Abstract: A domain-name-based network-connection attestation system provides for more user friendly and less error prone (compared to IP-address-based attestation systems) updating of a whitelist used to determine whether or not to allow a requested network connection. A guest agent extracts from a DNS reply a domain name, and an IP address mapped to a domain name. The agent enters these values in an agent DNS cache. When a process requests a connection to an IP address, the agent uses the IP address to determine the domain name from the agent DNS cache. The agent then determines whether the IP address is mapped to the process identity in a domain-name-based whitelist. If it is, the connection is attested to and allowed; if it is not, a secondary IP address whitelist can be checked.

Abstract: A task list can list tasks to be performed on a target host machine. Certain tasks in the task list can be revised to produce a revised task list. Tasks directed to storage devices can be revised depending on whether or not the storage devices are shared by both the target host machine and a reference host machine.

Abstract: A domain-name-based network-connection attestation system provides for more user friendly and less error prone (compared to IP-address-based attestation systems) updating of a whitelist used to determine whether or not to allow a requested network connection. A guest agent extracts from a DNS reply a domain name, and an IP address mapped to a domain name. The agent enters these values in an agent DNS cache. When a process requests a connection to an IP address, the agent uses the IP address to determine the domain name from the agent DNS cache. The agent then determines whether the IP address is mapped to the process identity in a domain-name-based whitelist. If it is, the connection is attested to and allowed; if it is not, a secondary IP address whitelist can be checked.

Abstract: Reference profiles for managing configurations of host machines in a cluster may include a subprofile that specifies a boot LUN in a SAN storage architecture. Processing of a reference profile includes properly resolving the boot LUN specified in the reference profile and the actual boot LUN used in a target host machine.

Abstract: A task list can list tasks to be performed on a target host machine. Certain tasks in the task list can be revised to produce a revised task list. Tasks directed to storage devices can be revised depending on whether or not the storage devices are shared by both the target host machine and a reference host machine.

Abstract: A per device state is introduced that indicates whether a storage device is shared clusterwide or not. The state may be populated by default based on detected device locality. Devices detected as local and those shared by only a subset of host machines in a cluster of machines may have the state set to “FALSE.” Devices which are shared by all the machines in a cluster may have the state set to “TRUE.” Locality of storage devices in a cluster may be modified using such state information. Operations upon other storage device state may be modified depending upon device sharing state.

Abstract: A per device state is introduced that indicates whether a storage device is shared clusterwide or not. The state may be populated by default based on detected device locality. Devices detected as local and those shared by only a subset of host machines in a cluster of machines may have the state set to “FALSE.” Devices which are shared by all the machines in a cluster may have the state set to “TRUE.” Locality of storage devices in a cluster may be modified using such state information. Operations upon other storage device state may be modified depending upon device sharing state.

Abstract: Reference profiles for managing configurations of host machines in a cluster may include a subprofile that specifies a boot LUN in a SAN storage architecture. Processing of a reference profile includes properly resolving the boot LUN specified in the reference profile and the actual boot LUN used in a target host machine.

Abstract: During software development, both before and after release, information may be collected and stored that may provide insight to developers as a generalized service. For example, data from past debugging sessions, source code in various repositories, bug repositories, discussion groups, and various documents may provide relevant information for software developers to fix current problems when this information is coherently matched with the problem. Using various sources, a system may mine the stored data to give the current developer information related to past code development, and reveal why the code changed throughout previous development. Using sophisticated analyses to identify similar code patterns across multiple large software projects, discovering patterns in normal and abnormal uses of particular software interfaces, and employing other mining techniques, a developer may find domain-specific information to facilitate ongoing software development.