into an XML file and transmitted back to consolidation computer system 117. The below XML provides an example of a portion of such an XML file.
When the SQL Server discovery agent starts on the target server 110a, the following actions are performed:
1. The agent captures the SQL Server name and version on the target machine 110a.
2. For each instance of the SQL Server on target machine 110a, the following information is captured:
In general, the captured data is used to detect differences between database objects for duplicate databases on multiple servers. The following database objects are captured for comparison:
Roles, Users, Aliases, Defaults, Rules, Functions, User defined data types, User messages, Tables, Views, Indexes, Extended procedures, Stored procedures and Triggers. There are several methods available to capture this information. The preferred method uses T-SQL and collects the catalogue information from system tables. The below description illustrates an implementation for SQL Server available from Microsoft Corporation. Nevertheless, the overall technique is also applicable to other database systems such as Oracle database systems.
SQL Server available system stored procedures are used to capture information. For example, a join query against Sysprocesses and sysdatabases tables captures some of the information as follows:
The function interrogates Master db for any user objects. System Stored procedures are used to capture the data. The function looks for user type objects in the master database and the ones found along with their description and contents is written to XML file to be stored in the cache database.
To identify the potential login problems like duplicate names in more than one server and the conflicting permission, this function captures the logins and permissions via the stored procedures available.
For each instance get the list of logins and their roles for each database within that instance.
The configuration information such as from sp_configure, is extracted and compared against the default settings for a particular version of SQL Server.
SQL Server function ServerProperty is used to collect product version, edition, service pack, collation, etc. as illustrated below:
The below functions captures lists of Jobs, via sysjobs table of msdb, Alerts via sysAlerts table and Operators via sysOperators for an Instance.
Where replication is allowed, information is collected on databases and reported in a list, server, instance and dbnames along with replication role (Publisher, Distributor, Subscriber) and replication type. The system Store procedure ‘sp_helpreplicationdboption’ is utilized to capture replication information. To capture DTS packages info, the following SQL statements are exercised:
In order to get the database size and log size for each database dbsize (used and free), and logsize (used and free) are used and reported with server/instance/dbname. The below is sample code to go to each database and execute stored procedure ‘sp_spaceused’ to capture some of the information.
To capture log size information, the following SQL statement is used: DBCC SQLPERF(LOGSPACE) WITH NO_INFOMSGS
The database information captured is formatted into an XML file and transmitted back to the consolidation system 117. An example portion of such and XML file is as follows:
Here is a more detailed XML layout for the Schema information part only.
For each database within an SQL instance, there is an element called
After the information for a particular server has been discovered, the process is repeated for another server, e.g., 110b, until all of the servers of interest in a server farm, e.g., 110, have been discovered. After a sufficient number of the servers has been discovered, and more likely after a substantial number of the servers have been discovered, the analysis tools can be used to assist in aspects of the consolidation process.
Analysis tools interpret and generate reports from the information obtained during the discovery process. Any of the discovery files can be opened, including revisions of each file. Thus, the analysis process can be tailored to focus on any subset of discovered server assets. Once the set of discovery files are opened, the analysis tools summarizes the number of systems and processes being analyzed.
Although the analysis is described herein below in the context of server consolidation wherein the applications, databases, etc. are move to one or more other target servers, the analysis aspects and indeed many of the tools described herein also apply to a single server. That is, aspects of a server can be compared to itself at different points in time. Hence, it is important to note that the discovered XML files described above are maintained by server by time. This allows two forms of time-based analysis. In one case, the processes in use and system loading for a server can be examined as they change over time. In the other case, a server can be compared to itself after consolidation activities have occurred. That will allow a consolidation to be rolled back. For instance if an application and its dependencies were moved from a source server to a consolidation target server and the application and some or all of its dependencies were subsequently removed from the source server, the analysis tools described herein will allow all of the features to be applied in comparing one version of a server's inventory to a different version of the same server's inventory. In that way, a user can revert back to an early system state. Similarly, the system could be used to track what inventory was added to a particular server and at what version the additions were made. In this way, the analysis tool may allow a user to quickly identify which applications were added to a server that may have caused it to exceed utilization criteria. The important point is that the tools described herein apply to other contexts than the context of comparing a source server to a target server for the purpose of consolidation.
Reports that highlight opportunities for application consolidation and application coexistence can be generated. For example, the Common Processes report lists the processes running on two or more systems within the server farm. Applications associated with common processes are consolidation candidates. The analysis tools provide custom report output, sorted in any manner, on any stored attribute.
Reports can be generated based on queries of any of the following data elements:
* Hardware Information
Number of processors on a given system
Available processors on a given system
Processor level and revision
Devices on a PCI bus
Non-network disk drives on a system and characteristics of the drives
System Information
System name
Operating system version
Operating system build
Total and available memory
Applications
Application name
Application version
Processes
Process name and process ID
Process owner
Process dependencies
Process and dependency descriptions
Process and dependency versions and timestamps
Actual memory and virtual memory
Memory paging
Processor usage
Actual CPU time
Number of handles open on a process
Initially, a determination is made whether data has been discovered for a server or servers of interest (step 502). An initial high level analysis is made to determine potential consolidation candidate servers (step 504, 506). This process is described more fully below in connection with the analysis user interface figures. At step 508, a determination is made regarding the potential benefit of a consolidation. If there is a potential benefit, then all of the necessary data for consolidation is collected (step 510). This may already have happened, if so that step can be skipped. However, all of the detailed information necessary for consolidation should be available such as an application and all of its dependent modules, or a database and all of its tables and columns (step 512). Thereafter, an analysis is performed to determine the common components on the candidate servers, e.g., the number of applications and modules that are common between the candidate servers. Next a list of potential consolidation groupings are made, e.g., the e-mail applications can be grouped together on one machine (steps 514, 516). After the candidate applications and/or databases are identified, the dependencies are compared for variations, e.g., is the DLL on one candidate server the same version as a DLL on the other server (steps 518, 520). After the applications and/or databases have been consolidated, performance values of the consolidated server are measured to ensure that it has the capacity to perform the added tasks (steps 522, 525). Thereafter, the entire process can be repeated and new information discovered for the consolidated server farm to determine whether further consolidation is beneficial.
Additional analysis functions provide an indication of memory and processor loads and assist in identifying servers that are underloaded or overloaded. Servers that are underloaded may be candidates to have their applications consolidated on to another server. Additionally, servers that are already overloaded are not good candidates to accept additional applications in a consolidation and may, in fact, benefit from have one or more of its applications moved to another server.
In addition to system compatibility, process compatibility is an important consideration in determining which servers to consolidate. When the Process compatibility detail choice 1106 is made in pane 1100 of
When the database Compatibility details choice 1114 is made in pane 1100 of
Preferably, a more flexible approach would be used. In such an implementation, an XML loader uses Microsoft XMLParser to parse the XML contents into datasets. The datasets are then used to build relational records and stored into a relational database, e.g., database 206.
Schema 206a contains Sysinfo table 1602 which contains information such as the system name, make, and model number, system memory information, as well as information about the source of the data, i.e., which XML file and version number. HardwareInfo table 1604 contains server hardware information such as number of processors and available processors. Network table 1608 contains a variety of network information such as NIC identifiers, IP addresses, and so on. Device table 1610 contains information on hardware devices such as device names. Drive table 1606 contains server drive information such as total byte storage, bytes free, volume name, and so on. Application table 1612 contains information such as application name and version number. Process table 1614 contains information on processes such as process owner, cpu utilization information, memory utilization information, and so on. Module table 1618 contains module information such as module size, module name, and so on. Process Module Association table 1616 associates modules with parent processes.
Schema 206a is useful in performing system inventory analysis for such things as application consolidation. With respect to database analysis,
After the analysis has been completed and consolidation candidates have been identified, there may be a significant number of files that have to moved and/or loaded on the target server.
After a user has determined that deployment rules should be used, selecting define button 1705 causes a rules editor to launch.
Check for minimum disk space on a drive;
Check for minimum memory (RAM);
Check for minimum number of processors;
Check if a copy of this application is already installed;
Make sure that a conflicting application is NOT installed;
Make sure that a required application is already installed.
Of course other rule templates could be defined without departing from the scope of this aspect of the subject system.
The relevant XML files containing the discovered information is then parsed and compared to the defined rules. If the rules pass, the files are transmitted to the target server or servers and the installation and a remote procedure call is made to start the installation. Preferably, the transmitted install files are compressed before transmitting and decompressed on the target. Preferably the compression is performed by ZIPPING the configuration files before transmission and unZIPPING the configuration folders at the target server. The unzip program may be sent as part of the process, for example, by bundling the unzip program as a self extracting file.
Preferably, the testing of the defined rules is performed by an XPATH query against the XML file. For example, using the example XML file defined above in connection with the discovery, an XPATH query for the number of processors would return a “2” if applied against the below XML excerpt:
Similar XPATH queries could be applied for other rule values.
The above deployment may be used in contexts other than the consolidation context. For example, a company may want to deploy an application across a number of client machines throughout its organization. The above technique would allow a single deployment setup to automatically install the applications on the selected machines that meet the defined rules.
The above consolidation in an example description only and is not intended to indicate that applications and databases are consolidated in all server consolidations. Rather, the example is intended to indicate the breath of consolidation that may be possible. The overarching theme is that consolidation 115 provides the tools to determine the inventory of hardware, software, and data on a server farm such as server farm 110 and simplify the consolidation of that hardware, software and data.
Elements of embodiments of the invention described below may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software or any combination thereof. The term hardware generally refers to an element having a physical structure such as electronic, electromagnetic, optical, electro-optical, mechanical, electro-mechanical parts, while the term software generally refers to a logical structure, a method, a procedure, a program, a routine, a process, an algorithm, a formula, a function, an expression, and the like. The term firmware generally refers to a logical structure, a method, a procedure, a program, a routine, a process, an algorithm, a formula, a function, an expression, and the like that is implemented or embodied in a hardware structure (e.g., flash memory, ROM, EROM). Examples of firmware may include microcode, writable control store, and micro-programmed structure. When implemented in software or firmware, the elements of an embodiment of the present invention are essentially the code segments to perform the necessary tasks. The software/firmware may include the actual code to carry out the operations described in one embodiment of the invention, or code that emulates or simulates the operations. The program or code segments can be stored in a processor or machine accessible medium or transmitted by a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, or a signal modulated by a carrier, over a transmission medium. The “processor readable or accessible medium” or “machine readable or accessible medium” may include any medium that can store, transmit, or transfer information. Examples of the processor readable or machine accessible medium include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a read only memory (ROM), a flash memory, an erasable ROM (EROM), a floppy diskette, a compact disk (CD) ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, a fiber optic medium, a radio frequency (RF) link, and the like. The computer data signal may include any signal that can propagate over a transmission medium such as electronic network channels, optical fibers, air, electromagnetic, RP links, etc. The code segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as the Internet, Intranet, etc. The machine accessible medium may be embodied in an article of manufacture. The machine accessible medium may include data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the operations described in the following. The machine accessible medium may also include program code embedded therein. The program code may include machine readable code to perform the operations described in the following. The term “data” here refers to any type of information that is encoded for machine-readable purposes. Therefore, it may include programs, code, data, files, and the like.
All or part of an embodiment of the invention may be implemented by hardware, software, or firmware, or any combination thereof. The hardware, software, or firmware element may have several modules coupled to one another. A hardware module is coupled to another module by mechanical, electrical, optical, electromagnetic or any physical connections. A software module is coupled to another module by a function, procedure, method, subprogram, or subroutine call, a jump, a link, a parameter, variable, and argument passing, a function return, and the like. A software module is coupled to another module to receive variables, parameters, arguments, pointers, etc. and/or to generate or pass results, updated variables, pointers, and the like. A firmware module is coupled to another module by any combination of hardware and software coupling methods above. A hardware, software, or firmware module may be coupled to any one of another hardware, software, or firmware module. A module may also be a software driver or interface to interact with the operating system running on the platform. A module may also be a hardware driver to configure, set up, initialize, send and receive data to and from a hardware device. An apparatus may include any combination of hardware, software, and firmware modules.
Embodiments of the invention may be described as a process which is usually, depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed.
Those skilled in the art also will readily appreciate that many additional modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiment without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the invention. Any such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined by the following exemplary claims.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/455,749, filed Mar. 19, 2003, “Discovery and Analysis of System and Database Inventories for Server Consolidation,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US04/08497 | 3/19/2004 | WO | 9/16/2005 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60455749 | Mar 2003 | US |
