Policy-Based Temporal Configuration for Data Center Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing systems for managing and deploying new capacity in data centers are time-consuming and prone to errors due to the need for manual validation and coordination across multiple vendors and components, lacking support for hypothetical or future configurations, and requiring serial processing that increases the overall procurement and deployment timeline.
Innovation Solution
A temporally aware, policy-based domain architecture with a command-level interface and vendor abstraction layer that allows for automated configuration and deployment, integrating with purchasing systems to manage procurement and deployment processes, enabling parallelization and reducing the timeline by allowing configuration and deployment before physical devices are present, and providing a unified interface for managing diverse vendor-specific devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual validation and coordination processes are used across multiple vendors and components, then system reliability is maintained through controlled checkpoints, but the procurement and deployment process becomes time-consuming and reduces productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating hypothetical future configurations before devices are physically present, validating configurations in advance, and preparing deployment plans ahead of time. This allows the system to complete validation and coordination work before the actual deployment occurs, reducing on-site time and maintaining reliability through pre-validated configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration management system acts as an intermediary between purchasing systems, vendors, and deployment processes. It receives purchase requests, generates hypothetical configurations, validates them against system requirements, and coordinates deployment without requiring direct manual coordination between all stakeholders, thus maintaining reliability while accelerating the process.
2Reliability
If serial processing is used for procurement and deployment steps, then each step can be validated thoroughly, but the overall timeline is extended and productivity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs configuration validation and coordination work in advance as preliminary actions, creating hypothetical future configurations and validating them before devices arrive. This shifts validation from a serial post-arrival process to a preliminary pre-arrival process, maintaining validation accuracy while reducing the overall timeline.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuity of useful action by overlapping procurement, configuration validation, and deployment preparation activities. While devices are being shipped, the system continuously validates configurations and prepares deployment plans, eliminating idle waiting time between serial steps while maintaining thorough validation.
3Ease of manufacture
If configuration management systems operate independently from purchasing systems, then each system can be optimized for its specific function, but integration complexity increases and coordination efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The configuration management system is designed with multi-functionality to handle both purchasing request processing and configuration validation. It can receive purchase requests from external systems, generate hypothetical configurations, validate them, and coordinate deployment - effectively combining functions that would otherwise require separate systems, thereby reducing integration complexity while maintaining optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration management system serves as an intermediary layer between purchasing systems and deployment operations. It receives standardized purchase requests, processes them through configuration validation, and outputs deployment-ready configurations, enabling independent optimized systems to work together through a mediating interface that manages integration complexity.
4Device complexity
If hypothetical or future configurations are not supported, then the system remains simple and manageable, but the ability to plan and validate before deployment is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual copies of future configurations through hypothetical configuration objects that mirror the structure and validation rules of actual device configurations. These copied configurations can be validated, modified, and planned without requiring physical devices, enabling advance planning and validation while keeping the system manageable through virtual rather than physical management.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables preliminary configuration planning and validation by creating hypothetical future configurations before devices are procured or arrive. This allows users to design, validate, and optimize configurations in advance, improving adaptability and planning capability while maintaining system manageability through virtual configuration objects that follow the same validation rules as physical devices.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods address automated temporally based configuration management of a procurement/deployment process that may be used at one or more data centers. A set of current configuration attributes and current parameter settings are maintained for a one or more data centers. Information may be obtained from a purchasing system describing a future device. Prior to actual arrival of the future device, the configuration for that future device may be defined. Upon detection of the uniquely identified future device being communicatively coupled to a management network, the previously defined configuration may be applied. Abstraction from a high-level to vendor specific configuration commands may also be incorporated to allow management of devices from multiple vendors.