Virtual Environment Device Discovery via Management Agent
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Solution Overview
Problem
In virtualized environments, discovering all devices is a manual and cumbersome process, often requiring IP addresses of each device or their ranges, and many virtual machines (VMs) on different subnets or VLANs become unreachable, leading to unawareness of existing devices by systems management consoles.
Innovation Solution
A systems management agent within the systems management console communicates with a virtual environment management console to discover reachable devices by receiving a network address, such as an IP address, and utilizes this information to request and obtain network addresses of VM host servers and VMs, providing notifications for healthy but unreachable devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual device discovery is used in virtualized environments, then administrators can discover devices one at a time, but the process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming, especially when devices are on different subnets or VLANs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (discovery service or agent) that mediates between the systems management console and virtual devices. This intermediary automatically discovers devices by querying virtualization infrastructure, translating complex multi-subnet discovery into simple console requests, and returning consolidated device lists without requiring administrator manual intervention across multiple network segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The discovery system performs self-service by automatically querying virtualization management interfaces, retrieving device inventories, and updating the systems management console without human intervention. The system autonomously handles device registration, status monitoring, and network topology discovery across multiple subnets and VLANs.
2Quantity of substance
If IP address ranges are provided for device discovery, then more devices can be discovered, but devices on unreachable subnets or VLANs remain undetected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal discovery mechanism that works across multiple network segments (subnets and VLANs) simultaneously. The system queries virtualization infrastructure to obtain device information independent of network reachability, using virtualization management interfaces that can access device metadata across all network segments without requiring direct network connectivity to each device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from network-layer discovery (IP-based) to virtualization-layer discovery. By querying the virtualization management plane rather than network protocols, the system accesses device information from a different dimensional perspective - using virtual device inventories and configuration data that exist independent of physical network connectivity constraints.
3Reliability
If systems management console attempts to discover all virtual devices, then complete device inventory can be achieved, but network complexity and configuration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the discovery complexity from the systems management console by implementing a separate discovery service or agent. This extracted component handles all complex queries to virtualization infrastructure, device inventory retrieval, and cross-subnet discovery logic, leaving the console with simple device listing and management functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary discovery service that mediates between the simple systems management console and the complex virtualization infrastructure. This intermediary handles authentication, queries virtualization management interfaces, retrieves device inventories across multiple subnets, and presents simplified device information to the console.
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, an example methodology implementing the disclosed techniques includes receiving, by a systems management console, a network address of a device in a virtual environment, and determining a network address associated with a virtual environment management console based on the received network address of the device in the virtual environment. The method also includes sending, by the systems management console via a systems management agent to the virtual environment management console using the determined network address associated with the virtual environment management console, a request for network addresses of virtual machine (VM) host servers and VMs in the virtual environment. The method also includes receiving, by the systems management console via the systems management agent from the virtual environment management console, the network addresses of the VM host servers and the VMs in the virtual environment and providing a notification of the discovered VM host servers and VMs.