System, method, apparatus, and computer program product for determining a configuration of a converged infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9485145-B1
Application number	US-201314088997-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 25, 2013
Priority date	Nov 25, 2013
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

A system, method, apparatus, and computer program product for determining a configuration of a converged infrastructure are disclosed. A method may include performing a scan of network addresses for components of the converged infrastructure. The method may further include capturing fingerprints of components discovered by the scan. The method may additionally include identifying the components discovered by the scan based at least in part on a comparison between each captured fingerprint and one or more known component fingerprints in a fingerprint library, which may include a set of known component fingerprints and associated component identities. The method may further include accessing at least one identified component. The method may also include determining a component configuration of each of at least one accessed component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
performing a scan of a plurality of network addresses for components of the converged infrastructure;
capturing a fingerprint of each of a plurality of components discovered by the scan, each fingerprint comprising at least one hardware characteristic;
identifying the plurality of components discovered by the scan based at least in part on a comparison between each captured fingerprint and one or more known component fingerprints in a fingerprint library, the fingerprint library comprising a set of known component fingerprints and associated component identities;
accessing at least one identified component;
determining a component configuration of each of at least one accessed component by matching a captured fingerprint for the at least one accessed component with a known component fingerprint in the fingerprint library wherein the determining comprises determining a hardware configuration of the at least one accessed component and determining software installed on the at least one accessed component; and
generating configuration information comprising the determined hardware configuration and the determined software installed.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a network address range to scan for components of the converged infrastructure;
wherein performing the scan comprises performing a scan of network addresses within the network address range.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein capturing a fingerprint of each of the plurality of components discovered by the scan comprises determining a port configuration of a first discovered component; and
identifying the plurality of components comprises, for the first discovered component, determining a known component fingerprint in the fingerprint library defining a port configuration corresponding to the port configuration of the first discovered component.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein accessing at least one identified component comprises using an access credential to access a first identified component.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
using component identities determined by the identifying and determined component configurations to determine a topology of the converged infrastructure.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
outputting configuration information indicative of the configuration of the converged infrastructure, the configuration information comprising a set of identified components of the converged infrastructure and associated component configurations determined for the identified components.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining, based at least in part on identified components of the converged infrastructure and determined component configurations of the identified components, whether the configuration of the converged infrastructure complies with a release certification standard.

8. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises a bootable computer readable storage medium comprising instructions, which cause the at least one processor to perform the method when a computer system comprising the at least one processor is booted to the bootable computer readable storage medium.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is embodied on a flash memory device, and wherein the flash memory device is configured to be communicatively coupled with the converged infrastructure via a bus port.

10. A method for determining a configuration of a converged infrastructure, the method comprising:
performing a scan of a plurality of network addresses for components of the converged infrastructure;
capturing a fingerprint of each of a plurality of components discovered by the scan, each fingerprint comprising at least one hardware characteristic;
identifying the plurality of components discovered by the scan based at least in part on a comparison between each captured fingerprint and one or more known component fingerprints in a fingerprint library, the fingerprint library comprising a set of known component fingerprints and associated component identities;
accessing at least one identified component;
determining a component configuration of each of at least one accessed component by matching a captured fingerprint for the at least one accessed component with a known component fingerprint in the fingerprint library wherein the determining comprises determining a hardware configuration of the at least one accessed component and determining software installed on the at least one accessed component; and
generating configuration information comprising the determined hardware configuration and the determined software installed,
and wherein at least one method operation is executed by a processor.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving a network address range to scan for components of the converged infrastructure;
wherein performing the scan comprises performing a scan of network addresses within the network address range.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
capturing a fingerprint of each of the plurality of components discovered by the scan comprises determining a port configuration of a first discovered component; and
identifying the plurality of components comprises, for the first discovered component, determining a known component fingerprint in the fingerprint library defining a port configuration corresponding to the port configuration of the first discovered component.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein accessing at least one identified component comprises using an access credential to access a first identified component.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
booting a computing device communicatively coupled with the converged infrastructure to a computer readable storage medium storing an application configured to cause the computing device to perform the method of claim 10 , wherein the processor is implemented on the computing device.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one method operation is executed by the processor under control of an application executed by a virtual machine executed on a computing platform of the converged infrastructure.

16. A system for determining a configuration of a converged infrastructure, the system comprising:
at least one memory storing computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and stored computer program code are configured to operate with one or more processors to cause the system to at least:
perform a scan of a plurality of network addresses for components of the converged infrastructure;
capture a fingerprint of each of a plurality of components discovered by the scan, each fingerprint comprising at least one hardware characteristic;
identify the plurality of components discovered by the scan based at least in part on a comparison between each captured fingerprint and one or more known component fingerprints in a fingerprint library, the fingerprint library comprising a set of known component fingerprints and associated component identities;
access

Assignees

• Vce Co Llc

Inventors

• Bonczkowski Joshua
• Hansen Nicholas A
• Molner Matthew

Classifications

• H04L41/0866 Primary

  Checking the configuration · CPC title

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F8/65

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H04N21/2541

  Rights Management (protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08) · CPC title