Software maintenance management

• US 20070157192A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Stegmueller, Herbert, Wang, Chongyao, Bai, Xue, Chen, Xiaolong, Jansen, Jan, Karolin, Laicher, Hoefler, Dorothea
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A data collection and/or monitoring service residing at a client system collects and sends client system information to a backend system. The client system information is used to update a maintained repository of client system information that is associated with software installed at the client system. The maintained repository is used to determine one or more software update recommendations which are sent to the client system. In response to a trigger event, one or more software updates associated with the update recommendations are automatically downloaded and deployed at the client system. The download and deployment of software updates can be scheduled at the client system.

Claims

1. A method of updating software installed on a system, comprising:

receiving information describing a change to software installed on the system;

updating a maintained repository of system information using the received information;

determining one or more update recommendations, wherein at least one update recommendation is based on information from the updated repository;

sending one or more update recommendations to the system; and

automatically downloading to the system one or more software updates associated with the update recommendations in response to a trigger event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically preparing the system for deploying the downloaded software updates.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing one or more preprocessing tasks prior to deploying the downloaded software updates.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein preprocessing further comprises:

automatically checking for prerequisite tasks;

providing notification of the prerequisite tasks; and

providing instructions for manually performing the prerequisite tasks.

5. A method of updating software installed on a system, comprising:

determining one or more update recommendations in response to a trigger event, wherein at least one update recommendation is based on information associated with how the software is configured on the system;

sending one or more update recommendations to the system; and

automatically downloading to the system one or more software updates associated with the update recommendations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining includes:

determining one or more update recommendations in response to new updates available to the system.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein determining includes:

determining one or more update recommendations in response to changes occurring at the system.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein determining includes:

determining one or more update recommendations in response to an incident report from the system.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

scheduling a date and time for downloading the updates; and

downloading the updates at the scheduled date and time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein scheduling includes scheduling a date and time based on statistical information.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

automatically preparing the system for deploying the downloaded software updates.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing one or more preprocessing tasks prior to deploying the downloaded software updates.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein preprocessing further comprises:

automatically checking for prerequisite tasks;

providing notification of the prerequisite tasks; and

providing instructions for manually performing the prerequisite tasks.

14. A method of updating software installed on a system, comprising:

scheduling a date and time for downloading to the system one or more software updates associated with update recommendations;

at the scheduled date and time, automatically downloading to the system one or more software updates associated with update recommendations; and

automatically deploying the software updates.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein deploying includes:

determining if there are any tasks to be completed prior to deployment;

performing the tasks; and

automatically deploying the software updates.

16. The method of claim 15, where performing includes manually performing the tasks based on instructions automatically provided by the system.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

scheduling a date and time for downloading the updates; and

downloading the updates at the scheduled date and time.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein scheduling includes scheduling a date and time based on statistical information.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

automatically preparing the system for deploying the downloaded software updates.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

performing one or more preprocessing tasks prior to deploying the downloaded software updates.