Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This office Action is in response to claims filed on 10/13/2022.
Claims 1-16 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-4 and 9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20100125653 A1 – hereinafter “Cherian”, in view of US 20220052904 A1– hereinafter “Howard”.
With respect to claim 1, Cherian teaches,
A method, comprising: (“FIG. 3 illustrates a method of sharing storage resources on a server-based system in a flow chart form, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure” [0051];)
initializing a sideband management (SBM) bridge coupled to a system bus of an information handling system to identify an operating system (OS) domain resource as a sideband-manageable resource; “Management controller 240 functions similarly to information handling system 100. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, management controller 240 includes a CPU 241, a PCIe RC 242, a PCIe switch 244, a PCIe EP 245, a primary transport management module (PTMM) 246, and a storage management module (SMM) 247… RC 242 forms a definitional boundary of a PCIe domain 243 that includes switches 244, and 250, EPs 218, 228, and 245, physical function 232, and virtual functions 233 and 234. As such, RC 242 is coupled to switch 244, switch 244 is coupled to EP 245 and to switch 250. In this way, PCIe domain 243 couples together the various elements of server-based system 200 (e.g., servers 210 and 220, storage resource 230, and management controller 240). EP 245 can function as a host bus adapter, providing a network interface similar to network interface 190, or a storage interface similar to disk controller 150” [0040]; “PHBA 219 operates to permit data transfers between PCIe domains 213 and 243, and PHBA 229 operates to permit data transfers between PCIe domain 223 and 243… In a non-limiting example, PHBAs 219 and 229 can be in the form of one or more integrated devices included in server 210, in the form of an add-in card in server 210, or any combination thereof” [0045]; “Similarly, when RC 242 detects EP 228, PTMM 246 determines that EP 228 is part of PHBA 229, creates virtual function 234 on storage resource 230, and sends the bus, device, and function (e.g., the bus:dev:func address) of virtual function 234 to PHBA 229, creating a communication channels 270 between server 220 and storage resource 230 and server 220 thereafter store and retrieve data from storage resource 230 through communication channels 270 by initiating a peer-to-peer transaction between EP 228 and virtual function 234” [0047]; “In one embodiment, detection of PHBAs 219 and 229 occurs during the initialization and boot process of management controller 240. In this case, PHBAs 219 and 229 include an option ROM that includes code that is executed by management controller 240 when RC 242 initializes PCIe domain 243” [0048]; “When a storage resource is coupled to the server-based system, such as when storage resource 230 is installed in server-based system 200 (the "YES" branch of decision tree 304), a decision is made as to whether or not the storage resource is an SR-IOV enabled storage resource at decision tree 306. If not (the "NO" branch of decision tree 306), processing ends at block 308. If the storage resource is an SR-IOV enabled storage resource (the "YES" branch of decision tree 306), a virtual function is created on the storage resource in block 310” [0051-0052];
Examiners note: The PCIe Host Bridge adapters (PHBAs - PHBA 219 and PHBA 229) serve the function of the claimed “sideband management (SBM) bridge”. The PHBAS bridge communication between distinct PCIE domains (213 and 243, 223 and 243, respectively). Storage resources are identified as manageable resources if a virtual function is created on the resource. If the storage resource goes through the process of figure 3 it is effectively identified as a manageable resource.
associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; “The Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe) standard for connecting resources to an information handling system includes a Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) mechanism, whereby a particular PCIe device can be accessed by several virtual machines on the same information handling system. An SR-IOV enabled PCIe device includes a physical function that is directly accessible to the information handling system. The SR-IOV enabled PCIe device also includes the ability to create one or more virtual functions that can be associated with different virtual machines. In this way, a single I/O resource can be accessed by the different virtual machines without creating contention within the I/O resource” [0004]; “PTMM 246 then creates virtual function 233 on storage resource 230, and sends the bus, device, and function (e.g., the bus:dev:func address) of virtual function 233 to PHBA 219, thus creating a communication channel 260 between server 210 and storage resource 230” [0047]; “virtual functions 233 and 234 are created in storage resource 230 in accordance with the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) Single Root I/O Virtualization and Sharing 1.0 specification (SR-IOV)” [0039];
Cherian does not explicitly teach managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge.
However, analogous art Howard teaches,
a sideband management (SBM) bridge coupled to a system bus of an information handling system to identify an operating system (OS) domain resource as a sideband-manageable resource; “As described herein, a computing system can implement port bundling and IO virtualization concurrently by isolating and segregating port bundling operations from device functions that are accessible by a virtualization environment. Specifically, the port bundling operations can be segregated from device functions that are accessible using an interconnect (such as PCIe with the SR-IOV extension). As one example, LAG management logic can be implemented in firmware, hardware, and/or software of a network interface device and segregated from guest or host OS control. The LAG management logic can create a LACP bond to a network switch that is connected to the physical network ports of the network interface device. Individual SR-IOV VFs can be assigned to each virtual machine and/or tenant and each VF can be assigned to carry only specific VLANs for security purposes” [0022]; “Additionally, the virtual bonding interface 144 can include the LAG management logic 145 for managing the LAG 180. For example, the LAG management logic 145 can communicate with the LAG logic 174 of the network device 170 to implement a link bundling protocol, such as LACP. The LAG management logic 145 can initialize and maintain the LAG 180 independent of the host OS 132 [0031]; “The physical ports 146A-B can be managed using the LAG management logic 145. For example, the LAG management logic 145 can communicate with a network device that is connected to the physical ports 146A-B over a pair of network links. The LAG management logic 145 can initiate and manage a control protocol, such as LACP, for bundling the links. The control protocol can be used to detect that different network links are connected to the same pair of devices, negotiate a speed and mode of the LAG, and monitor a status (e.g., up or down) of the links of the LAG (such as by monitoring whether a keep-live packet is received within a threshold period of time) … The bonding interface manager can communicate with the LAG management logic 145 over the physical ports 146A-B or another communication interface (not shown). For example, the bonding interface manager can include routing information, including LAG programming details for the physical ports 146A-B, for the communication network that is programmed by an administrator of the network” [0037];
Examiners note: The “LAG management logic” that is implemented within the network interface device 140 ([0022]; [0031]; [0037]), acts as the claimed SBM bridge. "LAG management logic 145 can initialize and maintain the LAG 180 independent of the host OS 132".
associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect” [Abstract]; “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe” [0020];
and managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge. “The method also includes assigning a device function to a virtual machine, the device function used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect. The virtual machine executes on the one or more network traffic management apparatuses. The method also includes using the device function to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group” [0003]; “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect. The device function can be used to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group” [Abstract]; “FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example method 500 for managing network ports in a virtualization environment. As one example, the method 500 can be used to manage the operation of and access to the network ports (e.g., the physical network ports 146 of a network interface device 140 of FIGS. 1-3) when an interconnect (such as PCIe) is used to transfer data between a host-network interface and a hypervisor executing one or more virtual machines” [0063]; “At 520, a device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect (such as PCIe)… For example, the network interface device can include a physical function and multiple virtual functions. The host operating system and/or a hypervisor can assign a virtual function to the virtual machine, where the virtual machine executes within the hypervisor. Each virtual machine executing within the hypervisor can be assigned to use a different virtual function… At 530, the device function can be used to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group. For example, the virtual machine can send network packets across the link aggregation group, via the network interface, by writing the network packet data to an address or range of addresses of the device function. Logic within the network domain can forward the network packet from the network interface and across the LAG. The virtual machine can receive network packets from the link aggregation group, via the network interface, by reading the network packet data from an address or range of addresses of the device function… The network traffic of the different virtual machines can be transferred using the different device functions to potentially enhance a confidentiality and security of the network traffic of the virtual machines. At optional 540, a VLAN identifier can be used to forward the network traffic of the virtual machine across the link aggregation group. For example, a VLAN identifier can be selected from a group of VLAN identifiers for use by network traffic associated with the device function. The group of VLAN identifiers can be the VLAN identifiers that have not been assigned to a device function yet. The selected VLAN identifier can be assigned to the device function so that each device function has different VLAN identifiers assigned to it. In other words, each device function can have one or more VLAN identifiers assigned to the device function for its exclusive use among the device functions. By assigning unique VLAN identifier(s) to each of the device functions, the VLAN traffic associated with an identifier can be isolated to a given device function. The VLAN identifier can be used to encapsulate a network packet in a frame that is sent over the LAG. The VLAN identifier can be used to identify a device function and virtual machine associated with an ingress frame. Additionally, the VLAN identifier can be used to demultiplex ingress network traffic from the link aggregation group. Specifically, the VLAN identifier can be matched to a device function and the network traffic can be sent only to the matching device function” [0065-0067];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; and managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 2, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 1,
Cherian teaches,
wherein the system bus comprises a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus and the SBM bridge comprises a PCIe bridge. “A method includes discovering a PCIe host bridge adapter (PHBA) and a storage resource coupled to multiple storage extents in a PCIe domain” [Abstract]; “The information handling system 100 can also include an I/O channel 112 connected to the chipset 110. The I/O channel 112 can include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI-Extended (PCI-X) bus, a high-speed link of PCI-Express (PCIe) lanes, another industry standard or proprietary bus or link, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, a PCI bus can be operated at approximately 66 MHz, a PCI-X bus can be operated at approximately 133 MHz, and a PCIe link can be operated at approximately 250 million bytes per second (MB/s) per lane in each direction” [0029];
With respect to claim 3, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 2,
Cherian teaches,
wherein the SBM bridge includes a single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe. PCIe includes virtualization extensions, such as the single root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) and multi-root input/output virtualization (MR-IOV) extensions for use with a virtualization environment” [0020];
Cherian does not explicitly teach and wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge.
Howard teaches,
and wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge. “The host-network interface 160 can provide an interface between the interconnect 150 and the virtual bonding interface 144. For example, the host-network interface 160 can implement the device function(s) 162. As one example, the interconnect 150 can be a PCIe interconnect, and the device function(s) 162 can include one or more of physical function(s), virtual function(s), or combinations thereof” [0032];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 4, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 3,
Howard teaches,
wherein associating the OS- isolated environment with the SBM bridge comprises assigning a virtual function (VF) of the SBM bridge to the OS-isolated environment. “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect” [Abstract]; “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe” [0020]; “For example, the hypervisor can assign each virtual machine to a different virtual function 216 for accessing the network interface device 140” [0034];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein associating the OS- isolated environment with the SBM bridge comprises assigning a virtual function (VF) of the SBM bridge to the OS-isolated environment using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 5, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 1,
Howard teaches,
wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a virtual machine (VM) “Technology related managing network ports in a virtualization environment is disclosed. In one example, a method includes, without using operating system control, bonding a plurality of physical ports into a link aggregation group accessible from a network interface. A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine” [Abstract];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a virtual machine (VM) using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 9, Cherian teaches,
An information handling system, comprising: a central processing unit (CPU); and a memory, accessible to the CPU, including processor executable program instructions that, when executed by the CPU, cause the system to perform operations including: (“The information handling system can include memory (volatile (e.g. random access memory (RAM), etc.), nonvolatile (read only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.), or any combination thereof), one or more processing resources, such as a central processing unit (CPU), hardware, firmware, or software control logic, or any combination thereof” [0013]; “FIG. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an information handling system, generally designated as 100. The information handling system 100 can include a processor 102 coupled to a host bus 106, and can further include one or more additional processors, generally designated as an n.sup.th processor 104, coupled to a host bus 108” [0026]; )
initializing a sideband management (SBM) bridge coupled to a system bus of an information handling system to identify an operating system (OS) domain resource as a sideband-manageable resource; “Management controller 240 functions similarly to information handling system 100. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, management controller 240 includes a CPU 241, a PCIe RC 242, a PCIe switch 244, a PCIe EP 245, a primary transport management module (PTMM) 246, and a storage management module (SMM) 247… RC 242 forms a definitional boundary of a PCIe domain 243 that includes switches 244, and 250, EPs 218, 228, and 245, physical function 232, and virtual functions 233 and 234. As such, RC 242 is coupled to switch 244, switch 244 is coupled to EP 245 and to switch 250. In this way, PCIe domain 243 couples together the various elements of server-based system 200 (e.g., servers 210 and 220, storage resource 230, and management controller 240). EP 245 can function as a host bus adapter, providing a network interface similar to network interface 190, or a storage interface similar to disk controller 150” [0040]; “PHBA 219 operates to permit data transfers between PCIe domains 213 and 243, and PHBA 229 operates to permit data transfers between PCIe domain 223 and 243… In a non-limiting example, PHBAs 219 and 229 can be in the form of one or more integrated devices included in server 210, in the form of an add-in card in server 210, or any combination thereof” [0045]; “Similarly, when RC 242 detects EP 228, PTMM 246 determines that EP 228 is part of PHBA 229, creates virtual function 234 on storage resource 230, and sends the bus, device, and function (e.g., the bus:dev:func address) of virtual function 234 to PHBA 229, creating a communication channels 270 between server 220 and storage resource 230 and server 220 thereafter store and retrieve data from storage resource 230 through communication channels 270 by initiating a peer-to-peer transaction between EP 228 and virtual function 234” [0047]; “In one embodiment, detection of PHBAs 219 and 229 occurs during the initialization and boot process of management controller 240. In this case, PHBAs 219 and 229 include an option ROM that includes code that is executed by management controller 240 when RC 242 initializes PCIe domain 243” [0048]; “When a storage resource is coupled to the server-based system, such as when storage resource 230 is installed in server-based system 200 (the "YES" branch of decision tree 304), a decision is made as to whether or not the storage resource is an SR-IOV enabled storage resource at decision tree 306. If not (the "NO" branch of decision tree 306), processing ends at block 308. If the storage resource is an SR-IOV enabled storage resource (the "YES" branch of decision tree 306), a virtual function is created on the storage resource in block 310” [0051-0052];
Examiners note: The PCIe Host Bridge adapters (PHBAs - PHBA 219 and PHBA 229) serve the function of the claimed “sideband management (SBM) bridge”. The PHBAS bridge communication between distinct PCIE domains (213 and 243, 223 and 243, respectively). Storage resources are identified as manageable resources if a virtual function is created on the resource. If the storage resource goes through the process of figure 3 it is effectively identified as a manageable resource.
associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; “The Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe) standard for connecting resources to an information handling system includes a Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) mechanism, whereby a particular PCIe device can be accessed by several virtual machines on the same information handling system. An SR-IOV enabled PCIe device includes a physical function that is directly accessible to the information handling system. The SR-IOV enabled PCIe device also includes the ability to create one or more virtual functions that can be associated with different virtual machines. In this way, a single I/O resource can be accessed by the different virtual machines without creating contention within the I/O resource” [0004]; “PTMM 246 then creates virtual function 233 on storage resource 230, and sends the bus, device, and function (e.g., the bus:dev:func address) of virtual function 233 to PHBA 219, thus creating a communication channel 260 between server 210 and storage resource 230” [0047]; “virtual functions 233 and 234 are created in storage resource 230 in accordance with the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) Single Root I/O Virtualization and Sharing 1.0 specification (SR-IOV)” [0039];
Cherian does not explicitly teach managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge.
However, analogous art Howard teaches,
a sideband management (SBM) bridge coupled to a system bus of an information handling system to identify an operating system (OS) domain resource as a sideband-manageable resource; “As described herein, a computing system can implement port bundling and IO virtualization concurrently by isolating and segregating port bundling operations from device functions that are accessible by a virtualization environment. Specifically, the port bundling operations can be segregated from device functions that are accessible using an interconnect (such as PCIe with the SR-IOV extension). As one example, LAG management logic can be implemented in firmware, hardware, and/or software of a network interface device and segregated from guest or host OS control. The LAG management logic can create a LACP bond to a network switch that is connected to the physical network ports of the network interface device. Individual SR-IOV VFs can be assigned to each virtual machine and/or tenant and each VF can be assigned to carry only specific VLANs for security purposes” [0022]; “Additionally, the virtual bonding interface 144 can include the LAG management logic 145 for managing the LAG 180. For example, the LAG management logic 145 can communicate with the LAG logic 174 of the network device 170 to implement a link bundling protocol, such as LACP. The LAG management logic 145 can initialize and maintain the LAG 180 independent of the host OS 132 [0031]; “The physical ports 146A-B can be managed using the LAG management logic 145. For example, the LAG management logic 145 can communicate with a network device that is connected to the physical ports 146A-B over a pair of network links. The LAG management logic 145 can initiate and manage a control protocol, such as LACP, for bundling the links. The control protocol can be used to detect that different network links are connected to the same pair of devices, negotiate a speed and mode of the LAG, and monitor a status (e.g., up or down) of the links of the LAG (such as by monitoring whether a keep-live packet is received within a threshold period of time) … The bonding interface manager can communicate with the LAG management logic 145 over the physical ports 146A-B or another communication interface (not shown). For example, the bonding interface manager can include routing information, including LAG programming details for the physical ports 146A-B, for the communication network that is programmed by an administrator of the network” [0037];
Examiners note: The “LAG management logic” that is implemented within the network interface device 140 ([0022]; [0031]; [0037]), acts as the claimed SBM bridge. "LAG magnagement logic 145 can initialize and maintaing the LAG 180 independent of the host OS 132".
associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect” [Abstract]; “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe” [0020];
and managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge. “The method also includes assigning a device function to a virtual machine, the device function used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect. The virtual machine executes on the one or more network traffic management apparatuses. The method also includes using the device function to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group” [0003]; “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect. The device function can be used to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group” [Abstract]; “FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example method 500 for managing network ports in a virtualization environment. As one example, the method 500 can be used to manage the operation of and access to the network ports (e.g., the physical network ports 146 of a network interface device 140 of FIGS. 1-3) when an interconnect (such as PCIe) is used to transfer data between a host-network interface and a hypervisor executing one or more virtual machines” [0063]; “At 520, a device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect (such as PCIe)… For example, the network interface device can include a physical function and multiple virtual functions. The host operating system and/or a hypervisor can assign a virtual function to the virtual machine, where the virtual machine executes within the hypervisor. Each virtual machine executing within the hypervisor can be assigned to use a different virtual function… At 530, the device function can be used to forward network traffic between the virtual machine and the network interface, and across the link aggregation group. For example, the virtual machine can send network packets across the link aggregation group, via the network interface, by writing the network packet data to an address or range of addresses of the device function. Logic within the network domain can forward the network packet from the network interface and across the LAG. The virtual machine can receive network packets from the link aggregation group, via the network interface, by reading the network packet data from an address or range of addresses of the device function… The network traffic of the different virtual machines can be transferred using the different device functions to potentially enhance a confidentiality and security of the network traffic of the virtual machines. At optional 540, a VLAN identifier can be used to forward the network traffic of the virtual machine across the link aggregation group. For example, a VLAN identifier can be selected from a group of VLAN identifiers for use by network traffic associated with the device function. The group of VLAN identifiers can be the VLAN identifiers that have not been assigned to a device function yet. The selected VLAN identifier can be assigned to the device function so that each device function has different VLAN identifiers assigned to it. In other words, each device function can have one or more VLAN identifiers assigned to the device function for its exclusive use among the device functions. By assigning unique VLAN identifier(s) to each of the device functions, the VLAN traffic associated with an identifier can be isolated to a given device function. The VLAN identifier can be used to encapsulate a network packet in a frame that is sent over the LAG. The VLAN identifier can be used to identify a device function and virtual machine associated with an ingress frame. Additionally, the VLAN identifier can be used to demultiplex ingress network traffic from the link aggregation group. Specifically, the VLAN identifier can be matched to a device function and the network traffic can be sent only to the matching device function” [0065-0067];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include associating an OS-isolated environment with the SBM bridge; and managing the OS domain resource from the OS-isolated environment via the SBM bridge using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 10, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 9,
Cherian teaches,
wherein the system bus comprises a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus and the SBM bridge comprises a PCIe bridge. “A method includes discovering a PCIe host bridge adapter (PHBA) and a storage resource coupled to multiple storage extents in a PCIe domain” [Abstract]; “The information handling system 100 can also include an I/O channel 112 connected to the chipset 110. The I/O channel 112 can include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI-Extended (PCI-X) bus, a high-speed link of PCI-Express (PCIe) lanes, another industry standard or proprietary bus or link, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, a PCI bus can be operated at approximately 66 MHz, a PCI-X bus can be operated at approximately 133 MHz, and a PCIe link can be operated at approximately 250 million bytes per second (MB/s) per lane in each direction” [0029];
With respect to claim 11, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 10,
Cherian teaches,
wherein the SBM bridge includes a single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe. PCIe includes virtualization extensions, such as the single root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) and multi-root input/output virtualization (MR-IOV) extensions for use with a virtualization environment” [0020];
Cherian does not explicitly teach and wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge.
Howard teaches,
and wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge. “The host-network interface 160 can provide an interface between the interconnect 150 and the virtual bonding interface 144. For example, the host-network interface 160 can implement the device function(s) 162. As one example, the interconnect 150 can be a PCIe interconnect, and the device function(s) 162 can include one or more of physical function(s), virtual function(s), or combinations thereof” [0032];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein initializing the SBM bridge comprises initializing, by the OS domain resource, a physical function (PF) of the SBM bridge using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 12, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 11,
Howard teaches,
wherein associating the OS- isolated environment with the SBM bridge comprises assigning a virtual function (VF) of the SBM bridge to the OS-isolated environment. “A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine. The device function can be used for communicating between the network interface and the virtual machine via an interconnect” [Abstract]; “The host OS, the hypervisor, and/or the virtual machines can communicate with input/output (IO) devices using an interconnect such as PCIe” [0020]; “For example, the hypervisor can assign each virtual machine to a different virtual function 216 for accessing the network interface device 140” [0034];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein associating the OS- isolated environment with the SBM bridge comprises assigning a virtual function (VF) of the SBM bridge to the OS-isolated environment using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
With respect to claim 13, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 9,
Howard teaches,
wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a virtual machine (VM) “Technology related managing network ports in a virtualization environment is disclosed. In one example, a method includes, without using operating system control, bonding a plurality of physical ports into a link aggregation group accessible from a network interface. A device function can be assigned to a virtual machine” [Abstract];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian to include wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a virtual machine (VM) using the teachings of Howard. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of addressing problems in security, availability and performance caused by scaling, all while maintaining a sideband connection from virtual machines to OS resources (Howard, 0002).
Claim 6 and 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20100125653 A1 – hereinafter “Cherian”, in view of US 20220052904 A1– hereinafter “Howard”, further in view of US 20220398081 A1 – hereinafter “Ragupathy”.
With respect to claim 6, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 1,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container.
Ragupathy teaches,
wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container. “According to the solution described herein, applications may be run with distroless base images designed for a variety of different processor architectures (e.g., x86, x86-64, ARM, AArch64, and/or the like), all of which comply with a specification of the Open Container Initiative. Accordingly, applications can be run as rootless containers and/or daemonless containers without any extra resource utilization on the target” [0009];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container using the teachings of Ragupathy. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of mitigating or minimizing security vulnerabilities that might be caused by deploying containers in a privileged or root environment (Ragupathy, 0008).
With respect to claim 14, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 9,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container.
Ragupathy teaches,
wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container. “According to the solution described herein, applications may be run with distroless base images designed for a variety of different processor architectures (e.g., x86, x86-64, ARM, AArch64, and/or the like), all of which comply with a specification of the Open Container Initiative. Accordingly, applications can be run as rootless containers and/or daemonless containers without any extra resource utilization on the target” [0009];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein the OS-isolated environment comprises a rootless container using the teachings of Ragupathy. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of mitigating or minimizing security vulnerabilities that might be caused by deploying containers in a privileged or root environment (Ragupathy, 0008).
Claim 7 and 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20100125653 A1 – hereinafter “Cherian”, in view of US 20220052904 A1– hereinafter “Howard”, further in view of US 20220019560 A1 – hereinafter “Durairaj”.
With respect to claim 7, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 1,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus.
Durairaj teaches,
wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus. “In some embodiments, remote access controller 255 may support monitoring and administration of various devices 220, 225, 230 of an IHS via a sideband interface. In such embodiments, the messages in support of the monitoring and management function may be implemented using MCTP (Management Component Transport Protocol) that may be transmitted using I2C sideband bus connection 275a-c established with each of the respective managed devices 220, 225, 230. As illustrated, the managed hardware components of the IHS 200, such as FPGA cards 220, network controller 225 and storage controller 230, are coupled to the IHS processor(s) 205 via an in-line bus 215, such as a PCIe root complex, that is separate from the I2C sideband bus connection 275a-c” [0066]; “In type-2 or hosted hypervisor implementations, server IHS 100 executes operating system (OS) 302 (e.g., Windows Server, Mac OS X Server, variants of Linux, etc.), which in turn enables execution of hypervisor 303 (e.g., Parallels, VMware workstation, etc.) configured to create and run VMs 304A-M at the request of clients 200A-N. In type-1 or bare-metal implementations, however, OS 301 may be absent and hypervisor 303 (e.g., HyperV, VMware ESXi, etc.) may run directly on hardware 100. In some cases, two or more of VMs 304A-N may be executed on behalf of the same client IHS 200A” [0073];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus using the teachings of Durairaj. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of providing an OS isolated environment a way to communicate and take advantage of the processing, compilation, and communication power of an IHS (Durairaj, 0002).
With respect to claim 15, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 9,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus.
Durairaj teaches,
wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus. “In some embodiments, remote access controller 255 may support monitoring and administration of various devices 220, 225, 230 of an IHS via a sideband interface. In such embodiments, the messages in support of the monitoring and management function may be implemented using MCTP (Management Component Transport Protocol) that may be transmitted using I2C sideband bus connection 275a-c established with each of the respective managed devices 220, 225, 230. As illustrated, the managed hardware components of the IHS 200, such as FPGA cards 220, network controller 225 and storage controller 230, are coupled to the IHS processor(s) 205 via an in-line bus 215, such as a PCIe root complex, that is separate from the I2C sideband bus connection 275a-c” [0066]; “In type-2 or hosted hypervisor implementations, server IHS 100 executes operating system (OS) 302 (e.g., Windows Server, Mac OS X Server, variants of Linux, etc.), which in turn enables execution of hypervisor 303 (e.g., Parallels, VMware workstation, etc.) configured to create and run VMs 304A-M at the request of clients 200A-N. In type-1 or bare-metal implementations, however, OS 301 may be absent and hypervisor 303 (e.g., HyperV, VMware ESXi, etc.) may run directly on hardware 100. In some cases, two or more of VMs 304A-N may be executed on behalf of the same client IHS 200A” [0073];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein the SBM bridge is configured to pass management component transport protocol (MCTP) messages among the OS-isolated environment, the host OS, and the system bus using the teachings of Durairaj. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of providing an OS isolated environment a way to communicate and take advantage of the processing, compilation, and communication power of an IHS (Durairaj, 0002).
Claim 8 and 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20100125653 A1 – hereinafter “Cherian”, in view of US 20220052904 A1– hereinafter “Howard”, further in view of US 20220019474 A1 – hereinafter “Kumar”.
With respect to claim 8, Cherian and Howard teach, The method of claim 1,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software.
Kumar teaches,
wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software. “The HMSs 208, 214 of the corresponding physical racks 202, 204 interface with virtual rack managers (VRMs) 225, 227 of the corresponding physical racks 202, 204 to instantiate and manage the virtual server rack 206 using physical hardware resources 224, 226 (e.g., processors, network interface cards, servers, switches, storage devices, peripherals, power supplies, etc.) of the physical racks 202, 204” [0046]; “An example boot process of the virtual server rack 206 (FIGS. 2 and 4) includes an HMS bootup sequence, a PRM bootup sequence, and an HMS-PRM initial handshake. In an example HMS bootup sequence, when the management switch 207, 213 on which the HMS 208, 214 runs is powered-on and the OS of the management switch 207, 213 is up and running, a bootstrap script to initialize the HMS 208, 214 is executed to fetch and install an HMS agent software installer on the management switch 207, 213 to instantiate the HMS 208, 214. The HMS agent software installer completes install and initialization of the HMS agent software bundle and starts the HMS agent daemon to instantiate the HMS 208, 214. When the HMS agent daemon is started, the HMS 208, 214 determines the inventory of the physical resources 224, 226 of the physical rack 202, 204” [0173];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software using the teachings of Kumar. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of providing ready access to the hardware resources required to run the OS isolated environments, enabling the IHS to provide faster, scalable deployment and lifecycle management to the OS isolated environments (Kumar, 0003).
With respect to claim 16, Cherian and Howard teach, The information handling system of claim 9,
Cherian and Howard do not explicitly teach wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software.
Kumar teaches,
wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software. “The HMSs 208, 214 of the corresponding physical racks 202, 204 interface with virtual rack managers (VRMs) 225, 227 of the corresponding physical racks 202, 204 to instantiate and manage the virtual server rack 206 using physical hardware resources 224, 226 (e.g., processors, network interface cards, servers, switches, storage devices, peripherals, power supplies, etc.) of the physical racks 202, 204” [0046]; “An example boot process of the virtual server rack 206 (FIGS. 2 and 4) includes an HMS bootup sequence, a PRM bootup sequence, and an HMS-PRM initial handshake. In an example HMS bootup sequence, when the management switch 207, 213 on which the HMS 208, 214 runs is powered-on and the OS of the management switch 207, 213 is up and running, a bootstrap script to initialize the HMS 208, 214 is executed to fetch and install an HMS agent software installer on the management switch 207, 213 to instantiate the HMS 208, 214. The HMS agent software installer completes install and initialization of the HMS agent software bundle and starts the HMS agent daemon to instantiate the HMS 208, 214. When the HMS agent daemon is started, the HMS 208, 214 determines the inventory of the physical resources 224, 226 of the physical rack 202, 204” [0173];
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Cherian and Howard to include wherein managing the OS domain resource comprise invoking an agent of the OS- isolated environment to execute the hardware management software using the teachings of Kumar. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to make this combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of providing ready access to the hardware resources required to run the OS isolated environments, enabling the IHS to provide faster, scalable deployment and lifecycle management to the OS isolated environments (Kumar, 0003).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIGUEL A RODRIGUEZ DELGADO whose telephone number is (571)272-2813. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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/M.A.R./Examiner, Art Unit 2197
/KENNETH TANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2197
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