Distributed Enterprise Equipment Inventory Location System

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016104101-A1
Application number	US-201414510435-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 9, 2014
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Apr 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Management controller awareness and cooperation between nodes within an IT environment are used to provide a secure, optional and altruistic system to identify environment inventory. Such a system minimizes a management controller compute overhead, network burden via an optimized search space and provides an opportunistic scheduled time for response.

First claim

1 . A computer-implementable method for locating inventory within an enterprise environment, comprising:
generating, from a source, a broadcast message requesting location of a device within the enterprise environment, the broadcast message indicating whether the device corresponds to a particular lost type, the particular lost type indicating a severity of loss of the device; performing a search in a peer of the enterprise environment to determine whether the device is present in the peer; generating a reply to the source when the device is present in the peer.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the device comprises a non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory storing information relating to a history rotation scheme, the history rotation scheme comprising information regarding a current location of the device and information regarding a most recent different location.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the search comprises performing a search of a Lifecycle log of the peer.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
including information regarding a time frame of when the device was lost within the broadcast message.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the source comprises a management controller, the management controller comprising an ability to receive and process a lost request, to limit a search to the timeframe since lost, to schedule a current inventory and past inventory lifecycle log search in a convenient timeframe, to determine a match via looking at current and past possession and correlating the possession with a previous owner's information and on a hit, based on severity, react accordingly.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the management controller comprises at least one of a baseboard management controller and a chassis management controller.

7 . A system comprising:
a processor; a data bus coupled to the processor; and a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code interacting with a plurality of computer operations and comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for:
generating, from a source, a broadcast message requesting location of a device within the enterprise environment, the broadcast message indicating whether the device corresponds to a particular lost type, the particular lost type indicating a severity of loss of the device;
performing a search in a peer of the enterprise environment to determine whether the device is present in the peer;
generating a reply to the source when the device is present in the peer.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein:
the device comprises a non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory storing information relating to a history rotation scheme, the history rotation scheme comprising information regarding a current location of the device and information regarding a most recent different location.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein:
the search comprises performing a search of a Lifecycle log of the peer.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for:
including information regarding a time frame of when the device was lost within the broadcast message.

11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein
the source comprises a management controller, the management controller comprising an ability to receive and process a lost request, to limit a search to the timeframe since lost, to schedule a current inventory and past inventory lifecycle log search in a convenient timeframe, to determine a match via looking at current and past possession and correlating the possession with a previous owner's information and on a hit, based on severity, react accordingly.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the management controller comprises at least one of a baseboard management controller and a chassis management controller.

13 . A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:
generating, from a source, a broadcast message requesting location of a device within the enterprise environment, the broadcast message indicating whether the device corresponds to a particular lost type, the particular lost type indicating a severity of loss of the device; performing a search in a peer of the enterprise environment to determine whether the device is present in the peer; generating a reply to the source when the device is present in the peer.

14 . The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein:
the device comprises a non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory storing information relating to a history rotation scheme, the history rotation scheme comprising information regarding a current location of the device and information regarding a most recent different location.

15 . The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein:
the search comprises performing a search of a lifecycle log of the peer.

16 . The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for:
including information regarding a time frame of when the device was lost within the broadcast message.

17 . The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the source comprises a management controller, the management controller comprising an ability to receive and process a lost request, to limit a search to the timeframe since lost, to schedule a current inventory and past inventory lifecycle log search in a convenient timeframe, to determine a match via looking at current and past possession and correlating the possession with a previous owner's information and on a hit, based on severity, react accordingly.

18 . The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein:
the management controller comprises at least one of a baseboard management controller and a chassis management controller.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Lambert Timothy M
• Kunnathur Ragupathi Dinesh

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/08778 Primary

  for managing mis-shipments, lost items or stolen goods · CPC title