Patent Application
20160241432
This disclosure relates generally to information handling system, and relates more particularly to a system and method for remote configuration of nodes.
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. For example, an information handling system may be a tablet computer, a mobile device (e.g., personal digital assistant (PDA) or smart phone), or an enterprise server configured to transmit data on a wireless communications network. 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.
Certain information handling systems require flash storage space to perform management tasks. As space constraints increase in information handling systems, certain issues and problems may arise with providing sufficient flash storage space.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a system comprises a first node and the first node comprises a first controller. The first controller is operable to access a set of files that are stored within a drive of the first node and configure the first node based on the set of files. The first controller is further configured to receive, from a second controller, a first message requesting access to the partition in the first node comprising the set of files. The second controller may be within a second node, which is different than the first node. In response to receiving the first message, the first controller transmits a second message to the second controller allowing the second controller to access the partition in the first node comprising the set of files by emulating the partition to configure the second node. The first controller is further configured to transfer the set of files to the second controller.
Certain embodiments of the present disclosure may provide one or more technical advantages. For example, by allowing access to the set of files stored on the first node, the second node may not need as much storage space (e.g., the second node may not need a separate storage device such as a flash storage device) because it may not need to store items such as operating system images and operating system drivers used for configuring or updating the operating system or other software, firmware, and/or hardware of the second node. This may provide the ability to reduce or eliminate the need for certain storage devices on many nodes and/or servers, thereby saving costs. As another example, one advantage can be reducing or eliminating the need to ship additional media (e.g., optical discs such as Compact Discs (CDs) or Digital Video Discs (DVDs)) to customers.
In some embodiments, the system allows its nodes to be configured and/or updated by accessing a set of files stored on a first node, rather than requiring additional media to store the set of files. As an additional example, as the space used by operating systems increases and space constraints in information handling systems continue to remain a concern, one advantage can be reducing or eliminating the need for large flash storage to store items such as operating system drivers, updates, or other software or files used to update or configure an operating system or other software on a node.
In some embodiments, emulating the partition may include using a Network Block Device (NBD) service. The first message may be transmitted to first controller as a request and the second message may be transmitted to the second controller as a NBD response. By using NBD responses, the second message allows the second controller to access the partition in the first node comprising the set of files by emulating the partition to configure the second node.
In some embodiments, the first controller receives a third message comprising a request using Domain Name System Service Discovery (DNS-SD) and the third message may request whether a NBD service is available. In some embodiments, the first controller transmits a fourth message comprising a response using DNS-SD and the fourth message indicates that the NBD service is available. By using DNS-SD, the system allows for nodes to discover NBD services.
Other technical advantages of the present disclosure will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims. Moreover, while specific advantages have been enumerated above, various embodiments may include all, some, or none of the enumerated advantages.
Reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numbers represent like parts.
Chassis 110 of
Nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b in some embodiments, may comprise a server sled, a server module, a server node, a server blade, or any suitable structure capable of housing node components (e.g., drives 126a-b, processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b, memory modules 122a-b, 132a-b, and 142a-b, and controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b). Nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b may comprise processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b, memory modules 122a-b, 132a-b, and 142a-b, and controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b. In some embodiments, nodes 120a-b may be master nodes and may include one or more drives 126a-b that store operating systems 127a-b and partitions 128a-b. It should be understood that the particular illustrated components of each node are examples only and that additional, fewer, and/or alternative components may be present. For example, node 120a may include multiple processors 121a, memory modules 122a, or drives 126a. As another example, although only node 120a (and node 120b in
Drives 126a-b, in some embodiments, may comprise a flash drive, a solid-state drive, a hard disk drive, or any other suitable storage device operable to store operating systems 127a-b and partitions 128a-b. Operating systems 127a-b may, in some embodiments, comprise instructions executable by processors 120a-b to operate systems 100a-b and/or nodes 120a-b after booting. Operating systems 127a-b may be stored within a separate partition of drives 126a-b than partitions 128a-b.
Partitions 128a-b, in some embodiments, may be operable to store a set of files that can be used to configure nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b. The set of files within partitions 128a-b may, in some embodiments, be used to perform management tasks such as firmware updates or system repair. For example, the set of files may comprise operating system images or operating system drivers. In some embodiments, the set of files stored within partitions 128a-b may be removed in order to provide space for separate sets of files used to perform other management tasks. Partitions 128a-b (e.g., a deployment partition) may be created by an administrator of systems 100a-b using, as examples, an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) or factory provisioning software tools. In some embodiments, partitions 128a-b may be a hidden partition such that it is not visible to the host system, for example operating systems running on nodes 120a-b, but rather only visible to controllers 123a-b. For example, controllers 123a-b may detect the presence of partitions 128a-b, respectively, via a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express Vendor Defined Message (PCIe-VDM) while certain operating systems running on nodes 120a-b may not detect the presence of partitions 128a-b, respectively. Partitions 128a-b may each be a portion of a drive allocated for a particular file system. Examples of file systems deployed on partitions 128a-b are: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, HFS, HFS+, ZFS, EXT3, EXT4, and BTRFS.
Processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b may, in various embodiments, comprise any system, device, or apparatus operable to interpret and/or execute program instructions and/or process data. Processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b may include one or more: microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), or another digital or analog circuitry configured to interpret and/or execute program instructions and/or process data. In some embodiments, processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b may interpret and/or execute program instructions and/or process data stored locally (e.g., in memory modules 122a-b, 132a-b, and 142a-b, respectively). In the same or alternative embodiments, processors 121a-b, 131a-b, and 141a-b may interpret and/or execute program instructions and/or process data stored remotely.
Memory modules 122a-b, 132a-b, and 142a-b may, in various embodiments, comprise any system, device, or apparatus operable to retain and/or retrieve program instructions and/or data (e.g., computer-readable media). Memory modules 122a-b, 132a-b, and 142a-b may comprise one or more modules; such modules can include random access memory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a PMCCIA card, flash memory, magnetic storage, opto-magnetic storage, and/or a suitable selection and/or array of volatile or non-volatile memory that retains data after power to its associated information handling system, such as information handling systems 100a-b, is powered down.
In certain embodiments, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b may be implemented using any suitable device, system, or apparatus configured to monitor and/or manage one or more aspects of systems 100a-b, such as nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b, respectively. For example, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b may include or may be a part of a DELL REMOTE ACCESS CONTROLLER (DRAC) or an INTEGRATED DELL REMOTE ACCESS CONTROLLER (iDRAC). In certain embodiments, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b may enable an administrator or other user to remotely monitor and/or remotely manage one or more aspects of systems 100a-b and/or nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b, respectively.
In some embodiments, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b may comprise Domain Name System-Service Discovery (DNS-SD) (e.g., as specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force) servers 124a-b and DNS-SD clients 134a-b and 144a-b in order to allow a host to discover a list of named instances of a desired service using DNS messages. Systems 100a-b may use any system that facilitates service discovery via the DNS-SD protocol suite, for example, AVAHI (e.g., as developed by Lennart Poettering and Trent Lloyd) and BONJOUR (e.g., as developed by APPLE INC.). To implement DNS-SD, systems 100a-b may comprise DNS-SD servers 124a-b and DNS-SD clients 134a-b and 144a-b. In some embodiments, DNS-SD clients 134a-b and 144a-b may transmit a message using DNS-SD requesting information on whether a service (e.g., a Network Block Device (NBD) service as used in the LINUX kernel) is available. For example, node 130a may use DNS-SD client 134a to engage in multicast discovery, which comprises sending a message using DNS-SD to one or more nodes 120a and 140a in system 100a to determine what services are available. In some embodiments, DNS-SD server 124a may transmit a message using DNS-SD in response indicating what services are available. The message from DNS-SD server may further include information such as the service name and the domain of the discovered service.
In some embodiments, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, and 143a-b may comprise Network Block Device (NBD) servers 125a-b and NBD clients 135a-b and 145a-b to enable a device stored in a remote location (e.g., partition 128a stored on node 120a) to be recognized by a separate node (e.g., node 130a) as a device to which the node is connected. NBD components, in some embodiments, may comprise NBD servers 125a-b and NBD clients 135a-b and 145a-b. In some embodiments, NBD clients 135a-b and 145a-b may be configured to retrieve data (e.g., set of files in partitions 128a-b) by sending requests to NBD servers 125a-b, respectively. Once NBD servers 125a-b receive the request, they may respond with the requested data. In some embodiments, slave controller (e.g, controller 133b) may send a message requesting to update its node (e.g., node 130b) to DNS server 170 and/or other nodes in system 100b. In some embodiments, the second controller may use the NBD service to emulate the partition in the first node comprising the set of files to configure the second node. Using the NBD service provides one example of how the second controller may emulate the partition in the first node; other techniques of emulating the partition may be used in various embodiments.
User interfaces 181-183, illustrated in
Network 160, illustrated in
In some embodiments, network interfaces 129b, 139b, and 149b, illustrated in
In some embodiments, controllers 123a-b are configured to access a set of files stored in partitions 128a-b and configure nodes 120a-b, respectively, based on the set of files. Controllers 123a-b may be further configured to receive a DNS-SD message requesting whether a NBD service is available. In some embodiments, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, controllers 133a-b and 143a-b are configured to: determine that nodes 130a-b and 140a-b require a management task to be performed (e.g., installing operating system, updating operating system with OS drivers), send a DNS-SD request to controllers 123a-b requesting whether a NBD service is available, and receive a DNS-SD response from controllers 123a-b indicating that a NBD service is available. In some embodiments, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, with reference to
In some embodiments, with reference to
At step 206, in some embodiments, controller 143a transmits DNS-SD request messages to other nodes in system 100a. Controller 143a may use MCC 150 in order to transmit the message to the other nodes stored in chassis 110. Controller 143a may transmit the DNS-SD messages to any number of nodes within system 100a. For example, controller 143a may send a DNS-SD message to each node within the system, such as node 130a and node 120a. As another example, controller 143a may send a DNS-SD request message to only one other node in the system such as node 120a.
At step 208, in some embodiments, controllers 123a and 133a of nodes 120a and 130a, respectively, may receive the DNS-SD request sent from controller 143a. Controller 133a, in some embodiments may receive the DNS-SD request message and send no response because it does not have a NBD service available. As another example, at step 210 controller 123a may transmit a DNS-SD response to slave controller 143a indicating that it has a NBD service available, which may be received by controller 143a in step 212. In receiving the DNS-SD response, controller 143a now has information (e.g., domain) of the NBD service that is available.
At step 214, in some embodiments, controller 143a may transmit a NBD request, which may be received by controller 123a at step 216. The NBD request may be sent using MCC 150 and may request access to the set of files stored in partition 128a. At step 218, in some embodiments, controller 123a may transmit a NBD response message to slave controller 143a, which slave controller 143a may receive at step 220. The response may include information indicating that controller 143a has access to partition 128a of drive 126a and the set of files stored within partition 128a. If controller 123a initiates the NBD process in this way, then steps 214, 216, and 218 may be omitted. This allows system 100a to reduce the number of messages being sent between nodes 120a, 130a, and 140a.
At step 222, in some embodiments, controller 143a may emulate partition 128a in order to receive the set of files from controller 123a. By emulating partition 186a, controller 143a is able to update and/or configure node 140a even though the set of files are not stored within the host system of node 140a, but rather stored remotely within node 120a. Emulating may include causing the node to detect the drive or partition as if the drive or partition were connected to the node. This may reduce the amount of required storage space within node 140a while still allowing management tasks, such as loading an operating system or updating an operating system using operating system drivers, to be performed. In some embodiments, controller 143a may emulate partition 128a using the NBD service, although other suitable protocols, programs, or services may be used. At step 224, in some embodiments, controller 123a transfers the set of files stored within partition 128a to controller 143a. Controller 143a, by continuing to emulate partition 128a, may update and configure node 140a. After this, the method ends.
At step 306, in some embodiments, controller 123b may transmit a DNS-SD message to DNS server 170 via network 160 in order to advertise the services that node 120b has available. By sending this information to DNS server 170, controller 123b can allow controllers 133b and 144b to use the unicast method of service discovery, rather than the multicast method of service discovery. At step 308, controllers 133b and 143b may transmit a DNS-SD message to DNS server 170 requesting information regarding available services (e.g., NBD service) within system 100b and DNS server 170 receives the message at step 310. By engaging in unicast discovery, controller 133b only needs to send one message to DNS server 170, rather than sending a DNS-SD message to each of the other nodes (e.g., nodes 120b, 140b) in system 100b. In response to receiving the DNS-SD request at step 310, DNS server 170 may transmit a DNS-SD response indicating information regarding the requested service at step 312. At step 314, controller 123b may receive the message regarding the requested service.
In some embodiments, controller 133b may engage in multicast discovery, which includes sending DNS-SD messages to a plurality of nodes within system 100b. At step 316, in some embodiments, controller 133b may send DNS-SD requests to other nodes (e.g., 120b and 140b) in system 100b. For example, controller 133b may send a DNS-SD message indicating whether a NBD service is available that would be received by controllers 143b and 123b at step 318, in some embodiments. Continuing the example, controller 143b would send no response because it does not provide a NBD service in this example, while controller 123b would send a DNS-SD response, at step 320, indicating information about the NBD service available through node 120b. At step 322, in some embodiments, controller 133b receives the DNS-SD response from controller 123b. In some embodiments, steps 316-322 of the method illustrated in
At step 324, in some embodiments, controller 133b transmits a NBD request, which is received by controller 123b at step 326. In response to the NBD request, controller 123b, in some embodiments, transmits a NBD response at step 328 indicating that controller 133b has access to drive 126b, and the response is received by controller 133b at step 330. At step 332, in some embodiments, controller 143b may emulate partition 128b in order to receive the set of files that are transferred by controller 123b at step 334. Then the method ends. In some embodiments, steps 324-334 of the method illustrated in
For the purposes of this disclosure, an information handling system may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, calculate, determine, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, communicate, 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 (e.g., desktop or laptop), tablet computer, mobile device (e.g., personal digital assistant (PDA) or smart phone), server (e.g., blade server or rack server), 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, touchscreen and/or a video display. The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communication between the various hardware components.
For the purposes of this disclosure, computer-readable media may include any instrumentality or aggregation of instrumentalities that may retain data and/or instructions for a period of time. Computer-readable media may include, without limitation, storage media, such as a direct access storage device (e.g., a hard disk drive or floppy disk); a sequential access storage device (e.g., a tape disk drive); a compact disk; CD-ROM; DVD; random access memory (RAM); read-only memory (ROM); electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM); and/or flash memory; as well as communications media, such as wires, optical fibers, microwaves, radio waves, and other electromagnetic and/or optical carriers; and/or any combination of the foregoing.
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems described herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular information handling system having a particular number of particular components in a particular arrangement, this disclosure contemplates any suitable information handling system having any suitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement. For example, information handling systems 100a-b may include any number of nodes 120a-b, 130a-b, and 140a-b, chassis 110, controllers 123a-b, 133a-b, 143a-b, processors 121a-b, 131a-b, 141a-b, memories 122a-b, 132a-b, 142a-b, DNS servers 170, and networks 160. The components may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations may be performed by more, fewer, or other components. Additionally, the operations may be performed using any suitable logic comprising software, hardware, and/or other logic. Further, the steps may be combined, modified, or deleted where appropriate, and additional steps may be added. Additionally, the steps may be performed in any suitable order without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. While discussed as controllers (e.g., 123, 133, 143), their components, and DNS server 170 performing the steps, any suitable component of information handling system 102 may perform one or more of the steps.
Although the present invention has been described with several embodiments, a myriad of changes, variations, alterations, transformations, and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art, and it is intended that the present invention encompass such changes, variations, alterations, transformations, and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
