Patent Application
20070294703
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.
Migration of an image of a legacy information handling system to a replacement information handling system provides the legacy operating environment on the replacement information handling system. The migration adjusts the image for variations in the hardware components of the replacement information handling system from the hardware components of the legacy information handling system. 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
Above hardware layer 14, an operating system layer 24 includes an operating system, such as WINDOWS, that coordinates operation of the processing components with applications of an application layer 26. A user data layer 28 includes user-stored information, such as documents and spread sheets that were created with applications of application layer 26. A user settings layer 30 includes user configuration settings that define defaults for the applications and operating system, such as for the presentation of a desktop. Operating system layer 24, application layer 26, user data 28 and user settings 30 are stored in permanent storage, such as hard disk drive 20 and retrieved to RAM for use during operation of the information handling system. In order to migrate an existing operating environment of a legacy information handling system 10 to a replacement information handling system 12, a migration agent 32 copies an image of legacy information handling system 10 hard disk drive 20 to replacement information handling system 12 hard disk drive 20. The legacy hard disk drive image includes operating system layer 24, application layer 26, user data 28 and user settings 30, and is, for example copied with a conventional imaging tool such as GHOST. To free up hard disk drives 20 for the imaging process, migration agent 32 establishes a RAM drive in RAM 18 of each information handling system. Replacement information handling system 12 operates under the control of a migration operating system 34, such as WinPE, that boots from a removable media, such as a USB key or optical disc.
When the image of legacy information handling system 10 is initially copied to replacement information handling system 12, legacy hardware support 36 is included. Since legacy hardware support 36 will not work with replacement information handling system 12, migration agent 32 removes legacy hardware support 36 from the image copied to replacement information handling system 12 and instead inserts replacement hardware drivers 38 into the image copied onto replacement information handling system 12. The removal of legacy hardware support 36 and insertion of replacement hardware drivers 38 is performed with conventional operating system offline file system manipulation while replacement information handling system 12 operates under the control of migration operating system 34. An automatically executed script identifies and removes legacy hardware support 36. Another automatically executed script identifies the model type of replacement information handling system 12 and injects a set of replacement hardware drivers 38 associated with the identified model type. Once replacement hardware drivers 38 are inserted, replacement information handling system 12 is booted to the operating system provided with the legacy image so that the legacy operating system can activate replacement hardware drivers 38 through the plug and play process. After the hardware drivers are initiated and replacement information handling system 12 is operating under control of the legacy operating system with the legacy user data and configuration settings, migration agent 32 completes any additional maintenance steps, such as inventory of the replacement information handling system, operating system upgrades, diagnostics and other cleanup items. Replacement information handling system 12 is then ready for use with the legacy operating environment presented through the replacement processing components.
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.
