Patent ID: 8176168

Claim:
An apparatus for determining the operational health of a managed host computer, the apparatus comprising: (a) a memory storing a firmware which, when executed, is operative to: (i) expose a virtual network interface controller to the managed host computer (ii) assign a network address to the virtual network interface controller; (iii) transmit a command to a host operating system executing on the managed host computer via the virtual network interface controller; (iv) determine if a reply to the command was received from the host operating system; (v) cause the host operating system to be restarted if a reply to the command was not received from the host operating system; (vi) assign a network address to a virtual network interface controller exposed to a guest operating system executing within a virtualized environment on the managed host computer; (vii) transmit the command to the guest operating system via the virtual network interface controller; (viii) determine if a reply to the command was received from the guest operating system; and (ix) cause the operation of the guest operating system to be restarted if a reply to the command was not received from the guest operating system; and (b) a processor for executing the firmware.