Driver Model for Centralized External Hardware Appliance Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing distributed operating systems lack visibility and control over external network hardware appliances, leading to inefficiencies in managing and troubleshooting these devices, as failures within these appliances can be invisible to system administrators and require manual configuration by network engineers.
Innovation Solution
A driver model is used to communicate with device drivers associated with external hardware appliances, allowing for centralized management of configuration settings and status checks through a distributed operating system interface, enabling system administrators to manage domain name, firewall, and proxy settings, among others.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If external hardware appliances are managed manually by network engineers, then configuration flexibility is maintained, but visibility and control over appliance status are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a driver model as an intermediary component that bridges the distributed operating system and external hardware appliances. This driver model acts as a mediator that translates OS commands into appliance-specific operations and retrieves appliance status information, enabling visibility and control without requiring direct integration complexity between the OS and diverse hardware appliances.
2Productivity
If each network hardware appliance is manually configured, then configuration flexibility is maintained, but time and resources are wasted troubleshooting failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the driver model continuously monitors external hardware appliance status and provides real-time information to the distributed operating system. When failures occur, the system receives immediate feedback about appliance conditions, enabling automatic detection and notification to administrators, thereby eliminating the need for manual troubleshooting and reducing time to identify and correct problems.
3Ease of operation
If external hardware appliances are decentralized, then system flexibility is maintained, but control and monitoring capabilities are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by separating the management functionality into a dedicated driver model component. This segmentation allows external hardware appliances to remain decentralized and flexible while the driver model provides a standardized interface for centralized management. The driver model handles communication protocols, status monitoring, and control operations, thereby maintaining system flexibility while enabling centralized control and improved reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are provided to manage external hardware appliances from a distributed operating system interface in a computer network using a driver model to communicate with device drivers associated with the external hardware appliances. In one embodiment, a request to manage an external hardware appliance in the computer network may be received in a distributed web-based operating system interface. A driver model may be selected which is configured to interface with a device driver for managing configuration settings for the external hardware appliance. The driver model may be utilized to manage the external hardware appliance configuration settings from the interface. The settings may include managing domain name changes, firewall settings, proxy settings, and the like. In another embodiment, the driver model may be utilized to manage external hardware appliance settings during a network configuration operation initiated from the distributed operating system interface.