Method and system for maintaining composed systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11934875-B2
Application number	US-202017117047-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2020
Priority date	Dec 9, 2020
Publication date	Mar 19, 2024
Grant date	Mar 19, 2024

Abstract

An information handling system for composing composed information handling systems includes persistent storage and a system control processor. The system control processor, after being allocated to a composed information handling system of the composed information handling systems: monitors health of computing resources of the composed information handling system; makes a determination, based on the monitoring of the health of the computing resources, that at least one of the computing resources is in a compromised state; and, based on the determination, marks the at least one of the computing resources for recomposition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system (IHS) for composing composed IHSs, comprising:
persistent storage; and
a system control processor programmed to:
after being allocated to a composed IHS of the composed IHSs:
monitor health of computing resources of the composed IHS, wherein the computing resources comprise physical memory and physical graphics processors;
make a determination, based on the monitoring of the health of the computing resources, that at least one of the computing resources is in a compromised state;
based on the determination, mark the at least one of the computing resources for recomposition;
identify, at a later point in time and after the determination, a restart of the composed IHS;
after identifying the restart, make a second determination that the at least one of the computing resources is marked for recomposition;
based on the second determination:
pause the restart;
while the restart is paused:
receive a decomposition request for the at least one of the computing resources;
deallocate the at least one of the computing resources that is marked for recomposition from the composed IHS, wherein the deallocation of the at least one of the computing resources is based on the decomposition request;
prepare new computing resources for presentation as bare metal resources;
allocate the new computing resources to the composed IHS to replace the at least one of the computing resources that is marked for recomposition;

resume the restart after allocating the new computing resources; and
provide computer implemented services to a client using the composed IHS that comprises the new computing resources.

2. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the system control processor is further programmed to:
while the restart is paused and after requesting recomposition of the at least one of the computing resources:
delay replacement of the at least one of the computing resources that is marked for recomposition.

3. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the system control processor is further programmed to:
while the restart is paused:
receive an allocation request for a new computing resource; and
present, in response to the allocation request, the new computing resource as a bare metal resource to at least one processor of the composed IHS.

4. The IHS of claim 1 , preparing the new computing resources for presentation comprises:
generating at least one abstraction layer for the new computing resources; and
setting up management services for the new computing resources based on at least one management model.

5. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the composed IHS comprises a compute resource set, a hardware resource set, and a control resource set comprising the system control processor.

6. The IHS of claim 5 , wherein the control resource set presents abstracted computing resources of the hardware resource set as bare metal resources to the compute resource set.

7. The IHS of claim 6 , wherein the system control processor monitors the health of the computing resources based on intercepted bare metal communications between the compute resource set and the hardware resource set.

8. The IHS of claim 6 , wherein the system control processor monitors the health of the computing resources based on health reporting functionality of hardware devices of the hardware resource set.

9. An information handling system (IHS) for composing composed IHSs, comprising:
persistent storage; and
a system control processor programmed to:
obtain a composition request for a composed IHS of the composed IHSs, wherein the composition request is an intent based request initiated by a user based on a compute resource set of a first IHS, a control resource set of a second IHS, and a hardware resource set of a third IHS, wherein the first IHS, the second IHS, and the third IHS are distinct devices operably connected to each other over a network,
wherein the control resource set of the second IHS manages the hardware resource set of the third IHS and the compute resource set of the first IHS, and presents the hardware resource set to the compute resource set as bare metal resources to instantiate the composed IHS,
wherein the intent based request specifies a set of predetermined characteristics that the user wants to have in the composed IHS without specifying a method of management, types and quantities of computing resources to be allocated to the composed IHS,
wherein, based on a lookup table, the system control processor converts the intent based request into required computing resources, wherein the required computing resources specify the method of management, the types, and the quantities of computing resources to be allocated to the composed IHS to satisfy the set of predetermined characteristics;

allocate the required computing resources to instantiate the composed IHS;
after being allocated to the composed IHS:
monitor health of the required computing resources of the composed IHS, wherein the required computing resources comprise physical memory and physical graphics processors;
make a determination, based on the monitoring of the health of the required computing resources, that at least one of the required computing resources is in a compromised state;
based on the determination, mark the at least one of the required computing resources for recomposition;
identify, at a later point in time and after the determination, a restart of the composed IHS;
after identifying the restart, make a second determination that the at least one of the required computing resources is marked for recomposition;
based on the second determination:
pause the restart;
while the restart is paused:
deallocate the at least one of the required computing resources that is marked for recomposition from the composed IHS;
prepare new computing resources for presentation as bare metal resources, wherein preparing the new computing resources comprises:
 generating at least one abstraction layer for the new computing resources; and
 setting up management services for the new computing resources based on at least one management model;
allocate the new computing resources to the composed IHS to replace the at least one of the computing resources that is marked for recomposition;

resume the restart after allocating the new computing resources; and
provide computer implemented services to a client using the composed IHS that comprises the new computing resources.

10. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the system control processor is further programmed to:
while the restart is paused and after requesting recomposition of the at least one of the computing resources:
delay replacement of the at least one of the required computing resources that is marked for recomposition.

11. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the composed IHS comprises a second compute resource set, a second hardware resource set, and a second control resource set comprising a second system control processor.

12. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the control resource set of the second IHS presents abstracted computing resources of the hardware resource set of the third IHS as the bare metal resources to the compute resource set of the first IHS.

13. The IHS of claim 12 , wherein the system control processor monitors the health of the required computing resources based on intercepted bare metal communications between the compute resource set of the first IHS and the hardware resource set of the third IHS.

14. The IHS of claim 12 , wherein the system control processor monitors the health of the required computing resources based on health reporting functionality of hardware d

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Dawkins William Price
• Hass Jon Robert
• Padilla Valerie Diane
• Shetty Sudhir Vittal
• King James Robert
• Kenney Justin A

Classifications

• G06F9/5011 Primary

  the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals · CPC title

• G06F11/3433

  for load management (allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029) · CPC title

• G06F11/3442 Primary

  for planning or managing the needed capacity · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title