Automatic full install upgrade of a network appliance

• US 20090144722A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Schneider, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,683,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A method and apparatus for upgrading a network appliance. In one embodiment, a network appliance determines that it should be upgraded using a full install image. The network appliance then reserves an upgrade staging area in its memory device, downloads the full install image from a server to the upgrade staging area, and marks the upgrade staging area as bootable. Further, the network appliance reboots itself, and installs the full install image.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for a network appliance, comprising:

determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image;

reserving an upgrade staging area in a memory device of the network appliance;

downloading the full install image to the upgrade staging area from a server;

marking the upgrade staging area as bootable;

rebooting the network appliance; and

installing the full install image onto the network appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image comprises:

determining that an upgrade of the network appliance via an upgrade patch has failed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image comprises:

determining that the full install image is available at the server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon determining that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image, scheduling an upgrade for a specific time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the upgrade staging area comprises a swap partition of a hard drive of the network appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing network appliance configuration information in the upgrade staging area that is set to bootable.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deallocating unused memory space on the network appliance after rebooting the network appliance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the full install image is installed using hardware configuration information of the network appliance.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, the reserving, the downloading, the marking, the rebooting, and the installing are performed without user interaction.

10. A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a first machine, cause the first machine to perform a method comprising:

determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image;

reserving an upgrade staging area in a memory device of the network appliance;

downloading the full install image to the upgrade staging area from a server;

marking the upgrade staging area as bootable;

rebooting the network appliance; and

installing the full install image onto the network appliance.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image comprises:

determining that an upgrade of the network appliance via an upgrade patch has failed.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining, at the network appliance, that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image comprises:

determining that the full install image is available at the server.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

upon determining that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image, scheduling an upgrade for a specific time.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the upgrade staging area comprises a swap partition of a hard drive of the network appliance.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

storing network appliance configuration information in the upgrade staging area that is set to bootable; and

deallocating unused memory space on the network appliance after rebooting the network appliance.

16. A network appliance apparatus, comprising:

an upgrade manager to determine that a network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image; and

a memory device, coupled to the upgrade manager, to include an upgrade staging area to store the full install image downloaded from a server;

wherein the upgrade manager is further to mark the upgrade staging area as bootable, to reboot the network appliance, and to install the full install image onto the network appliance.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the upgrade manager is to determine that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image upon determining that an upgrade of the network appliance via an upgrade patch has failed.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the upgrade manager is to determine that the network appliance is to be upgraded using a full install image upon determining that the full install image is available at the server.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the upgrade manager is further to schedule an upgrade for a specific time.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the upgrade staging area comprises a swap partition of a hard drive of the network appliance.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the upgrade manager is further to store network appliance configuration information in the upgrade staging area that is set to bootable, and to deallocate unused memory space on the network appliance after rebooting the network appliance.