HMS Inventory Cache for SDDC Rack Discovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The hardware management system (HMS) in software-defined data centers (SDDC) takes excessively long to perform rack discovery and inventory due to its stateless nature, requiring a full inventory every boot-up, which is time-consuming and inefficient.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where the HMS creates and utilizes an inventory cache that stores the rack inventory state, allowing it to query and update this cache during restarts instead of performing a full discovery, significantly reducing boot-up time while maintaining accuracy by using the PRM database and plugins to communicate with hardware components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If HMS performs full rack discovery and inventory every boot-up due to being stateless, then reliability of hardware inventory is ensured, but boot-up time and operational efficiency deteriorate significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing the complete rack discovery and inventory process before HMS restarts, storing the results in persistent storage. When HMS restarts, it retrieves this pre-computed inventory information instead of performing discovery again, thus eliminating the time loss while maintaining inventory reliability through the use of cached data from the preliminary action.
2Measurement precision
If HMS performs complete rack discovery for every single host and switch, then measurement precision of hardware inventory is maintained, but productivity and operational speed deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the hardware inventory into two segments: cached inventory information stored from previous discoveries, and new hardware components detected during restart. This allows the system to quickly retrieve most inventory data from cache while only performing detailed discovery on newly added hardware, thereby maintaining measurement precision for all components while dramatically improving operational speed.
3Quantity of substance
If HMS queries and parses extensive hardware data through out of band or in-band paths, then completeness of inventory information is ensured, but device complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the taking out principle by extracting and storing the complete hardware inventory information into persistent storage during the initial discovery phase. This extracted inventory data is then retrieved during restart without needing to re-query hardware components, thereby maintaining information completeness while reducing the complexity of the discovery process during restart operations.
Data Source
AI summary
An inventory cache that contains a rack inventory state is created, with a hardware management system (HMS), for each of a plurality of components on the software-defined data center (SDDC) rack. The rack inventor state is stored at a database. During a restart of the HMS the rack inventory state at the database is accessed by the HMS and used to create the rack inventory state instead of performing a SDDC rack discovery by the HMS.