Centralized software maintenance of blade computer system
View Patent ↗A method and system are disclosed in which a management module (MM) designates an idle blade in a client blade farm to be an “administrative blade” that has administrator access to the virtual images of all users. The MM identifies when a particular user image is, or is not, in use and conveys this information to the administrative blade. The administrative blade performs virus scans, backups, defrags, patch installs, software upgrades, and other such maintenance functions on user images when they are inactive, thereby eliminating the performance impact to active users.
1. A method for centralized software maintenance of user disk images stored on a blade computing system comprising blades configured to run the user disk images, the method comprising:
creating a maintenance image, including: identifying and installing one or more of a virus scan program, a patch install program, a software upgrade program, a defragmentation program, and a backup program to be run from the maintenance image and identifying the user disk images to be maintained by the maintenance image;
storing the maintenance image on a storage blade or at another centralized memory location;
monitoring the blades configured to run the user disk images until one or more inactive blades are identified;
designating one of the inactive blades as an administrative blade;
monitoring the user disk images until one or more inactive user disk images are identified;
providing location information for the one or more inactive user disk images to the administrative blade; and
activating the administrative blade and running the maintenance image on said administrative blade to perform one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup on the one or more inactive user disk images.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: prohibiting each user disk image on which said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup are being performed from being used by a system user attempting to log onto the blade computing system during the performance of said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, and defragmentation, a data backup.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein when said designated administrative blade is needed to perform functions other than said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup, said designation of said designated administrative blade as said administrative blade is removed to free up said blade for other uses.
4. A system for centralized software maintenance of user disk images in a blade computing system comprising blades configured to run the user disk images, the system comprising:
means for creating a maintenance image, including identifying and installing one or more of a virus scan program, a patch install program, a software upgrade program, a defragmentation program, and a backup program to be run from the maintenance image and identifying the user disk images to be maintained by the maintenance image;
means for storing the maintenance image on a storage blade or at another centralized memory location;
means for monitoring the blades configured to run the user disk images until one or more inactive blades are identified;
means for designating one of the inactive blades as an administrative blade;
means for monitoring the user disk images until one or more inactive user disk images are identified;
means for providing location information for the one or more inactive user disk images to the administrative blade; and
means for activating the administrative blade and running the maintenance image on said administrative blade to perform one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup on the one or more inactive user disk images.
5. The system of claim 4 , further comprising: means for prohibiting each user disk image on which said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup are being performed from being used by a system user attempting to log onto the blade computing system during the performance of said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein when said designated administrative blade is needed to perform functions other than said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup, said designation of said designated administrative blade as said administrative blade is removed to free up said blade for other uses.
7. A computer program product for centralized software maintenance of user disk images in a blade computing system comprising blades configured to run the user disk images, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program code comprising:
computer-readable program code that creates a maintenance image, including identifying and installing one or more of a virus scan program, a patch install program, a software upgrade program, a defragmentation program, and a backup program to be run from the maintenance image and identifying the user disk images to be maintained by the maintenance image;
computer-readable program code that stores the maintenance image on a storage blade or at another centralized memory location;
computer-readable program code that monitors the blades configured to run the user disk images until one or more inactive blades are identified;
computer-readable program code that designates one of the inactive blades as an administrative blade;
computer-readable program code that monitors the user disk images until one or more inactive user disk images are identified;
computer-readable program code that provides location information for the one or more inactive user disk images to the administrative blade; and
computer-readable program code that activates the administrative blade and runs the maintenance image on said administrative blade to perform one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup on the one or more inactive user disk images.
8. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising: computer-readable program code that prohibits each user disk image on which said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup are being performed from being used by a system user attempting to log onto the blade computing system during the performance of said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup.
9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein when said designated administrative blade is needed to perform functions other than said one or more of a virus scan, a patch install, a software upgrade, defragmentation, and a data backup, said designation of said designated administrative blade as said administrative blade is removed to free up said blade for other uses.