Granted Patent B2

US 12,405,813 · App. 18/481,019 · Granted Sep 2, 2025

Inventors: Longping Xia (Fremont, CA); Hao Lu (Fremont, CA); Vivek Batra (Fremont, CA)

Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

G06F9/455G06F11/261H04L43/065

Abstract

Claims (80)

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device from a device-activation platform, a list of networking devices to be onboarded to a device-management platform;

for a respective networking device on the list of networking devices, collecting hardware and firmware information associated with the respective networking device;

emulating an onboarding process of the respective networking device using the collected hardware and firmware information, which comprises exchanging one or more onboarding-request messages with the device-activation platform;

in response to failing to receive, from the device-management platform, a confirmation message indicating the emulated onboarding process being successful, performing a diagnostic operation to determine one or more potential issues associated with the emulated onboarding process of the respective networking device; and

displaying, on a user interface, outcome of the performed diagnostic operation.

2. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the device-activation platform is to access a centralized device-purchasing system that tracks networking devices purchased by customers to obtain inventory information associated with each respective customer; and

wherein obtaining the list of the to-be-onboarded networking devices comprises accessing the obtained inventory information associated with the respective customer.

3. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the collected hardware information comprises one or more of:

a device type;

a device model;

a serial number; and

a media access control (MAC) address; and

wherein the collected firmware information comprises a firmware version number.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting, from the list of to-be-onboarded networking devices, a subset of networking devices; and

emulating the onboarding processes of the selected subset of networking devices, including sending a set of onboarding-request messages corresponding to the selected subset of networking devices to the device-activation platform.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the set of onboarding-request messages are sent sequentially.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the set of onboarding-request messages are sent in parallel.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the diagnostic operation comprises conducting a series of tests comprising one or more of:

a connectivity test on a local network to which the respective networking device is coupled;

a reachability test on a default gateway of the local network;

a test on an address resolution protocol (ARP) server;

a test on a domain name system (DNS) server;

a test on whether a firmware upgrade is available;

a test on whether the device-activation platform contains a protocol error; and

a test on whether the device-management platform encounters a failure.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein performing the diagnostic operation further comprises capturing incoming and outgoing communication packets during the diagnostic operation.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the one or more potential issues comprises analyzing results of the series of tests and the captured incoming and outgoing communication packets.

10. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing instructions executable by the processor to:

obtain, from a device-activation platform, a list of networking devices to be onboarded to a device-management platform;

for a respective networking device on the list of networking devices, collect hardware and firmware information associated with the respective networking device;

emulate an onboarding process of the respective networking device using the collected hardware and firmware information, which comprises exchanging one or more onboarding-request messages with the device-activation platform;

in response to failing to receive, from the device-management platform, a confirmation message indicating the emulated onboarding process being successful, perform a diagnostic operation to determine one or more potential issues associated with the emulated onboarding process of the respective networking device; and

display, on a user interface, outcome of the performed diagnostic operation.

11. The computer system of claim 10 ,

wherein the device-activation platform is to access a centralized device-purchasing system that tracks networking devices purchased by customers to obtain inventory information associated with each respective customer; and

wherein the instructions to obtain the list of the to-be-onboarded networking devices comprise instructions executable to access the obtained inventory information associated with the respective customer.

12. The computer system of claim 10 ,

wherein the collected hardware information comprises one or more of:

a device type;

a device model;

a serial number; and

a media access control (MAC) address; and

wherein the collected firmware information comprises a firmware version number.

13. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the instructions are executable to:

select, from the list of to-be-onboarded networking devices, a subset of networking devices; and

emulate the onboarding processes of the selected subset of networking devices, including sending a set of onboarding-request messages corresponding to the selected subset of networking devices to the device-activation platform.

14. The computer system of claim 13 , wherein the set of onboarding-request messages are sent in parallel.

15. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein performing the diagnostic operation comprises conducting a series of tests comprising one or more of:

a connectivity test on a local network to which the respective networking device is coupled;

a reachability test on a default gateway of the local network;

a test on an address resolution protocol (ARP) server;

a test on a domain name system (DNS) server;

a test on whether a firmware upgrade is available;

a test on whether the device-activation platform contains a protocol error; and

a test on whether the device-management platform encounters a failure.

16. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions to perform the diagnostic operation comprise instructions to capture incoming and outgoing communication packets during the diagnostic operation.

17. The computer system of claim 16 , wherein the instructions to determine the one or more potential issues comprise instructions to analyze results of the series of tests and the captured incoming and outgoing communication packets.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor to:

obtain, from a device-activation platform, a list of networking devices to be onboarded to a device-management platform;

for a respective networking device on the list of networking devices, collect hardware and firmware information associated with the respective networking device;

emulate an onboarding process of the respective networking device using the collected hardware and firmware information, which comprises exchanging one or more onboarding-request messages with the device-activation platform;

in response to failing to receive, from the device-management platform, a confirmation message indicating the emulated onboarding process being successful, perform a diagnostic operation to determine one or more potential issues associated with the emulated onboarding process of the respective networking device; and

display, on a user interface, outcome of the performed diagnostic operation.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the instructions to perform the diagnostic operation comprise instructions to conduct a series of tests comprising one or more of:

a connectivity test on a local network to which the respective networking device is coupled;

a reachability test on a default gateway of the local network;

a test on an address resolution protocol (ARP) server;

a test on a domain name system (DNS) server;

a test on whether a firmware upgrade is available;

a test on whether the device-activation platform contains a protocol error; and

a test on whether the device-management platform encounters a failure.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the instructions are executable to:

select, from the list of to-be-onboarded networking devices, a subset of networking devices; and

emulate the onboarding processes of the selected subset of networking devices, including sending a set of onboarding-request messages corresponding to the selected subset of networking devices to the device-activation platform.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (16)