Control protocol for image enumeration and transfer

• US 20070245135A1
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yaqoob, Asad, Syed, Saad, Dickens, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,631,175 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

A control protocol is used to deploy and install an operating system image to a client. The data structure of the protocol includes an operation code corresponding to an operation associated with the deployment and installation of an operating system image to a client. When the server receives a request packet, the server parses the request and sends the parsed request to the provider. The provider then executes the operation associated with the operation code and generates a return value. The return value is sent to the server. The server then composes a rely packet including the return value and transmits the reply packet to the client.

Claims

1. A system for communicating data related to installing an operating system image on a client in a networked environment comprising:

one or more computer-readable media for storing;

a plurality of operation codes, said operation code being associated with an operation related to selecting and installing the operating system image;

a data structure representing a packet, said data structure including a code field for storing a code value representing one of the operation codes;

a client processor being configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

identifying an operation code from the plurality of operation codes;

populating the data structure by storing the identified operation code in the code field; and

a sever processor being configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving the populated data structure from the client processor; and

responding to the received data structure by executing the operation corresponding to the code value stored in the received data structure.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein executing the operation generates a return value, said return value indicates the result of the executed operation.

3. The system of claim 2, the server processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

populating the data structure by storing the return value in the code field; and

transmitting the populated data structure to the client processor.

4. The system of claim 1, the client processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

transmitting the populated data structure to the sever, said transmitting being independent of a network transport mechanism used for communications between the client processor and the server processor.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the network transport mechanism includes at least one of the following:

Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), remote procedure call (RPC), and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

6. The system of claim 1, wherein plurality of operation codes include operations codes for operations related to the transfer of at least one of the following:

image metadata, image data, and unattended information.

7. A system for communicating data related to installing an operating system image on a client in a networked environment comprising:

one or more computer-readable media for storing;

a plurality of operation codes, said operation code being associated with an operation related selecting and installing the operating system image;

a data structure representing a packet, said data structure comprising a fixed field and a variable field, said fixed field storing the code value representing one of the operation codes, said variable field storing a parameter associated with the operation corresponding to the operation code represented by the code value;

a client processor being configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

identifying an operation code from the plurality of operation codes;

populating a data structure by storing the code value of the identified operation code in the code field; and

a sever processor being configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving the populated data structure from the client processor; and

executing the operation corresponding to the code value stored in the received data structure.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the fixed field further comprises one or more additional fixed fields including:

a field for storing a value representing the size of the packet;

a field for storing a value representing a version number of the data structure;

a field for storing a value representing a type of packet;

a field for storing a value representing a variable count indicating the number of parameters represented in the data structure.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the variable field further comprises one or more additional variable fields including:

a field for storing a value representing a variable name associated with the parameter;

a field for storing a value representing a variable type associated with the parameter;

a field for storing a value representing a variable length, said variable length indicating the length of the parameter; and

a field for storing a value representing a variable value, said variable value indicating the value of the parameter.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

one or more computer-readable media for storing a library of functions, said library functions relating to the data structure.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the library of functions is session-less such that the library of functions do not include functions for session management.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the library of functions includes one or more functions to:

initialize the data structure, create the data structure, parse the received data structure, release the data structure, add a variable to the data structure, and delete a variable from the data structure.

13. The system of claim 7, the server processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

populating the data structure by storing a return value in the code field, said return value indicating the result of the executed operation; and

transmitting the populated data structure to the client processor.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the parameter is an array.

14. The system of claim y, wherein the variable type may be of one of the following types:

unsigned 32-bit integer, unsigned 16-bit integer, a byte (8-bits), unsigned 64-bit integer, a null terminated ANSI string, a NULL terminated Unicode string, or fixed length raw data.

16. A computer-implemented method for a client to request a server to perform an operation relating to the selecting and installing an operating system image in a networked environment, said computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying, by the client, an operation code associated with an operation;

creating, by the client, a request packet with a the identified operation code in a code field;

receiving, by the server, the request packet from the client;

executing, by the server, the operation, said operation corresponding to the operation code.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the executing generates a return value, said return value indicates the result of the executed operation.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

creating, by the server, a second request packet with a the return value in the code field; and

transmitting the second request packet to the client.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the creating of the request packet is performed by a library of functions, said function performing one or more of the following tasks:

initialize the request packet, create the request packet, parse the received request packet, releasing the request packet from memory, add a variable to the request packet, and delete a variable from the request packet.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of operation codes include operations codes for operations related to the transfer of at least one of the following:

image metadata, image data, and unattended information.