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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed June 30th, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1-18 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments to the Claims have overcome each and every objection and 112(b) rejections previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed March 30th, 2026.
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, 6-10, 12-16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan et al (US 2020/0133752) in view of Stalker et al (US 2004/0117609) in further view Liang (WO 2018006805).
With regards to claims 1, 7, and 13, Ganesan teaches through Stalker, an information handling system comprising: at least one processor; a memory; and a network interface (Information Handling System (IHS) 100 Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) 114 comprising Service Processor 116, Memory 120 and BMC of IHS includes communication interface communicatively coupled to memory of IHS and iDRAC/RAC 258 performs out-of-band communication for the IHS 200 via the NIC 204 and network 206 to a network device; see fig 1, [0005;22], Ganesan); wherein the information handling system is configured to:
receive an instruction to carry out an operation, wherein the operation includes shutting down at least one software service (fig 3 block 314 Get ‘Predicted Power Operation’ sensor state (i.e. receive an indication that a power down is imminent and in response “carrying out the operation” of determining), determining by host processing subsystem 212, whether state of PPO software sensor 312 is safe to perform critical operation (fig 3 decision block 316); see fig 3, [0027], Ganesan).
Ganesan does not teach determine whether the at least one software service includes a network service configured to allow remote access to the information handling system via the network interface; and in response to a determination that the at least one software service does include the network service, prevent the network service from shutting down.
In the same field of endeavor, Stalker teaches determine whether the at least one software service includes a network service configured to allow remote access to the information handling system via the network interface (Step 530 include the PRM detecting flag(s) at various condition monitors integrated into an application, the operating system 353 (fig 3B) and/or resident application 382 (i.e. software service includes a network service) or external to the digital home communication terminal (DHCT) 16 (i.e., allow remote access to the DHCT through network interface 206 in fig. 2) (fig. 3A)… and PRM 388 sends request to opportunity helper (OH) 389 asking whether the current time is an opportune time for a reboot; see fig 5A-B, [0051-52], Stalker and fig 5B illustrates one example decision flow chart that the OH 389 can implement to determine whether the current time is an opportune time for a reboot and some times are clearly opportune times, while other times may require user intervention to determine whether the particular instance of time is an opportune time or not; see fig 5B, [0053-54], Stalker);
and in response to a determination that the at least one software service does include the network service, prevent the network service from shutting down (fig 5C is a screen diagram of an example dialog box 580 used to alert the user to a reboot, and provides the user with an option to postpone (i.e. prevent) the reboot (i.e., shutdown) until an opportune time; see fig 5C, [0067], Stalker).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have combined the teachings of Ganesan and Stalker to remedy the problem of rebooting that degrades the user experience (see [0004], Stalker).
Ganesan in view of Stalker does not teach preventing shutdown “while permitting one or more other software services affected by the operation to shut down, such that the operation otherwise proceeds”.
However, in the same field of endeavor Liang discloses preventing shutdown while permitting one or more other software services affected by the operation to shut down, such that the operation otherwise proceeds (Liang teaches the terminal may send a network side network element to request the network side network element (which may be one or more network side network elements) to close part of the PS data service, thereby implementing selective shutdown. Liang further teaches the notification can be displayed to the terminal whether or not to allow the data service shutdown function, whether or not it is allowed; [Page 5, paragraph starting with "With the embodiment of the present invention…" and page 10, paragraph starting with "Step 502: The MME determines…"], Liang)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have combined the teachings of Ganesan and Stalker with the selective shutdown technique of Liang to exclude identified remote access network service from shutdown while allowing the remaining shutdown operations to proceed to improve the manageability and availability of the system.
With regards to claims 2, 8, and 14, Ganesan teaches through Stalker and Liang, the network interface is coupled to an out-of-band management network (iDRAC also has the ability to see OS specific files and iDRAC/RAC 258 performs out-of-band communication for the IHS 200 via the NIC 204 and network 206 to a network device, such as management console 260 on administrator system 262, remote user desktop 264, and development operations system 266; see [0022], Ganesan;)
With regards to claims 3, 9, and 15, Ganesan teaches through Stalker and Liang, the information handling system is a baseboard management controller (BMC) (IHS includes a baseboard management controller (BMC) communicatively coupled to the memory, see [0004], Ganesan).
With regard to claims 4, 10, and 16, Ganesan teaches through Stalker and Liang, the network service is a network daemon (NIC 204 enables IHS 200 and/or components within IHS 200 to communicate and/or interface with other devices, services (i.e., daemon), and components that are located external to IHS 200, represented as network devices such as administrator system 210. These devices, services, and components can interface with IHS 200 via an external network, such as example network 206, using one or more communication protocols that include transport control protocol (TCP/IP) and network block device (NBD) protocol; see [0020] Ganesan).
With regards to claims 6, 12, and 18, Ganesan teaches through Stalker and Liang, the information handling system further configured to accept a user command to not prevent the network service from shutting down. (While these parameters can be hard coded (i.e., to override to not prevent a service from shutting down), they will preferably be placed in an out of band configuration file. The PRM 388 (FIG. 3B), in one implementation, can load this configuration file at boot time to access the parameters. In other embodiments, the PRM 388 may disable proactive reboots if the file does not exist, or the enable parameter is FALSE; see [0059], Stalker). Motivation to combine is similar to that of claim 1.
Claims 5, 11, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan in view of Stalker further in view of Liang and further in view of Black et al (US 2002/0116485).
With regards to claims 5, 11, and 17, Ganesan teaches through Stalker and Liang the system of claim 1.
Ganesan in view of Stalker and Liang does not teach an information handling system further configured to execute a network monitor, wherein the network monitor is configured to: periodically check the health status of the network service; and in response to a determination that the network service is not operational, cause the network service to restart.
In the same field of endeavor, Black teaches an information handling system further configured to execute a network monitor (activity detector 709, [0707], Black), wherein the network monitor is configured to: periodically check the health status of the network service; and in response to a determination that the network service is not operational, cause the network service to restart. (periodic roll calls between distributed points of communication--clients to servers (i.e., network monitoring), servers to clients and servers to devices--ensure fast discovery of lost connections, and sending notifications of lost connections over the out-of-band management channels ensures fast responses to lost connections (i.e., in response to a determination that the network service is not operational, cause the network service to restart)--all of which maximizes overall management availability; see [137], Black)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have combined the teachings of Ganesan, Stalker, Liang, and Black to improve the network availability.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 6/30/2026 have been considered but they are not deemed fully persuasive.
Applicant's amendments in response to the 112(a & b) rejections issued (in light of the claims being interpreted under 112(f) are deemed persuasive. The 112(a & b) rejections for claims 7-18 are now withdrawn.
Regarding the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claim 1, Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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/S.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2455
/EMMANUEL L MOISE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2455
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