Dell Products Inc.

Vivekanandh Narayanasamy Rajagopalan

Gokul Thiruchengode Vajravel

Vivek Viswanathan Iyer

Srikanth Kondapi

Srinivasa Ragavan Rajagopalan

Balasingh Ponraj Samuel

Sumanth Vidyadhara

Raveendra Babu Madala

Amy Christine Nelson

Ambadas Devrao Jadhav

Daniel Lawrence Hamlin

Nicholas Diciurcio Grobelny

Ibrahim Sayyed

Anand Prakash Joshi

Marcin M Nowak

Joshua Alperin

Srinivasa Ragavan

Swee Chay Hia

Swagat Parida

Bhavani Anandakrishnan

Trinto Thattil Nadakkalan Antony

Hemanth Venkatesh Murthy

Salna Viswanathan Thekkekalathil

Prasanth K S R

Ta-Jung (Joseph) Yeh

A field replaceable unit can be verified before replacement. An integrity plugin on a customer device can be configured to compute a hash of each field replaceable unit on the customer device. The integrity plugin can share these hashes with an integrity service which can use the hashes to generate an integrity status of the field replaceable units. The integrity service can maintain the integrity status of the field replaceable units in an integrity database. When the customer requests replacement of a field replaceable unit, a technician device can interface with the integrity plugin to obtain a computed hash of the field replaceable unit. The integrity status for the field replaceable unit can then be used to evaluate the computed hash to thereby verify the integrity of the field replaceable unit. If the verification fails, the technician can forego replacing the field replaceable unit under a support or warranty plan.

Verifying a field replaceable unit before replacement

A seamless login experience can be provided in a companion mobile application. When a user launches a mobile app on his mobile computing device, a login handler of the mobile app can establish a proximity channel with a user computing device on which the user is logged into a desktop application for which the mobile app is a companion application. The login handler can send a mobile user ID to a login plugin on the user computing device. If the mobile user ID matches a user ID used to log the user into the desktop application, the login plugin can provide a token to the login handler. The login handler can then use the token to obtain a session token that can be used to log the user into the mobile app.

Providing a seamless login experience in a companion mobile application

Best known configurations for workspaces can be managed. Device groups can be defined based on functional roles or organizational departments. Each device group can be associated with a workspace along with a best known configuration for the workspace that is based on the device group. Workspaces can then be deployed to the end-user computing devices based on the device group to which each end-user computing device belongs and in accordance with the associated best known configuration.

Managing best known configurations for workspaces

Notifications can be provided across user devices. A notification gateway can be configured to receive notification requests from a variety of publishers. The notification requests can identify a channel type over which notifications should be sent to user devices that an administrator uses. The notification gateway can deliver each notification request to a topic that is associated with the defined channel type. Dispatchers subscribed to the topics can receive the notification requests. Each dispatcher can use the content of a notification request to generate and send notifications over the respective channel type to each user device used by an administrator identified in the notification request.

Providing notifications across user devices

Secure workspaces can be supported in heterogenous environments. Snapshots of secure workspaces can be created when the secure workspaces are deployed on a user's primary user computing device. When a user desires to access secure workspaces on a secondary user computing device, information about and a trust for the secondary user computing device can be determined. Based on the information and the trust, it can then be determined how the snapshots of the secure workspaces will be used to make the secure workspaces available to the secondary user computing device. In some cases, a best-known configuration for a secure workspace can be determined and applied.

Supporting secure workspaces in heterogenous environments

End-to-end distributed recovery of a user computing device on which secure workspaces are deployed is provided. An image of a user computing device and images of secure workspaces deployed on the user computing device can be created and stored. In response to a crash of the user computing device, a combined image can be created from the image of the user computing device and the images of the secure workspaces deployed on the user computing device. The combined image can then be deployed on the user computing device to recover the user computing device.

End-to-end distributed recovery of a user computing device on which secure workspaces are deployed

A workspace mesh can be managed. A mesh manager can interface with agents on smart devices to create and update nodes that may form part of a workspace mesh. The mesh manager can also automatically detect when multiple nodes have formed a workspace mesh and then dynamically select and apply mesh policies to the smart devices and peripherals in the workspace mesh. In this way, the workspace mesh can be managed as a single logical unit.

Managing a workspace mesh

Snapshots with integrity can be taken of secure workspaces having distributed cache. When a snapshot of a secure workspace is to be taken, a host agent executing external to the secure workspace can instruct a workspace agent running inside the secure workspace to lock a filesystem and flush the cache within the secure workspace. The host agent can then lock the filesystem and flush the cache outside the secure workspace. The host agent may then create a snapshot of the secure workspace. After the snapshot is created, the host agent can unlock the filesystem outside the secure workspace and instruct the workspace agent to unlock the filesystem inside the secure workspace.

Taking snapshots with integrity of secure workspaces having distributed cache

Systems and methods for deploying software updates in heterogeneous workspace environments are described. The system for managing workspaces includes computer-executable instructions for obtaining multiple inventories corresponding to multiple workspaces of an IHS, wherein the inventories each include information associated with the applications deployed in its respective workspace. The instructions are further executed to, for each inventory, identify the workspace associated with the inventory, determine which of the applications are to be updated with new software, and deploy the determined new software to the identified workspace.

Systems and methods for managing workspaces in a heterogeneous workspace environment

Heterogeneous sets of cloud applications and storage can be bridged. Cloud services can be configured to include a Web Application Open Platform Interface (WOPI) abstractor, multiple WOPI servers corresponding to respective multiple WOPI clients of cloud applications that may be used to access files, and a cloud storage abstractor that functions as an intermediary between the multiple WOPI servers and multiple cloud storages in which the files may be stored. The cloud services allow a user to access a single webpage or other interface to obtain access to his or her files stored in the multiple cloud storages via any of the multiple cloud applications.

Bridging heterogeneous sets of cloud applications and storage

Disclosed methods for enabling flexible policies for user access to BIOS attribute settings perform operations including creating a BIOS attribute map encompassing one or more configurable BIOS attributes, generating a role-based authorization table associating an authorization role to each of the configurable BIOS attributes, and deploying the role-based authorization table to an information handling system. Responsive to a user launching a BIOS attribute configuration tool, a user role associated with the user is detected and the role-based authorization table is retrieved. Based on the role-based authorization table and the user role, configurable BIOS attributes for the user are identified. The configurable BIOS attributes may then be presented to the BIOS configuration to enable the user to perform configuration operations for the configurable BIOS attributes.

Enabling flexible policies for BIOS settings access with role-based authentication

Methods and systems are provided that may be implemented to methods and systems may be implemented to automatically identify types and status of vulnerabilities in identified software or firmware components (e.g., libraries), and then automatically deploy security vulnerability fixes (e.g., patches or updates) in these identified components across different affected software or firmware applications. In one example, the disclosed methods and systems may operate to dynamically and automatically aggregate identified third party software and/or firmware vulnerabilities into a centralized repository, and may be further implemented to automatically handle the roll out and deployment of vulnerability fixes to patch or update third party libraries to solve any security vulnerability reported on these third party libraries.

Methods and systems to automatically deploy vulnerability fixes for software and firmware components

Seamless peripheral selection and switching can be provided in a workspace. When a peripheral is to be updated while it is in use, an agent can select another peripheral in the same device class and seamlessly switch to using the selected peripheral while the update is applied. The agent can then seamlessly switch back to using the updated peripheral after the update is complete. In some cases, an update can be applied to a peripheral before a user created a workspace that includes the peripheral.

Seamless peripheral selection and switching in a workspace

Shared hoteling workspaces and computer equipment are preconfigured based on location. A location associated with a mobile device is monitored. As the mobile device moves toward a workspace, computer peripheral equipment assigned to the workspace are identified and a best known configuration is retrieved. As the mobile device continues moving toward the workspace, the mobile device installs the best known configuration. Location-based policies and configuration events are defined and executed to ensure the best known configuration is timely installed. When the mobile device arrives at the workspace, the mobile device has been automatically configured to the computer peripheral equipment at the workspace. The mobile device is thus preconfigured, perhaps just in time, for immediate productivity and optimum user experience. Moreover, when the location of the mobile device no longer matches the workspace, the best known configuration may be automatically deleted to conserve memory.

Location-based computer configuration

Systems and methods are provided to perform BIOS recovery for a first information handling system that is in a no-boot state, i.e., in which the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) boot block (OBB) on the first information handling system is corrupted or damaged and thus does not properly execute. OBB BIOS recovery may be achieved using logic executing on a second and different information handling system that is wirelessly communicating with initial boot block (IBB) BIOS firmware that is executing on the first information handling system. The logic executing on the second information handling system may select and download (e.g., from a remote server) a correct uncorrupted and undamaged copy of the BIOS recovery firmware version for the first information handling system, and then wirelessly transfer the downloaded new copy of the OBB BIOS firmware version to the first information handling system via an established secure wireless connection.

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Bengaluru, India

Vivekanandh Narayanasamy Rajagopalan