Abstract: Methods and/or systems for performing workload analysis within an arrangement of interconnected computing devices, such as a converged infrastructure, are disclosed. A prediction system may generate a workload associated with physical and/or logical components of the converged infrastructure that are utilized to execute a client resource. The prediction system may monitor the utilization behavior of the various logical and/or physical components associated with the workload over a particular period of time to generate a workload profile. Subsequently, the prediction system may execute a prediction workload analysis algorithm that accesses the workload profile to identify optimal physical resources in the converged infrastructure that may be available to execute other workloads.

Abstract: A converged infrastructure management system includes a processing system and a memory for storing an operations management application, which is executed by the processing system to obtain physical configuration information associated with one or more physical hosts of a virtual computing environment, and virtual object information associated with a plurality of virtual objects executed on the hosts. Using this information, the application generates an association for each virtual object, the association associating the virtual object with the host that executes the virtual object, and displays a virtual object representation of at least one of the virtual objects, a host representation of its respective host, and an indicator representing the association between the virtual object and its respective host on a display.

Abstract: An improved technique for communicating with components of an electronic system includes operating a driver according to a designated protocol but agnostically to the components themselves. Information about particular system components is supplied to the driver by respective data sources. To obtain discovery information about a component, the driver accesses a data source for the component and communicates with the component using the designated protocol. The driver thus operates merely as a conduit for component-specific information, which is supplied by the data sources rather than by the driver itself.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for integrating a converged infrastructure platform in a data center is provided. The described apparatus configures the physical and virtual resources that run on the converged infrastructure to communicate with the rest of the data center. The network integration process understands the data center network already in place and extends the set up into the converged infrastructure to enable communication between the converged infrastructure and the rest of the network in the data center. The apparatus uses an infrastructure template that describes the data center and that may be pre-defined for a specific application deployed within the converged infrastructure platform.

Abstract: A power distribution unit (PDU) at least one power distribution module configured in a computing rack and an interchangeable adapter coupled to the power distribution module to provide power to the distribution module. The power distribution module includes multiple power receptacles for coupling to a plurality of devices disposed in the computing rack. The interchangeable adapter electrically connectable to one of a plurality of different electrical power sources in which each electrical power source has a phase type configuration that differs from one another.

Abstract: A technique tests whether an integrated computing system having server, network and storage components complies with a configuration benchmark expressed as rules in first markup-language statements such as XML. The rules are parsed to obtain test definition identifiers identifying test definitions in a second set of markup-language statements, each test definition including a test value and an attribute identifier of system component attribute. A management database is organized as an integrated object model of all system components. An interpreter invoked with the test definition identifier from each rule process each test definition to (a) access the management database using the attribute identifier obtain the actual value for the corresponding attribute, and (b) compare the actual value to the test value of the test definition to generate a comparison result value that can be stored or communicated as a compliance indicator to a human or machine user.

Abstract: A system, method, apparatus, and computer program product for enabling management of a converged infrastructure are disclosed. A method may include determining components of the converged infrastructure whose configurations need to be modified in order to modify the configuration of the converged infrastructure in accordance with a received command to modify the configuration of the converged infrastructure. The method may also include modifying the configuration of each of the determined components to modify the configuration of the converged infrastructure in accordance with the received command.

Abstract: A customer support technique for an electronic system includes engaging in a video chat with a remote customer support device using a first camera of a computerized apparatus while simultaneously acquiring images of the electronic system using a second camera and sending the images to the customer support device. A user of the computerized apparatus can thus engage in a face-to-face video chat with a customer support agent operating the customer support device while the customer support agent simultaneously sees both images of the user and images of the electronic system or portion thereof to which the user is pointing the second camera. The disclosed technique thus provides a near-hands-on support experience from a remote customer support agent regardless of the customer support agent's physical location.

Abstract: In a virtual computing environment allocating instantiations of computing resources based on a computing metric of a primary application for execution on the instantiated computing resources, an instance manager increases allocated computing resources in response to a performance shortfall. The virtual computing environment executes virtualization instances of computing systems as an autonomous computing entity in a physical environment shared with other virtualization instances. Each virtualization instance has a configuration including a processor type and quantity, memory, and mass storage (i.e. disk) allocation. Further, each virtualization instance has a performance capacity (capacity) based on a performance metric for identifying throughput in terms of a target application that the virtualization instance was designated to support.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer readable mediums for updating components in a converged infrastructure system are disclosed. According to one method, the method includes identifying components in a converged infrastructure system that require remediation in order to comply with a defined converged infrastructure configuration and determining remediation content to enable each of the identified components to be compliant with the defined converged infrastructure configuration. The method further includes retrieving the remediation content for the identified components from a repository and utilizing the remediation content to update the identified components on the converged infrastructure system in accordance with the defined converged infrastructure configuration.

Abstract: A method and system for executing scripts on virtual machines is provided. The system includes an executor service that accepts scripts, parameters, authentication information from another process that needs to invoke a script on a target virtual machine (or group of virtual machines). The executor service remains running even after a script has completed execution. The executor service accepts any number of scripts and places them in a command queue. Agents running on the target virtual machine(s) check-in with the executor service to receive scripts from the command queue. Also, the executor service may directly invoke a script using a persistent connection to a virtual machine management center.

Abstract: A snapshot agent executing on a virtual desktop allows a user to both create snapshots of the VM image hosting the virtual desktop and to revert that VM instance to such snapshots. In addition to a snapshot agent that executes within a given VM instance, another embodiment provides a user with network access to a portal snapshot management interface, e.g., via a web application. The web application can present the list of VM instances, and snapshots for each such VM instance, owned by an authenticated user. The user can then interact with the web application to create a new snapshot for (or revert to) an existing snapshot for the owned VM instances.

Abstract: A snapshot agent executing on a virtual desktop allows a user to both create snapshots of the VM image hosting the virtual desktop and to revert that VM instance to such snapshots. In addition to a snapshot agent that executes within a given VM instance, another embodiment provides a user with network access to a portal snapshot management interface, e.g., via a web application. The web application can present the list of VM instances, and snapshots for each such VM instance, owned by an authenticated user. The user can then interact with the web application to create a new snapshot for (or revert to) an existing snapshot for the owned VM instances.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for managing virtual machine instances (VMs) and other computing and network infrastructure within a data center. A user designates a computing device or resource (whether physical or virtual) as a master automation object (e.g., a virtual machine instance may be designated as a virtual template for command replication). The user then establishes an association between the master object and a set of physical and/or virtual computing resources that should replicate a set of designated commands sent to the master object. An automation service then intercepts/observes commands sent to the master object and sends the intercepted/observed commands to each computing device linked to the master object.

Abstract: A method and system for executing scripts on virtual machines is provided. The system includes an executor service that accepts scripts, parameters, authentication information from another process that needs to invoke a script on a target virtual machine (or group of virtual machines). The executor service remains running even after a script has completed execution. The executor service accepts any number of scripts and places them in a command queue. Agents running on the target virtual machine(s) check-in with the executor service to receive scripts from the command queue. Also, the executor service may directly invoke a script using a persistent connection to a virtual machine management center.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for integrating a converged infrastructure platform in a data center is provided. The described apparatus configures the physical and virtual resources that run on the converged infrastructure to communicate with the rest of the data center. The network integration process understands the data center network already in place and extends the set up into the converged infrastructure to enable communication between the converged infrastructure and the rest of the network in the data center. The apparatus uses an infrastructure template that describes the data center and that may be pre-defined for a specific application deployed within the converged infrastructure platform.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for integrating a converged infrastructure platform in a data center is provided. The described apparatus configures the physical and virtual resources that run on the converged infrastructure to communicate with the rest of the data center. The described apparatus further enables a system administrator to rollback configurations of the physical and virtual resources of the converged infrastructure to restore the converged infrastructure to a factory state.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deploying an application in a converged infrastructure is described. The application may be deployed according a model that specifies deployment of the application on resources allocated from the converged infrastructure. The model may be used to scale and adjust the deployment of the application according to pre-determined best practices and according to deployment-specific parameters provided by a system administrator.

Abstract: A technique tests whether an integrated computing system having server, network and storage components complies with a configuration benchmark expressed as rules in first markup-language statements such as XML. The rules are parsed to obtain test definition identifiers identifying test definitions in a second set of markup-language statements, each test definition including a test value and an attribute identifier of system component attribute. A management database is organized as an integrated object model of all system components. An interpreter invoked with the test definition identifier from each rule process each test definition to (a) access the management database using the attribute identifier obtain the actual value for the corresponding attribute, and (b) compare the actual value to the test value of the test definition to generate a comparison result value that can be stored or communicated as a compliance indicator to a human or machine user.

Abstract: An improved technique for communicating with components of an electronic system includes operating a driver according to a designated protocol but agnostically to the components themselves. Information about particular system components is supplied to the driver by respective data sources. To obtain discovery information about a component, the driver accesses a data source for the component and communicates with the component using the designated protocol. The driver thus operates merely as a conduit for component-specific information, which is supplied by the data sources rather than by the driver itself.