Scheduling firmware operations in distributed computing systems

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a set of acts, the set of acts comprising:

• invoking a firmware manager in a computing environment to interact with a firmware management plug-in through an abstraction layer, wherein the abstraction layer translates a generic firmware characteristic to a specific firmware characteristic of a first firmware-upgradable component;
• collecting an attribute characterizing a state associated with the computing environment within which the first firmware-upgradable component resides;
• and
• determining, based at least in part upon a rulebase, an execution mode and dependency between the first firmware-upgradable component and a second firmware-upgradable component in the computing environment;
• generating, by the firmware manager, a firmware operation schedule to carry out a firmware operation based at least in part on the execution mode and the dependency, wherein the execution mode indicates whether the firmware operation schedule or a portion thereof is to be executed in parallel or sequentially.

A system for scheduling one or more firmware operations in a computing system comprising one or more firmware-upgradable components from one or more vendors, the system comprising:

• a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions;
• and
• one or more processors that execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,
• a computing environment to interact with a firmware management plug-in through an abstraction layer, wherein the abstraction layer translates a generic firmware characteristic to a specific firmware characteristic of a first firmware-upgradable component;
• collecting an attribute characterizing a state associated with the computing environment within which the first firmware-upgradable component resides;
• determining, based at least in part upon a rulebase, an execution mode and dependency between the first firmware-upgradable component and a second firmware-upgradable component in the computing environment;
• and
• generating, by the firmware manager, a firmware operation schedule to carry out a firmware operation based at least in part on the execution mode and the dependency, wherein the execution mode indicates whether the firmware operation schedule or a portion thereof is to be executed in parallel or sequentially.