Auto-discovery of pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on a network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9626211-B2
Application number	US-201414529895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2014
Priority date	Apr 29, 2014
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method for auto-discovery of pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on a network, upon initial connection to a network, an auto-discovery request is automatically broadcasting over the network, by a first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device for supporting a virtualization infrastructure, to other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on the network. A response to the auto-discovery request is received from the other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices for auto-discovery of the other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on the network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for auto-discovery of pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on a network, comprising:
accessing an appliance comprising at least one server node,
the server node comprising:
a central processing unit,
a memory, and
a storage;

creating, within said appliance, a first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device for creating and managing a virtualization infrastructure, said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device comprising:
a pre-configured and pre-integrated storage,
a network component, and
software located within the appliance;

upon initial connection to a network, when not authenticated or configured to operate within the network, and at various times during operation, automatically broadcasting an auto-discovery request over said network, by the first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network;
receiving a response to said auto-discovery request from said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices for auto-discovery of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network; and
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to start a cluster with other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said auto-discovery request comprises:
a service type associated with said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said auto-discovery request comprises at least a portion of a unique identifier of said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said auto-discovery request comprises a service type of said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said broadcasting is a multicast Domain Name System (MDNS) broadcasting.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said receiving a response further comprises:
receiving a response from a stand-alone device of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein a service type of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices and a service type of said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device are the same.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to join a cluster of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

9. computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to be a standalone device in said network.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said first and said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices each comprise one or more independent server nodes, wherein each of said one or more independent server nodes comprises: a central processing unit (CPU), memory, and storage.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said first and said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices are a two rack unit—four node (2U/4N) device.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method for auto-discovery of pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on a network, said method comprising:
accessing an appliance comprising at least one server node,
the server node comprising:
a central processing unit,
a memory, and
a storage;

creating, within said appliance, a first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device for creating and managing a virtualization infrastructure, said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device comprising:
a pre-configured and pre-integrated storage,
a network component, and
software located within the appliance;

upon initial connection of the first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to a network, when not authenticated or configured to operate within the network, and at various times during operation, automatically broadcasting an auto-discovery request over said network, by said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device, to other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network;
receiving a response to said auto-discovery request, at said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device, from said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices for auto-discovery of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network; and
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to start a cluster with other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein said auto-discovery request comprises:
a service type associated with said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein said response is from a stand-alone device of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , further comprising:
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to be a stand-alone device in said network.

16. A pre-configured hyper-converged computing device for supporting a virtualization infrastructure comprising:
one or more independent server nodes comprising:
a central processing unit (CPU), memory, and storage; and

a first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device, within one of said one or more independent server nodes, the first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device for creating and managing a virtualization infrastructure, said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device comprising:
a pre-configured and pre-integrated storage,
a network component, and
a pre-configured software module that when executed causes said pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to:
upon initial connection to a network, when not authenticated or configured to operate within the network, and at various times during operation, automatically broadcasting an auto-discovery request over said network, by the first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network;
receiving a response to said auto-discovery request from said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices for auto-discovery of said other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices on said network; and
enabling said first pre-configured hyper-converged computing device to start a cluster with other pre-configured hyper-converged computing devices.

17. The pre-configured hyper-converged computing device of claim 16 is a two rack unit—four node (2U/4N) device.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Riewrangboonya Wit
• Macfaden Michael R
• Shanley Dave
• Epping Duncan

Classifications

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L41/0813

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title

• H04L43/045

  for graphical visualisation of monitoring data · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title