DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1, 3, 7, 14 – 17 and 19 – 20 have been amended.
Claim 13 is canceled.
Claim 21 is added new.
Claims 1 – 12 and 14 – 21 have been examined and 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 – 6, 8 – 10 and 13 – 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application US Patent No. 11,496,364 to Mellquist et al. (hereinafter Mellquist), in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0156522 to Jubran et al. (hereinafter Jubran), and in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0327144 to Tembey et al. (hereinafter Tembey).
Claim 1, Mellquist discloses (¶Col.2, lines 20-25) logical rack controller create and maintain a logical rack according to a logical rack definition and using physical infrastructure from different physical racks as the inventory for that logical rack, and further it discloses:
a processing system including at least one processor, and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations (Mellquist discloses a logical-rack controller 110 (Fig. 1) implemented by processors executing stored instructions on a non-transitory machine readable medium (Col. 3, Lines ¶24-¶40) to manage logical racks and their components) the operations comprising:
wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a first network function in a communication network (Mellquist discloses (Fig. 1 and ¶Col. 5, Lines 13-26) the logical rack 112 may be composed of computers 102 and 104 that are located in different physical racks 106 and 108. This shows the composite device (i.e. logical rack 112) designed for a computing/network function (e.g. a machine learning operations workload) formed from two distributed physical components/computers 102, 104. This shows the composite device (logical rack 112) formed from two distributed physical components that collectively perform a computing/network function.)
wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device (Mellquist discloses (¶Col. 11, Lines 22-27) the logical rack controller 110 creates logical racks for the respective tenants from mutually exclusive physical infrastructure of the inventory. For example, a computer that is assigned to a first tenant's logical rack is excluded from being assigned to any other tenant's logical rack. Association of each component to a single logical-rack instance indicates dedicated allocation.)
wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component (Mellquist discloses (Fig. 1 and ¶Col. 5, Lines 13-26) the logical rack 112 may be composed of computers 102 and 104 that are located in different physical racks 106 and 108. The first physical component i.e. computer 102 is included within the distributed set.)
and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database (Fig. 1: Inventory 122) in accordance with the first description and the second description (Mellquist discloses (¶Col. 2, Lines 17-31) logical rack controller create and maintain a logical rack according to logical rack definitions 160 that indicates an updated inventory 122 (¶Col. 4, Line 39-48) about a plurality of physical computing resources selected based on the policies (i.e. first/second description, ¶Col. 6, Lines 16-31) from different physical racks (Fig. 1) connected over the communication network 109)
However, Mellquist does not explicitly disclose obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, and wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class. However, in an analogous art, Jubran teaches:
obtaining (Jubran teaches (¶Fig. 4, ¶136) receiving a topology definition having a physical topology layer with physical elements and a logical topology layer with logical elements) a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device (Jubran teaches (¶29) logical topology layer 120 include device roles 122 (e.g., top of rack switch, spine, serial aggregator, fabric). The logical topology also includes logical configuration 124 that indicate the device settings that enable proper functioning of the devices in the corresponding roles associated with the devices. These explicit descriptions of logical components (roles/configuration) are to generate or update the topology definition for hardware-inventory management, which corresponds to adding/updating inventory objects based on logical-component descriptions.)
obtaining (Jubran teaches (¶Fig. 4, ¶136) receiving a topology definition having a physical topology layer with physical elements and a logical topology layer with logical elements) a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components (Jubran teaches (¶29) logical topology layer 120 include device roles 122 (e.g., top of rack switch, spine, serial aggregator, fabric). The logical topology also includes logical configuration 124 that indicate the device settings that enable proper functioning of the devices in the corresponding roles associated with the devices. These explicit descriptions of logical components (roles/configuration) are to generate/update topology definition for hardware-inventory management.)
wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes (Jubran teaches (¶25-¶26) the topology schema defines multiple classes of entities including physical devices, logical devices and precision level connection classes. Jubran explicitly describes a schema (i.e. data model) composed of multiple classes – physical and logical elements layers – each defining its own attributes and roles. Thus, the reference discloses a class model having a plurality of classes as recited)
wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class (Jubran teaches (¶29) the logical topology layer 120 can include device roles 122 (e.g. top of rack switch TOR), spine, serial aggregator, fabric and compute). The logical topology also includes logical configuration 124 that indicates the device settings that enable proper functioning of the devices in the corresponding roles associated with the devices. Here, the logical topology layer 120 defines roles and configurations that together form a composite logical entity comprising multiple subordinate logical or physical elements. Accordingly, Jubran teaches that the plurality of classes in the schema includes a logical composite class corresponding to these composite logical entities)
and wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class (Jubran teaches (¶132-¶133) the topology definition component 312 is responsible for generating a topology definition. The topology definition includes a physical topology layer with physical elements and a logical topology layer with logical elements. The topology definition component 312 can communicate the topology definition and the instance definition for hardware management of the hardware inventory. Jubran clearly teaches that each instance (object) of the logical topology is generated and communicated for hardware-inventory management, conforming to the logical-element definitions within the schema. Therefore, the reference discloses that inventory objects representing a logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite (logical topology) class). Taken together, Jubran discloses (1) a schema with multiple classes (physical + logical), (2) a logical composite class defining device-role relationship, and (3) inventory instances that conform to that class – thus satisfying all three limitations as claimed.
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine an apparatus comprising, a processing system including at least one processor, and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations the operations comprising: obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a function in a communication network, wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device, wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component, obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components, and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database in accordance with the first description and the second description, as disclosed by Mellquist, and obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, and wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class, as taught by Jubran, for the purpose of modeling or representing a datacenter based on a topology definition schema data structure having separated representations of physical topology layers and logical topology layers (Jubran, ¶3)
wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type (Jubran teaches ¶17 the user device can access a template file (e.g., a topology definition) that describes a topology of the hardware inventory and validate the locations of the set of computing units by comparing the template file against information carried within the traffic received from the set of computing units and further validates operational configuration parameters based on expected and actual operation configuration parameters (e.g., bandwidth, throughput, latency, jitter, error rates, and interplay of factors. Further, Jubran teaches ¶20 - ¶22 datacenter topology definition schema (“schema”) provides a single, complete, clear, consistent and flexible schema, which may define constraints, and additional specialized rules. Managing hardware can generally include discovering, validating, and configuring physical and logical elements in a datacenter, the physical and logical elements are defined separately in the schema. For example, a physical topology layer is associated with physical elements that define devices, wiring rules between hardware inventory, and physical configuration and a logical topology layer is associated with logical elements that define device roles and logical configuration, the physical elements are defined separately from logical elements. Specifically, the schema can support automating the hardware inventory management, and datacenter management includes validating physical devices and blades (SKU models, firmware versions, BIOS settings etc.) in a new datacenter or cluster, validating physical wiring between devices and blades in the new datacenter or cluster, hardware devices with proper configuration settings (access settings, network configurations). The schema includes SKU definitions, wiring rules, device configuration, logical roles and configuration, in a plurality of linked files (i.e. templates) having a formalized and documented format. The topology definition schema is further extendable to support the different aspects of the automated datacenter management. For example, generating an updated topology definition (e.g., a datacenter XML file) for a datacenter controller (e.g., fabric controller) datacenter manager tool)
Mellquist in view of Jubran does not explicitly disclose wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device type. However, in an analogous art, Tembey teaches:
wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device type (Tembey teaches (¶48) uses the terms “template” or “infrastructure template” interchangeably and they refer to a configuration of resources (e.g., physical hardware resources 124, 126, virtual resources, etc.) to be provisioned to a virtualized server system (e.g., the virtual server rack 106 of FIG. 1) and corresponding instructions to deploy the resources to the virtualized server system. Further, Tembey teaches ¶50 - ¶51 the template 131 is selected by a user from a template catalog including a plurality of infrastructure templates. The example template manager 128 may add, delete, and/or alter one or more resources and/or corresponding instructions included in the presented template based on user input.)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine a processing system including at least one processor, and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations the operations comprising: obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a function in a communication network, wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device, wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component, obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components, and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database in accordance with the first description and the second description and obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, and wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class, wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type, as disclosed by Mellquist in view of Jubran, and wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device type, as taught by Tembey, for the purpose of implementing template driven infrastructure in virtualized server systems (¶1).
Claim 2, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
at least one storage component storing the communication network inventory database (Mellquist discloses (Fig. 1) inventory 122 stored in the inventory manger 120. The inventory manager 120 maintains an inventory of the physical infrastructure, such as the computers 102, 104, that is present in the system 100. The inventory may be a data structure. The inventory manager 120 may also add or remove infrastructure from the inventory as infrastructure is added or removed).
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 3, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
wherein the network inventory database includes a plurality inventory objects representing a plurality of logical composite devices (Mellquist discloses the logical rack controller 110 maintain an inventory 122 of computers, PDUs and other devices in the logical rack 112. The inventory 122 is updated when new devices are added or removed (¶Col. 3, Lines 45 – 56). Mellquist discloses logical rack controller 110 support multi-tenancy (¶Col. 8, Lines 28 – 32), where multiple logical racks are defined from the same inventory of physical infrastructure and of the logical racks belong to different tenants. Mellquist provides multiple logical composite devices (logical racks) with inventories)
wherein each logical composite device of the plurality of logical composite devices is of the logical composite class (Mellquist discloses (Fig. 1 and ¶Col. 8, Line 28-56) a logical composite device (i.e. logical rack 112) among a plurality of logical composite devices (i.e. multiple logical racks), and each logical device of the logical rack (e.g. logical TOR switch 113) is represented as a class/object in a communication network, such as it relates to TOR switches 103 which are top of rack switches that enable computers to communicate with each other within a rack (¶Col. 3, Line 4-20) and to communicate with an intranet and/or internet through uplinks to aggregation switches.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 4, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
wherein the first logical composite device further comprises as least one logical component (Jubran discloses (¶29) the logical topology layer 120 can include device roles 122. The logical topology also includes logical configuration 124. Jubran explicitly describes that logical devices (composite entities) comprise subordinate logical components such as device roles 122 and configurations 124.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 5, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 4. Further, they teach:
obtaining a third description of the at least one logical component of the first logical composite device (Jubran teaches (¶Fig. 4, ¶136) receiving a topology definition having a physical topology layer with physical elements and a logical topology layer with logical elements), wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device that are added to the communication network inventory database are further based on the third description of the at least one logical component (Jubran teaches (¶29) logical topology layer 120 include device roles 122 (e.g., top of rack switch, spine, serial aggregator, fabric). The logical topology also includes logical configuration 124 that indicate the device settings that enable proper functioning of the devices in the corresponding roles associated with the devices. These explicit descriptions of logical components (roles/configuration) are to generate or update the topology definition for hardware-inventory management, which corresponds to adding/updating inventory objects based on logical-component descriptions.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 6, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 4. Further, they teach:
wherein the at least one logical component comprises at least one of: a virtual machine; or a virtual container (Mellquist teaches (¶Col. 3, Lines 40-44) the logical rack controller 110 may be a containerized application (e.g., a container pod) or a virtual machine executing on a hardware processing resource of a computer that is involved in management of the infrastructure in system 100
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 8, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
wherein the at least two distributed physical components are installed in at least two distinct physical housings (Mellquist explicitly discloses (¶Fig. 1) that the logical composite device (logical rack 112) consists of two physical components (computers 102 and 104) located and installed in different physical racks 106 and 108. Each rack is a separate housing enclosure within the datacenter)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 9, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
wherein the at least two distributed physical components are of at least two distinct manufacturers (Jubran teaches (¶19) unified representation of the datacenter topology and managing hardware inventory to facilitate compatibility. Jubran teaches (¶29, ¶31) physical topology layer 100 can include devices 112 with different attributes/SKUs. The Hardware inventory SKUs refers to an expected operational configuration for particular device/blade; the SKU may embody the attributes (e.g., manufacturer, product description, BIOS, firmware, configuration, material, size, color, packaging, number of HDD, versions, model, and warranty terms) associated with the hardware and distinguish the hardware from other hardware within the datacenter)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 10, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they teach:
wherein the at least two distributed physical components have unique identifiers that are separately alarmable (Mellquist discloses network visibility of physical infrastructure (¶Col. 6, Lines 10–15) which automatically generate a logical rack definition to include any physical infrastructure that is newly detected and visible on the network, such as by a discovery method i.e. alert, or alarm or notification status message. This newly updated logical rack definition is then verified using the physical infrastructure identifier (¶Col. 6, Lines 32–42) of the computers 102, 104 and/or the TOR switches 103/105 (Col. 8, lines 44-56)).
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 14, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
wherein the first template defines a plurality of acceptable physical components for selection as at least one of: the at least the first physical component or the at least the second physical component (Tembey teaches (¶156 - ¶157) template manager 128 determines the physical resource requirements of the first template 316 (Fig. 9:910) and whether the selected template can be deployed to the cloud computing environment. The catalog mapper 342 determine that the first template 316 can be deployed to the virtual server rack 106 based on the virtual server rack 106 including resources capable of executing the first tags 322 included in the first template 316. If, at block 910, the template manager 128 determines that the selected template can be deployed to the cloud computing environment, then, the template manager 128 generates a plan based on the selected template.
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 15, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
wherein the operations further comprise: obtaining a fourth description of the first template (Tembey teaches (¶34) SDDC manager selects a template from a database (e.g., a template catalog) to deploy one or more resources to a virtualized server system. The template may include pre-determined selections for plurality of configurations (i.e. descriptions) in addition to availability, capacity, and performance)
adding the first template to a template library of the communication network inventory database in accordance with the fourth description (Tembey teaches (¶104) template generator modify the first template by adding or deleting a resource, modifying a version of a resource, adding or deleting a tag, etc. The template generator 344 stores a modified template in the template catalog 320.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 16, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 15. Further, they disclose:
wherein the fourth description of the first template describes (Tembey teaches ¶33 the template includes one or more resources and corresponding instructions or tags for provisioning the resources):
a first role of the at least the first physical component (Tembey teaches ¶130 the template manager deploys the workload domain i.e. first role, and (¶132) template 600 includes a first resource field 612 i.e. the first physical component),
a second role of the at least the second physical component (Tembey teaches ¶130 the template manager 128 may expand the workload domain 129 and/or otherwise increase a capacity/performance i.e. second role, and (¶132) template 600 includes a second resource field 620 i.e. the second physical component) and
a plurality of acceptable physical components for selection as the at least one of: the at least the first physical component or the at least the second physical component (Tembey teaches (¶109) the template manager includes the controller invoker to instruct a controller to allocate resources to a workload domain based on a template.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 17, Mellquist, Jubran and Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
wherein the first template includes at least two relationships for at least two inventory objects (Tembey teaches ¶28 configurations may include cross-rack clusters) representing respective physical housings of the at least the first physical component and the at least the second physical component (Tembey teaches ¶27 “workload domain” refers to virtual hardware policies or subsets of virtual resources of a VM mapped to physical hardware resources to execute a user application.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 18, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. Further, they disclose:
wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device remains in the communication network inventory database in response to a detected failure associated with the first logical composite device (Mellquist discloses (¶Col. 9, Lines 45-48) if the logical rack definition 160 fails validation (i.e. detected failure associated with the logical device), an error condition may be reported. Additionally, or alternatively, the logical rack controller 110 may attempt to correct the validation errors by removing the non-validated physical infrastructure from the logical rack definition 160 i.e. the physical infrastructure remains in the rack/network inventory but removed from definition.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 1.
Claim 19, do not teach or further define over the limitations in Claim 1. Therefore, claim 19 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in Claim 1.
Claim 20, do not teach or further define over the limitations in Claim 1. Therefore, claim 20 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in Claim 1.
Claim 21, do not teach or further define over the limitations in Claim 3. Therefore, claim 21 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in Claim 3.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application US Patent No. 11,496,364 to Mellquist, in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0156522 to Jubran, in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0327144 to Tembey and in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0259879 to Ranganath et al. (hereinafter Ranganath).
Claim 7, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1. However, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey does not explicitly disclose wherein the function comprises a function of a cellular network component. However, in an analogous art, Ranganath teaches:
wherein the first network function comprises a function of a cellular network component (Ranganath teaches EPC/5G core components and their functions (¶126) and the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1320 onto physical compute/storage resources. The Core Network (CN) node functions such as the CN 1320 may be (¶225) an LTE CN 1322 (also referred to as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 1322). The EPC 1322 may include MME 1324, SGW 1326, SGSN 1328, HSS 1330, PGW 1332, and PCRF 1334)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine an apparatus comprising: a processing system including at least one processor; and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising: obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a first network function in a communication network, wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device, and wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component; obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components; and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database in accordance with the first description and the second description, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, [[and]] wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class, wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type, wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device, as disclosed by Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey, and wherein the function comprises a function of a cellular network component as taught by Ranganath, for the purpose of application and resource management through collection and analysis of platform telemetry data and network measurements (¶2).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application US Patent No. 11,496,364 to Mellquist in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0156522 to Jubran, in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0327144 to Tembey, and in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0317789 to Chakraborty et al. (hereinafter Chakraborty).
Claim 11, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 10. However, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey does not explicitly disclose wherein the first logical composite device is alarmable distinct from the at least two distributed physical components. However, in an analogous art, Chakraborty teaches:
wherein the first logical composite device is alarmable distinct from the at least two distributed physical components (Chakraborty teaches (¶35-¶36) cluster check services generate an alert for at least one of the plurality of infrastructure dependent virtual machines. The alert may be provided for each type of individual infrastructure dependent virtual machine in a system e.g., one alert regarding domain controllers, another alert regarding DNS servers. The alert may be, for example, a visual, audible, and/or tactile stimulus provided by one or more of the computing nodes in the cluster, hosting the cluster check service and/or by an administrative computing system in communication with the cluster.)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine an apparatus comprising: a processing system including at least one processor; and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising: obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a first network function in a communication network, wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device, and wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component; obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components; and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database in accordance with the first description and the second description, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, [[and]] wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class, wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type, wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device, as disclosed by Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey, and wherein the first logical composite device is alarmable distinct from the at least two distributed physical components, as taught by Chakraborty, for the purpose of implementing systems and methods for virtualized computing systems (¶1).
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application US Patent No. 11,496,364 to Mellquist in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0156522 to Jubran, in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0327144 to Tembey, and in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0117908 to Coles et al. (hereinafter Coles).
Claim 12, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey discloses all the elements of claim 1 include logical rack controller that may maintain an inventory 122 of computers, PDUs and other devices and include data describing relationships between devices such as power, network and control connections (Fig. 1). However, Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey does not explicitly disclose wherein the communication network inventory database comprises a graph database with relationships defining a plurality of edges between a plurality of inventory objects. However, in an analogous art, Coles teaches:
wherein the communication network inventory database comprises a graph database with relationships defining a plurality of edges between a plurality of inventory objects (Coles teaches recording the inventory and the associated relationships in a graph database (Fig. 4 and ¶38) that includes nodes that are points in a graph and with directed vertices between the points based on the associated relationships … each node includes one or more properties and labels (¶40 and Fig. 3) … each of the directed vertices includes a type and querying the graph database for any of capacity management, inventory management, network planning, and network maintenance (¶65). The graph database is used to store data for the management system … in a graph format that includes nodes 302 and relationships 304 … relationships are directed …. known as an edge in graph theory (Table 1). Coles explicitly discloses a graph-based inventory database with nodes and directed edges (relationships) connecting inventory objects e.g., devices, cards, ports)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine an apparatus comprising: a processing system including at least one processor; and a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising: obtaining a first description of at least a first physical component of a first logical composite device, wherein the first logical composite device comprises at least two distributed physical components to perform a first network function in a communication network, wherein the at least two distributed physical components are dedicated to the first logical composite device, and wherein the at least two distributed physical components include the at least the first physical component; obtaining a second description of at least a second physical component of the at least two distributed physical components; and adding a set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device to a communication network inventory database in accordance with the first description and the second description, wherein the communication network inventory database is in accordance with a class model having a plurality of classes, wherein the plurality of classes includes a logical composite class, [[and]] wherein the one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device are in accordance with the logical composite class, wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type, wherein the communication network inventory database includes at least one additional inventory object representing a second logical composite device to perform a second network function in the communication network, and wherein the at least one additional inventory object is in accordance with a second template for a second logical composite device, as disclosed by Mellquist in view of Jubran in view of Tembey, and wherein the communication network inventory database comprises a graph database with relationships defining a plurality of edges between a plurality of inventory objects, as taught by Coles, for the purpose of implementing systems and methods for graph views and models for representing networks and associated inventory (¶38).
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, filed on 12/10/2025 with respect to the Claims 1 – 12 and 14 – 21 have been fully considered and they are not persuasive. Hence, the 35 USC § 103 rejection is maintained. However, based on the claim amendments and the newly introduced limitations, the search is updated and the reference (US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0327144 to Tembey et al.) is now being introduced for the 35 USC § 103 rejection of Claim 1.
In response to the applicant’s argument, (Pg. 23), “ … in rejecting claim 13 (now canceled, aspects of which are incorporated into the respective independent claims), the Examiner refers to Tembey paragraphs [0050]-[0052] and FIG. 2 in connection with the claim features … wherein the set of one or more inventory objects representing the first logical composite device is in accordance with a first template for a first logical composite device type … (see Office Action, p. 16) … however, in reply, it is respectfully submitted that the "template" described in Tembey is not a template for an inventory object in an inventory database … rather, the "template" in Tembey is for use by a "template manager" to deploy a function to one or more server host nodes … in other words, the template directs the template manager as to how to select and arrange server host nodes to operate,” the Examiner notes that the Tembey reference clearly teaches (¶48) that the terms “template” or “infrastructure template” are used interchangeably here and they precisely refers to resources (e.g., physical hardware resources 124, 126, virtual resources, etc.) to be provisioned to a virtualized server system (e.g., the virtual server rack 106 of FIG. 1) and corresponding instructions to deploy the resources to the virtualized server system. Further, Tembey teaches ¶50 - ¶51 the template 131 is selected by a user from a template catalog including a plurality of infrastructure templates. In response to selection of a presented template, the example template manager 128 may add, delete, and/or alter one or more physical hardware resources e.g. 124, 126, and/or corresponding instructions included in the presented template based on user input.)
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASSAN ABDUR-RAHMAN KHAN whose telephone number is (313)446-6574. The examiner can normally be reached TEAPP - (M-Sa) 9/30/17-9/30/18, 6am-10pm IFP.
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/H. A. K./
Examiner, Art Unit 2451
/Chris Parry/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2451
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