CONCURRENTLY APPLYING AN IMAGE FILE WHILE IT IS BEING DOWNLOADED USING A MULTICAST PROTOCOL

• US 20120131087A1
• Filed: 11/19/2010
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Young, Blaine, Abdelhalim, Alaa H., Gurevich, Peter A., Russo, Richard T., Tyler, Aaron Matthew, Green, Bruce, Seielstad, Roger D., Pai, Vittal, Sveikauskas, Andrew, Suberviola, P. Daniel II
• Granted Patent: US 8,837,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 5/14 for overflow or underflow handling, e.g. full or empty flags
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57

Abstract

A system and a process for deploying a computer file involves a client computer applying the computer file concurrently with downloading the computer file from a file server. The concurrent operations can be performed even when the data of the computer file is downloaded out of order. The computer file includes a plurality of file segments. The client computer obtains information defining the file segments and monitors the received data of the computer file during downloading. When downloading of a file segment is complete, the client computer applies the completed segment concurrently with receiving other segments of the computer file from the file server. The process can be used when the computer file is downloaded using a multicast protocol, but is not limited to use with multicast protocols. The client computer can request only needed segments of the computer file.

Claims

1. A method for deploying a computer file having a plurality of file segments, comprising:

receiving, by a client computer from a server computer, information defining the segments of the computer file;

establishing, by the client computer, a transmission session with the server computer for downloading the computer file;

receiving, by the client computer, data of the computer file transmitted by the server computer;

monitoring, during reception of the computer file and based on the information defining the segments of the computer file, the received data of the computer file to determine when a complete file segment has been received; and

when the client computer determines that a complete file segment has been received, the client computer applying the complete file segment of the computer file concurrently with receiving other segments of the computer file from the server computer.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein establishing a transmission session comprises establishing a transmission session with the server computer for downloading the computer file by a protocol that provides quasi-random and out of order access to the computer file.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the client computer requests only needed segments of the computer file.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer file comprises a compressed operating system image file containing one or more operating system images.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein monitoring comprises monitoring a completion status of two or more segments of the computer file concurrently.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the data of the computer file is received by the client computer in blocks, further comprising determining from the information defining the segments of the computer file a block range of one or more segments of the computer file.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein the information defining the segments of the computer file includes offsets of the start and end points of each segment and a block size of the data transmitted by the server computer.

8. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein monitoring the received data comprises monitoring block numbers of the received data and wherein determining that a complete file segment has been received comprises determining from the block numbers that all blocks in the block range of a segment have been received.

9. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein monitoring the received data comprises monitoring data blocks received out of order with respect to the computer file.

10. A method as defined in claim 6, further comprising writing data blocks of the received data to a flow control buffer and freeing space occupied by a data block in the flow control buffer when all segments of the data block have been received and applied.

11. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, perform the method of claim 1.

12. A client computer configured to deploy a computer file having a plurality of file segments, comprising:

a processor and a memory device, the memory device containing modules for execution by the processor, the modules including;

a multicast module to establish a multicast session with a server computer for downloading a computer file and to receive data of the computer file transmitted by the server computer; and

an image apply module to receive from the server computer information defining the segments of the computer file, to monitor, during reception of the computer file and based on the information defining the segments of the computer file, the received data of the computer file to determine that a complete file segment has been received, and, when a complete file segment has been received, to apply the complete file segment of the computer file concurrently with receiving other segments of the computer file from the server computer.

13. A client computer as defined in claim 12, wherein the image apply module is configured to monitor a completion status of two or more segments of the computer file concurrently.

14. A client computer as defined in claim 12, wherein the data of the computer file is received by the client computer in blocks, and wherein the image apply module is configured to determine from the information defining the segments of the computer file a block range of one or more segments of the computer file.

15. A client computer as defined in claim 14, wherein the information defining the segments of the computer file includes offsets of the start and end points of each segment and a block size of the data transmitted by the server computer.

16. A client computer as defined in claim 14, wherein the image apply module is configured to monitor block numbers of the received data and to determine from the block numbers that all blocks in the block range of a segment have been received.

17. A client computer as defined in claim 14, further comprising a flow control buffer, wherein the multicast module is configured to write data blocks of the received data to the flow control buffer and wherein the image apply module is configured to free space occupied by a data block in the control buffer when all segments of the data block have been received and applied.

18. A method for deploying a computer file having a plurality of file segments, comprising:

receiving, by a client computer from a server computer, information defining the segments of the computer file;

determining, by the client computer, a block range of one or more segments of the computer file based on the information defining the segments of the computer file;

establishing, by the client computer, a transmission session with the server computer for downloading the computer file;

receiving, by the client computer, data of the computer file transmitted by the server computer in the form of data blocks having block numbers;

monitoring, during reception of the computer file, the block numbers of the received data blocks;

determining from the block range of the one or more segments and the block numbers of the received data blocks when a complete file segment has been received; and

when the client computer determines that a complete file segment has been received, the client computer applying the complete file segment of the computer file concurrently with receiving other segments of the computer file from the server computer.

19. A method as defined in claim 18, wherein determining when a complete file segment has been received includes determining from the block numbers that all blocks in the block range of a segment have been received.

20. A method as defined in claim 18, further comprising writing data blocks of the received data to a flow control buffer and freeing space occupied by a data block in the flow control buffer when all segments of the data block have been received and applied.