Unified system lifecycle for components in an integrated software and hardware system

摘要

An integrated software and hardware system is described that implements a unified lifecycle for the hardware and the software components therein. In the context of adding, removing or moving a hardware appliance, this allows the system to create, coordinate and manage a single lifecycle for each appliance together with its software processes, that is being moved or changed. The system includes a chassis with multiple enclosures for computing blades. Each blade in the chassis is assigned either a worker or bootstrap role. The worker blades perform the core processing of the service broker functionality and the bootstrap blades are used to provide the bootstrapping and administration of the worker blades. In particular, the administration features include an administration console that is provided by the bootstrap blade, which provides hardware management and process management.

主权项

1. A method for providing unified lifecycles in an integrated system including one or more chassis containing a plurality of blades wherein each blade includes a physical storage memory and one or more central processing units executing a set of software programs, said method comprising:
providing the set of software programs on each blade with a software lifecycle which includes a safe mode with minimal components of said software programs loaded allowing for low level diagnosis, an admin mode with all components of said software programs loaded but available for management purposes only, and a running mode with all components of said software programs loaded and online for receiving and processing traffic; providing an external management agent on each blade, wherein the external management agent operates to create a single unified lifecycle for each blade which integrates and coordinates said software lifecycle with a hardware lifecycle of each blade comprising insertion and removal of each blade; wherein the single unified lifecycle coordinated by said external management agent is operative to
transition said software lifecycle in order through said safe mode and said admin mode into said running mode in coordination with insertion of each blade, andtransition said software lifecycle in reverse order from said running mode through said admin mode into said safe mode in coordination with removal of each blade; and providing an administration console in communication with the external management agent on each blade and configured to access and render state information regarding said single unified lifecycle for each blade and to manage said single unified lifecycle for each blade.