Offline Upgrades

• US 20090113413A1
• Filed: 10/24/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Reinz, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,902 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 while running
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system and method upgrade software applications offline using a virtual machine. Software applications used by actual customer machines may rely upon customer specific data and protocols. An upgraded version of a software application may become available. The upgrade may be loaded onto a virtual machine. Customer specific data or protocols associated with a previous version of the application may be copied to the virtual machine. The upgraded version may be modified on the virtual machine using the data associated with the previous version. The upgrade process using the virtual machine may detect and eliminate problems with the upgrade associated with the customer machine and/or settings. Once modified, the upgraded version may be transferred from the virtual machine to the customer machine. The upgrade process may be performed primarily on the virtual machine. Therefore, the downtime of the customer machine required to complete the upgrade process may be substantially reduced.

Claims

1. A method for upgrading software offline using a virtual machine, the method comprising:

creating a virtual machine that mimics an operation of an actual customer machine;

loading an upgraded version of a software application onto the virtual machine;

loading customer specific data related to a previous version of the software application onto the virtual machine, the previous version of the software application being installed on the actual customer machine;

modifying the upgraded version of the software application on the virtual machine using the customer specific data such that the upgraded version of the software application as modified is compatible with the actual customer machine without further modification; and

transferring the upgraded version of the software application as modified from the virtual machine to the actual customer machine for use on the actual customer machine.

2. The method of claim 1, the method comprising:

identifying problems with the operation of upgraded version of the software application as modified while testing the upgraded version of the software application as modified on the virtual machine in an operating mode that mimics the operation of the actual customer machine; and

revising the upgraded version of the software application as modified to correct the problems identified during the testing of the upgraded version of the software application as modified on the virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine mimics an actual customer machine that is part of a medical imaging system that acquires internal anatomical images.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer specific data is used by the virtual machine to mimic a customized user interface of the previous version of the software application as used on the actual customer machine when running the upgraded version of the software application as modified.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the upgraded version is modified to become compatible with customer protocols related to the previous version of the software application as used on the actual customer machine.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the actual customer machine is a medical computer system and the software application assists medical treatment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the software application displays medical images on a screen associated with the actual customer machine and the customer protocols account for medical imaging modules of the software application.

8. The method of claim 1, the method comprising using a software program to automatically identify the customer specific data related to a previous version of the software application as implemented on the customer machine by which to modify the upgraded version.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein (1) data associated with the previous version of the software application is transferred from the actual customer machine to the virtual machine and (2) the upgraded version of the software application as modified is transferred from the virtual machine to the actual customer machine via a remote network interconnection.

10. A method for upgrading software offline via a virtual machine, the method comprising:

loading an upgraded version of a software application onto a virtual machine that is configured to mimic an operation of a customer machine;

transferring customer protocol data identifying customer protocols related to a previous version of the software application installed on the customer machine from the customer machine onto the virtual machine;

modifying the upgraded version of the software application to become compatible with the customer machine using the virtual machine and the customer protocol data; and

transferring the modified upgraded version of the software application from the virtual machine to the customer machine such that the modified upgraded version of the software application can be run on the customer machine.

11. The method of claim 10, the method comprising using a software program to automatically identify the customer protocol data related to a previous version of the software application as implemented on the customer machine by which to modify the upgraded version.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the software application displays medical images on a screen associated with the customer machine and the customer protocol data accounts for medical imaging modules associated with the software application and the type of customer machine on which the software application operates.

13. The method of claim 10, comprising transferring customer specific data related to the previous version of the software application from the customer machine to the virtual machine and further modifying the upgraded version of the software application on the virtual machine to account for the customer specific data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer specific data is used by the modified upgraded version of the software application to substantially replicate a customized user interface of the previous version of the software application as used on the customer machine.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein (1) customer data associated with the previous version of the software application is transferred from the customer machine to the virtual machine and (2) the modified upgraded version of the software application is transferred from the virtual machine to the customer machine via a remote network interconnection.

16. A virtual machine for upgrading software offline, the virtual machine comprising:

a memory unit storing an upgraded version of a software application; and

a processing unit configured to receive, from a customer machine, customer specific data related to the operation of a previous version of the software application on a customer machine,

wherein the virtual machine is configured to automatically modify the upgraded version of the software application stored in the memory unit based upon the customer specific data received by the processing unit and creates an executable modified upgraded version of the software application that can be run by the customer machine without further modification.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the virtual machine modifies the upgraded version of the software application such that the user interface of the modified upgraded version of the software application is substantially identical to a customized user interface of the previous version of the software application as used on the customer machine.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processing unit receives customer protocol data identifying customer protocols related to the previous version of the software application as implemented on the customer machine and the virtual machine modifies the upgraded version of the software application to become compatible with the customer protocols.

19. A computer-readable medium having instructions executable on a computer stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

directing a virtual machine that mimics a customer machine in a virtual machine mode;

receiving customer related data from the customer machine related to a previous version of a software application installed on the customer machine;

modifying an upgraded version of the software application based upon the customer related data;

testing the modified upgraded version of the software application via the virtual machine operating in the virtual machine mode to verify that the modified upgraded version is executable on the customer machine; and

transferring the modified upgraded version of the software application to the customer machine for use.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, the instructions comprising:

(1) automatically identifying a problem with the modified upgraded version of the software application running on the virtual machine in the virtual machine mode; and

(2) automatically altering the modified upgraded version to correct the problem associated with running the modified upgraded version on the customer machine based upon a pre-determined rule set.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the software application directs the acquisition of internal medical images using computed tomography or magnetic resonance techniques.