Patent Application
20060150167
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for integrating non-native storage devices in an information handling system image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are typically manufactured to include an operating system and applications desired by the end user. Generally, information handling system manufacturers include the operating system and applications by creating a hard disc drive image created to have a configuration as if installed on a manufactured information handling system. Once the physical components of the information handling system are assembled, the system is powered under a manufacturing operating system and the image is copied to the hard disc drive of the system. When the information handling system is next booted, the operating system from the image of the hard disc drive is used to control the information handling system for final testing. Copying of an image to a hard disc drive saves considerable time in the manufacturing process when compared with the time typically required to individually install an operating system and applications and also allows mass production of similarly configured systems by copying a common image to multiple systems.
One difficulty that arises with the use of images in the manufacture of information handling systems is that a manufacturing image will not include device drivers for operating system controlled devices that are not native to the operating system. In particular WINDOWS NT based operating systems, such as WINDOWS XP, must have all supported SCSI devices defined and have drivers in the image in order for the operating system to boot from the image. If a hard disc controller of a manufactured information handling system does not have its driver included native to the operating system, then the initial attempt to boot from the hard disc drive image will fail because the operating system has no knowledge of how to access device supported by the hard disc drive controller. Instead, the operating system will issue a blue screen error stating IN ACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. When this occurs, the image generally must be rebuilt to include the hard disc drive non-native controller. Rebuilding an image from scratch increases test and development time and reduces the velocity at which new SCSI devices are implemented into the factory install process. As an alternative, a technician may manually install the drivers using current operating system hooks, however, manual intervention requires some technician expertise, invites human error and takes time to accomplish. Further, manual installation must generally be performed twice, one for the primary operating system and again for the source operating system used to recover the information handling system in the event of primary operating system failure.
Therefore a need has arisen for a system and method which automates the integration of non-native hard disc drive devices into an information handling system manufacturing image.
In accordance with the present invention, a system and method are provided which substantially reduce the disadvantages and problems associated with previous methods and systems for updating an information handling system manufacturing image with non-native device drivers. Non-native components of an information handling system are identified during manufacture in order to automatically update the operating system of the manufacturing image to include non-native driver support at initial boot of the information handling system.
More specifically, a manufacturing server has an image engine that loads an image to a manufactured information handling system, the image having a primary operating system that supports native processing components with native drivers. A driver engine loads non-native drivers onto the information handling system to support operation of processing components that are non-native to the information handling system. A parser parses the non-native drivers to identify operating system information that the operating system uses to operate the non-native components, such as the registry and critical device database entries loaded during an install of the driver to the operating system. The parser copies the non-native component operating system to the image of the manufactured information handling system so that the operating system recognizes the non-native component on an initial boot without having to perform an install of the non-native driver. A recovery engine applies the non-native driver operating system information to a source recovery operating system to ensure that the manufactured information handling system has a recovery operating system that will boot in the event of failure of the primary operating system.
The present invention provides a number of important technical advantages. One example of an important technical advantage is that a manufactured information handling system will recognize non-native processing components on an initial boot without requiring a separate install of the driver. Where the non-native component is the hard disc drive controller driver, pre-integration of non-native drivers ensures that the operating system will recognize the hard disc drive on initial boot rather than fail the initial boot, thus avoiding disruption of the manufacturing process and the delays associated with re-configuring an image to include the non-native driver or manually configuring the non-native driver. Further, pre-integration of the non-native driver with the recovery operating system helps to ensure that the recovery operating system will boot properly in the event of failure of the primary operating system.
The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference number throughout the several figures designates a like or similar element.
Pre-integration of non-native component drivers into an operating system on an image of a manufactured information handling system reduces delays in the manufacture of the information handling system by enabling initial boot of the operating system on the manufactured information handling system from the non-native component. For purposes of this disclosure, an information handling system may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes. For example, an information handling system may be a personal computer, a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price. The information handling system may include random access memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a central processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, ROM, and/or other types of nonvolatile memory. Additional components of the information handling system may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a video display. The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communications between the various hardware components.
Referring now to
In order to ensure that non-native components will be supported by operating system 28, a driver engine 42 compares the components of manufactured information handling system 12 with a driver database 44 and copies non-native drivers 46 to image 28. Once the non-native drivers are identified, a parser engine 48 parses the drivers to determine operating system information that operating system 28 will need to use the non-native drivers. By automatically identifying the operating system information associated with each non-native driver, parser engine 48 prepares operating system 28 to run the components with the non-native drivers without technician intervention or running an install process with the operating system. Parser engine 48 seeks to identify the files used by the operating system to install the driver with a native installation process and then applies the identified files from outside the operating system by inserting them as appropriate in image 28, such as in registry 38 and critical device database 40. Once parser engine has identified and inserted the non-native driver information to support operation of the non-native components, a recovery engine 50 applies the non-native driver information to a recovery source operating system 52 to make the non-native drivers appear native to the source operating system so that a recovery to operating system 52 will boot with the non-native components.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Although the present invention has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
