US 9,792,111 B2Granted

Obtaining device drivers from an out-of-band management network

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsWeijia Zhang, Wayne R. Weilnau, Theodore S. Webb, Syama S. Poluri, Kevin D. Noreen

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Abstract

A method includes a service processor of an information handling system downloading code, including device drivers, and transferring the code to an operating system of the information handling system without rebooting the operating system. In some embodiments, a daemon of the operating system may request device drivers for newly-inserted devices and the service processor may make the device drivers available to the operating system in response to the requests. In some embodiments, the service processor may download updated device drivers and may inform the daemon. The updated device drivers may be automatically provided to the operating system or made available upon a request of a user. The service processor may make code available to the operating system by exposing a portion of its non-volatile memory to the operating system as a virtual device.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An information handling system comprising:

a service processor including:
an out-of-band network interface to download code updates, wherein code download bypasses an operating system of the information handling system;
a processor;
a network interface card;
and
a memory to store the downloaded code updates, the service processor to communicate with a daemon of an operating system of the information handling system concerning the downloaded code updates, wherein the service processor is a component of the information handling system configured to remotely monitor or manage the information handling system;
and
the operating system to receive the downloaded code updates from the service processor without rebooting, the operating system including the daemon to communicate with the service processor about code updates, wherein:
the operating system is to notify the daemon of the insertion of new devices on the information handling system;
the daemon is to send a request to the service processor for device drivers for the new devices in response to the notification;
the service processor is to inform the daemon of the receipt of updated device drivers;
and
the service processor is to provide the requested device drivers to the operating system in response to the requests, wherein the requested device drivers are included in the downloaded code updates.

10 more elements

A method comprising:

downloading code by a service processor of an information handling system over an out-of-band network, wherein the service processor is a component of the information handling system configured to remotely monitor or manage the information handling system, the service processor includes a processor and a network interface card, and the out-of-band network bypasses an operating system of the information handling system;
informing the operating system of the information handling system of the downloading of the code;
transferring the code from the service processor to the operating system without shutting down and restarting the operating system;
detecting by a daemon of the operating system the insertion of a new device in the information handling system;
sending by the daemon to the service processor a request that the service processor transfer a device driver for the new device to the operating system;
informing by the service processor the daemon of the receipt of updated device drivers;
and
transferring the device driver from the service processor to the operating system in response to the request, wherein the device driver is included in the downloaded code.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/984,724Filed 30 Dec 2015 · continuation
Priority: 15 Mar 2013
Published: US 2016/0110184 A121 Apr 2016
Granted: 17 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

G06F 8/65
Software deployment: updates
G06F 9/4411
Bootstrapping: configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
G06F 9/4413
Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers: plug-and-play [PnP]
G06F 9/44505
Program loading or initiating: configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Family

Application13/833,871Parent of this continuation · filed 15 Mar 2013
US 2016/0110184 A1Pre-grant publication · published 21 Apr 2016
US 9,244,695 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2014/0282483 A1Published application
US 9,792,111 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.