Patent ID: 8161393

Claim:
A method for configuring a processing system, the processing system comprising a plurality of nodes, the method comprising: determining connection data of the processing system automatically by communicating with at least one node of the processing system, the determining comprising: querying, by each node of the plurality of nodes, ports to request unique identifiers of the other nodes of the plurality of nodes; storing, by each node of the plurality of nodes, the unique identifiers for the other nodes of the plurality of nodes; determining, by each node of the plurality of nodes, an association of index numbers with the node and each of the other nodes of the plurality of nodes based upon an ordering of the unique identifiers associated with each of the plurality of nodes, to uniquely identify each of the plurality of nodes with the index numbers; determining, by each node of the plurality of nodes, a unique index number of the index numbers that is associated with the node by the association; querying, by each node of the plurality of nodes, the other nodes of the plurality of nodes to verify at least a portion of the association; and receiving, from a port, by each node of the plurality of nodes, the association as determined by another node of the plurality of nodes; generating graphical representations, on a graphical user interface on a display, of the connection data for nodes comprising ports of the processing system based upon connection data from a descriptor that describes the processing system, that was determined by a node of the processing system, and that was received by the node from another node of the processing system, wherein the descriptor is based on an ordering of unique identifiers associated with the nodes in the processing system; displaying, on the graphical user interface on the display, identification information in relation to each node of the plurality of nodes to identify each node of the plurality of nodes to the user based upon the connection data; generating graphical representations, on the graphical user interface on the display, illustrating cabling between the ports of the nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein the graphical representations of the cabling interconnect the graphical representations of the nodes based upon the connection data; displaying selectable buttons on the graphical user interface, wherein the selectable buttons represent selectable system configuring options to configure operations of the processing system; accepting a user selection via the selectable buttons to configure a partition of the processing system via the graphical user interface; and configuring the partition of the processing system responsive to the user selection.