IP Library Granted Patent US 11,886,886
Granted Patent B2
US 11,886,886 · App. 16/780,627 · Granted Jan 30, 2024

System and method for runtime synchronization and authentication of pre-boot device drivers for a rescue operating system

Inventors: Steven Downum (Pflugerville, TX); Ibrahim Sayyed (Georgetown, TX); Purushothama Malluru (Round Rock, TX); Danilo Tan (Austin, TX)
Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
G06F9/4411G06F8/65G06F9/4406G06F9/542G06F9/546G06F11/142G06F11/3051G06F21/44G06F21/575G06Q10/087
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,886,886
App. No.
16/780,627
Granted
Jan 30, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

An information handling system downloads device drivers for recovery operation of the information handling system, and subsequently obtains first configuration information associated with each of the device drivers. The system performs an inventory of devices associated with the information handling system that includes obtaining second configuration information associated with each of the devices in the inventory, and compares the first configuration information and the second configuration information. If the particular device driver is missing, then the system downloads the particular device driver prior to boot to a service operating system.

Claims (46)

1. A method for handling instructions in a pre-boot execution environment of an information handling system, the method comprising:

in response to a boot failure, performing operations, by a processor, that include:

creating a random access memory disk storage space by allocating a portion of a random access memory in the pre-boot execution environment for storage of a plurality of device drivers for recovery operation of the information handling system;

downloading and storing in the random access memory disk storage space of the portion of the random access memory, the device drivers for the recovery operation of the information handling system;

generating a first configuration information based on the device drivers that were downloaded and stored in the random access memory disk storage space;

performing a device scan to obtain an inventory of current device drivers of the information handling system, wherein the inventory includes a second configuration information associated with each of the current device drivers in the inventory;

comparing the first configuration information and the second configuration information to determine if there is a discrepancy between the first configuration information and the second configuration information;

in response to determining there is a missing device driver based on the discrepancy and the missing device driver is available for download, downloading the missing device driver prior to booting to a service operating system; and

in response to determining there is a missing device driver based on the discrepancy and the missing device drive is not available for download, generating a message regarding the missing device driver and transmitting the message to a manufacturer of the information handling system, wherein the message includes an impact to the recovery operation of the information handling system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first configuration information includes a first device identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second configuration information includes a second device identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising authenticating the each one of the device drivers prior to obtaining the first configuration information.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising if there is no missing device driver, then booting the information handling system to the service operating system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information regarding the missing device driver included in the message is presented to an administrator.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the missing device driver is available for download prior to the downloading the missing device driver.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising in response to the determining that the missing device driver is not available for download, notifying a user of the information handling system regarding the missing device driver.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the comparing the first configuration information and the second configuration information includes determining whether a first device driver version based on the first configuration information matches a second device driver version based on the second configuration information.

10. An information handling system, comprising:

a pre-boot execution environment; and

a processor coupled to the pre-boot execution environment, the processor configured to:

in response to a boot failure, create a random access memory disk storage space by allocating a portion of a random access memory in the pre-boot execution environment for storage of a plurality of device drivers for recovery operation of the information handling system;

download and store in the random access memory disk storage space of the portion of the random access memory, the device drivers for the recovery operation of the information handling system, wherein the device drivers are based on components of the information handling system at time of purchase of the information handling system;

subsequent to the download and the store of the device drivers, obtain a first inventory of device drivers stored in the random access memory disk storage space, wherein the first inventory includes a first configuration information associated with each of the device drivers;

perform a device scan to obtain a second inventory of current device drivers of the information handling system that includes obtaining a second configuration information associated with each of the device drivers in the second inventory;

compare the first configuration information and the second configuration information;

determine whether a particular device driver is missing based on the comparison of the first configuration information and the second configuration information;

in response to a determination the particular device driver is missing, and the particular missing device driver is available for download, download the particular device driver prior to boot to a service operating system; and

in response to a determination the particular device driver is missing and the particular missing device driver is not available for download, generate a message regarding the missing device driver and transmit the message to a manufacturer of the information handling system, wherein the message includes an impact to the recovery operation of the information handling system.

11. The information handling system of claim 10 , further comprising a dynamic memory disk to hold the device drivers.

12. The information handling system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to authenticate a digital signature of each one of the device drivers.

13. The information handling system of claim 10 , wherein the first configuration information includes a first vendor identifier and the second configuration information includes a second vendor identifier.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed cause a processor to:

in response to a boot failure, performing operations that include:

creating a random access memory disk storage space by allocating a portion of a random access memory for storage of a plurality of device drivers for recovery operation of an information handling system;

downloading and storing the device drivers for recovery of the information handling system in the random access memory disk storage space, wherein the device drivers are based on components of the information handling system at time of purchase of the information handling system;

subsequent to the downloading and the storing of the device drivers, obtaining a first inventory of device drivers stored in the random access memory disk storage space, wherein the first inventory includes a first configuration information;

performing a device scan to obtain a second inventory of current device drivers of the information handling system that includes obtaining a second configuration information of the current device drivers in the second inventory;

comparing the first configuration information with the second configuration information;

in response to determining a particular device driver is missing based on the comparison of the first configuration information and the second configuration information and the particular missing device driver is available for download, downloading the missing device driver prior to boot to a service operating system; and

in response to determining the particular device driver is missing and the particular missing device driver is not available for download, generating a message regarding the missing device driver and transmitting the message to a manufacturer of the information handling system, wherein the message includes an impact to the recovery operation of the information handling system.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise authenticating each one of the device drivers.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise failing the recovery when one of the device drivers fails the authentication.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise sending a delta report to a service distribution system, wherein the delta report is based on the comparison of the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the delta report includes a system configuration manifest with real-time inventory data.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise querying an update service to determine whether the particular device driver is available.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the querying is based on the second configuration information.

Assignments (13)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (052851/0081) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 060436/0441 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (053546/0001) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL MARKETING L.P. (ON BEHALF OF ITSELF AND AS SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.); DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; DELL MARKETING CORPORATION (SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC. AND WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.); EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 071642/0001 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (053311/0169) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 060438/0742 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (052852/0022) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 060436/0582 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (052851/0917) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 060436/0509 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST AT REEL 052771 FRAME 0906 Recorded Nov 2, 2021
From: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 058001/0298 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jun 5, 2020
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 052851/0917 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jun 5, 2020
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 053311/0169 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jun 5, 2020
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 052852/0022 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jun 5, 2020
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 052851/0081 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded May 28, 2020
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
Reel/Frame 052771/0906 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 22, 2020
From: CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES INC.; DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL MARKETING L.P.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A.
Reel/Frame 053546/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 3, 2020
From: DOWNUM, STEVEN; SAYYED, IBRAHIM; MALLURU, PURUSHOTHAMA; TAN, DANILO
To: DELL PRODUCTS, LP
Reel/Frame 051704/0817 →
Continuity (1)
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