Infrastructure management system for hardware failure remediation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10164852-B2
Application number	US-201615167394-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2016
Priority date	Dec 31, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

In embodiments, methods and systems for implementing an infrastructure management system that supports hardware failure remediation are provided. A determination is made that a failure of a hardware component has occurred. The hardware component is part of a hardware composite. A remediation attribute of the hardware composite is accessed. The remediation attribute indicates a minimum operational bar for the hardware composite. The minimum operational bar is based on health metrics or optional and required components of the hardware composite. The bar supports determining whether the hardware composite should operate in a degraded state. A determination is made that the hardware composite if operating without the hardware component that has failed meets the minimum operational bar for the hardware composite. Operation of the hardware composite in the degraded state is initiated. In embodiments, hardware managers are associated with degraded state configurations to facilitate operating the hardware composite in the degraded state.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for implementing an infrastructure management system that supports hardware failure remediation, the system comprising:
an infrastructure management component configured to:
determine that a failure of a hardware component has occurred, the hardware component is comprised in a hardware composite;
initiate remediation operations for operating the hardware composite in a degraded state, wherein the degraded state includes the hardware composite operating without the failed hardware component;
access a remediation attribute of the hardware composite, wherein the remediation attribute indicates a minimum operational bar for the hardware composite, wherein a plurality of different types of hardware composites are configured with corresponding minimum operational bars for hardware components in the different types of hardware composites;
determine that the hardware composite operating without the hardware component that has failed meets a minimum operational bar for the hardware composite; and
initiate operation of the hardware composite in the degraded state, wherein the degraded state includes the hardware composite operating without the failed hardware component.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a configuration schema comprises a plurality of attributes for defining a configuration file for corresponding hardware composites, the plurality of attributes includes the remediation attribute that indicates the minimum operational bar from a health model of hardware composite, wherein the health model is a representation of the computing condition of the hardware composite.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the minimum operational bar is defined based on health metrics or optional and required components associated the hardware composite.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein a hardware manager associated with the hardware composite is pre-configured with degraded state configurations in anticipation of the degraded state for operating the hardware composite, wherein the degraded state configuration comprises instructions for operating the hardware composite in the degraded state.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a datacenter manager component configured to:
provide access to health state information and configuration files for hardware composites, wherein the health state information comprises health state information for individual healthy hardware components and unhealthy hardware components of the hardware composite;
a watch dog component configured to:
access the health state information for hardware composites;
selectively monitor hardware components of a hardware composite where the health state information indicates the hardware components that are healthy;
and
report failures in the hardware composite, wherein at least one failure is a based on a health SLA failure of the hardware composite.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
a provisioning service component configured to:
execute remediation operations on the hardware composite in the degraded state based on health state information and a configuration file corresponding to the hardware composite, the health state information and the configuration file retrieved from the datacenter component, wherein remediation operations include validating the health state information of the hardware composite.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the provisioning service component is configured to:
decommission the hardware composite when the minimum operational bar is not met for a first tenant having a first SLA that is a factor in the minimum operational bar;
identify a second tenant having a second SLA, wherein the minimum operational bar is met for the second tenant having the second SLA; and
executing remediation operations on the hardware composite for the second tenant.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a Return Merchandise Authorization component configured to:
perform opportunistic RMA operations based at least in part on property fields of hardware components in hardware composites, wherein a property field indicates health state information for a corresponding hardware component of a hardware composite.

9. A computer-implemented method for implementing an infrastructure management system, the method comprising:
determining that a failure of a hardware component has occurred, the hardware component is comprised in a hardware composite;
accessing a remediation attribute of the hardware composite, wherein the remediation attribute indicates a minimum operational bar for the hardware composite;
determining that the hardware composite operating without the hardware component that has failed meets a minimum operational bar for the hardware composite based on accessing the remediation attribute; and
initiating operation of the hardware composite in a degraded state, wherein the degraded state includes the hardware composite operating without the hardware component.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the minimum operational bar is defined based on health metrics or optional and required components associated with a stock-keeping unit (SKU) of the hardware composite and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) associated with the hardware composite.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hardware composite is pre-configured with degraded state configurations in anticipation of the degraded state for operating the hardware composite, wherein the degraded state configuration comprises instructions for operating the hardware in the degraded state.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein upon determining that a failure of the hardware component has occurred, executing remediation operations for the hardware composite to operate in the degraded state are initiated based on health state information and the configuration file corresponding to the hardware composite, wherein remediation operations include validating the health state information of the hardware composite.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein initiating operation of the hardware composite in the degraded state further comprises:
determining that a plurality of hardware components of the hardware composite have failed;
determining, based on the minimum operational bar for the hardware composite, a subset of hardware components of the plurality of hardware components to repair;
repairing the subset of hardware components; and
executing remediation operations on the hardware composite.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
decommissioning the hardware composite when the minimum operational bar is not met for a first tenant having a first SLA that is a factor in the minimum operational bar;
identifying a second tenant having a second SLA, wherein the minimum operational bar is met for the second tenant having the second SLA; and
executing remediation operation on the hardware composite for the second tenant.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving an indication to initiate Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) operations to repair the hardware composite, wherein receiving the indication is based in part on SLA requirements for a tenant associated with the hardware composite.

16. A computer storage device having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method for implementing an infrastructure management system for hardware failure remediation, the method comprising:
configuring a hardware infrastructure with degraded state configurations in anticipation of a degraded st

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Mueller Ulrich
• Liu Jiwu
• Jubran Marwan E
• Gershaft Aleksandr Mikhailovich

Classifications

• H04L41/5025

  by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade · CPC title

• H04L41/5012

  determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• G06Q10/00

  Administration; Management · CPC title

• G06Q10/20

  Administration of product repair or maintenance · CPC title