International Business Machines Corporation

Gianluca Mariani

Antonio Secomandi

Bernardo Pastorelli

Riccardo Rossi

Enrica Alberti

Michele Tomassi

Claudio Marinelli

Fabio Cerri

Viviana Tripodi

Domenico D'Alterio

Francesco Latino

Francesco Lecciso

Luisa Attanasio

Bruno Portaluri

Gianluca Gigliarelli

Fabio Benedetti

Ignazio F Trovato

Pietro Marella

Massimo Marra

Gianluca Seghetti

Martha Pinelo

Danilo Allocca

Claudio De Ingeniis

Mario Noioso

A technique for generating a customized program logic for booting a target system includes determining the hardware devices operatively connected with the target system. A list of identifiers of the determined hardware devices is sent to a server system. The server system selects from a set of drivers for each of the device identifiers in the list at least one driver operable to control the identified device to generate a sub-set of said set of drivers. The server system retrieves a core program logic being free of any drivers of the target system and sends the core program logic and the driver sub-set to the target system. The target system creates the customized program logic using the combination of the core program logic and the driver sub-set.

Customizing program logic for booting a system

A solution is proposed for managing each one of a plurality of computing machines. A corresponding method comprises taking one or more snapshots of the computing machine or part thereof, the snapshots being organized in a snapshot tree of nodes representing the snapshots according to a dependency thereof, expanding the snapshot tree of the computing machine according to each sub-tree of the snapshot tree of each other computing machine having the snapshot of a parent node of the sub-tree matching a graft node of the snapshot tree of the computing machine, the sub-tree being appended to the graft node, selecting a snapshot of the other computing machines represented by a selected node of the snapshot tree of the computing machine, and restoring the selected snapshot on the computing machine.

Sharing of snapshots among multiple computing machines

A method for generating a customized program logic operable to control hardware devices of a target system and to boot said target system includes determining the hardware devices operatively connected with the target system. A list of identifiers of the determined hardware devices is sent to a server system. The server system selects from a set of drivers for each of the device identifiers in the list at least one driver operable to control the identified device to generating a sub-set of said set of drivers. The server system retrieves a core program logic being free of any drivers of the target system and complements the core program logic with said driver sub-set to generate the customized program logic. The customized program logic is then deployed to the target system.

A method, an eBook, and an apparatus. The method includes calculating, by a processor, a usage metric describing a timing at which an eBook has been displayed for viewing by a user. The method further includes selectively deteriorating, by the processor, a look of the eBook for a secondary market based on the usage metric of the eBook.

Selectively deteriorate eBook for secondary market

A method and system are provided for generating customized program logic operable to control hardware devices of a target system and to boot said target system. The system is connected to one or more target systems via a network, the server system being adapted for: receiving a first list of device identifiers from one of the target systems; automatically selecting, for each of the device identifiers in the received first list, at least one driver operable to control the identified device from a set of drivers, thereby generating a sub-set of said set of drivers; providing a core program logic to the target system; and providing the sub-set of drivers to the target system, wherein a combination of the sub-set of drivers and the core program logic constitutes a customized program logic operable to control the devices of said target system.

A tool for managing device driver aggregation during operating system deployment. The tool receives a request for a device bundle, wherein the request originates from a first target client. The tool determines whether an available driver bundle matches the device bundle, wherein the available driver bundle is a driver bundle stored locally on a second target client. Responsive to a determination that the available driver bundle matches the device bundle, the tool provisions the available driver bundle to the first target client from the second target client.

Device driver aggregation in operating system deployment

A method and system are provided for generating customized program logic operable to control hardware devices of a target system and to boot said target system. The method includes determining the hardware devices operatively connected with the target system; sending a first list of identifiers of the determined hardware devices to a server system; receiving the first list of device identifiers; automatically selecting at least one driver operable to control the identified device, thereby generating a sub-set of said set of drivers; and complementing a core program logic with said driver sub-set to generate the customized program logic.

A method, system and computer program product for managing system management agent configurations which include agent system management programs and program parameters in a distributed environment. A configuration management server sends upon request from the agents installed on the distributed system a description of their configuration. To this effect, the configuration management server maintains a database storing the agent configuration information, this database being usually updated by a system management administrator. The agents get from the server the list of peer distributed systems having the same agent configuration and their configuration from one distributed system of the list or obtain an agent configuration directly from the configuration management server if the peer distributed systems have modified their configuration. The agents advise the system management server when a new configuration has been installed.

Managing configurations of system management agents in a distributed environment

A tool for managing device driver aggregation during operating system deployment. The tool receives, by a first computer processor, a request for a device bundle, the request including a unique identifier. The tool determines, by the first computer processor, whether an available driver bundle matches the requested device bundle based, at least in part, on the unique identifier. Responsive to determining an available driver bundle does not match a requested device bundle, the tool creates, by the first computer processor, an associated driver bundle for the requested device bundle.

A computer implemented method for deploying, in a distributed virtual environment, a multi-component software product is disclosed. The method may include requesting and receiving product installation parameters, which may include virtual machine IDs corresponding to subsets of the product installation parameters. The method may also include copying software product installation files and parameters onto a first virtual machine, halting the first virtual machine, cloning the first virtual machine to a second virtual machine and setting virtual machine IDs on the virtual machines. The method may also include starting the virtual machines and identifying, based on virtual machine IDs, subsets of the product installation parameters. The method may also include deploying, based on subsets of the product installation parameters, the software product by installing first and second components of the software product on the first and second virtual machines, respectively.

Software deployment in a distributed virtual machine environment

Protecting privacy when communicating with a web server via a communication network, includes receiving by a first privacy agent a request from an application program of a client system for a connection to a web server having a target web server address, sending the request together with a first identification from the first privacy agent to the second privacy agent, forwarding the request together with a second identification from the second privacy agent to the third privacy agent. Further processing is performed responsive to determining that the target web server address matches a defined web server address which is accessible by the third privacy agent.

Protecting privacy when communicating with a web server

A method is presented for installing a software application on a data processing system that may include multiple data processing entities. The software application may include multiple components for installation on one or more of the entities. The method may include providing input information for each of the components designated for installation. Each component may then be installed according to its corresponding input information, and output information corresponding to each component may be generated. This output information may be provided to one or more data processing entities identified for installation of a subsequent component. The input information corresponding to the subsequent component may be at least partially determined from this output information.

Growing community of inventors

Rome, Italy

Gianluca Mariani