Patent ID: 7716315

Claim:
An enclosure configurable to perform one of in-band enclosure management and out-of-band enclosure management, the enclosure comprising: a midplane; memory, connected to the midplane, storing an identifier used to determine a manner in which the enclosure collects management information, wherein the collecting of management information entails gathering information about operating status of other components in the enclosure, the identifier being set to indicate one of two different storage configurations, the identifier indicating that the enclosure collects management information through out-of-band enclosure management when set to indicate a first one of the two storage configurations and indicating that the enclosure collects management information through in-band enclosure management when set to indicate a second one of the two storage configurations; a processor blade and a management module both connected to the midplane, one of the processor blade and management module collecting management information from other components in the enclosure whereas the other of the processor blade and management module does not, which one of the processor blade and the management module collects the management information depending on the manner in which the enclosure collects management information as determined from the identifier stored in memory; the processor blade having program code for collecting the management information from other components in the enclosure, the processor blade being configured to read the identifier stored in the memory, the processor blade executing the program code to collect the management information from other components in the enclosure if the identifier stored in the memory indicates that the manner in which the enclosure collects management information is through in-band enclosure management; and the management module being configured to execute program code for collecting the management information from other components in the enclosure if the identifier stored in the memory indicates that the manner in which the enclosure collects management information is through out-of-band enclosure management.