IMAGE INSTALL OF A NETWORK APPLIANCE

• US 20130014098A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• 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 11,113,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/64 Retargetable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A method and apparatus for installing a network appliance. In one embodiment, the method includes copying an install image pertaining to the network appliance to an install staging area in a memory device of the network appliance, obtaining current installation object data from a server, and saving an up-to-date set of installation objects in the install staging area using the installation object data received from the server. The method may further include marking the install staging area as bootable, rebooting the network appliance, and installing from the install staging area onto the network appliance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining installation object data from a server;

storing, based on the installation object data, an up-to-date set of installation objects in an install staging area of a memory of a network appliance;

marking the install staging area as bootable;

rebooting the network appliance; and

installing, by a processor, the up-to-date set of installation objects from the install staging area onto the network appliance.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

assembling a list of fingerprints of available installation objects;

sending the assembled list to the server; and

receiving the installation object data from the server.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the installation object data identifies outdated installation objects from the assembled list, and new installation objects not included in the assembled list.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein storing the up-to-date set of installation objects in the install staging area comprises:

deleting the outdated installation objects from the install staging area; and

adding the new installation objects to the install staging area.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

creating an empty list of installation object fingerprints;

sending the empty list of installation object fingerprints to a server; and

receiving a list of installation objects from the server.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising reserving the install staging area in the memory of the network appliance.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the up-to-date set of installation objects comprises a software package in a preinstalled form.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory to store installation object data; and

a processor to;

obtain the installation object data from a server,

store, based on the installation object data, an up-to-date set of installation objects in an install staging area of a memory of a network appliance,

mark the install staging area as bootable,

reboot the network appliance, and

install the up-to-date set of installation objects from the install staging area onto the network appliance.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

assembling a list of fingerprints of available installation objects;

sending the assembled list to the server; and

receiving the installation object data from the server.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the installation object data identifies outdated installation objects from the assembled list, and new installation objects not included in the assembled list.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein storing the up-to-date set of installation objects in the install staging area comprises:

deleting the outdated installation objects from the install staging area; and

adding the new installation objects to the install staging area.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

creating an empty list of installation object fingerprints;

sending the empty list of installation object fingerprints to a server; and

receiving a list of installation objects from the server.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the installation object data comprises a set of installation objects in a serialized form.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the serialized form comprises at least one of:

an XML document;

a character data (CDATA) section of an XML document;

or

a multipart Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) encoded document.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a processor to perform a method comprising:

obtaining installation object data from a server;

storing, based on the installation object data, an up-to-date set of installation objects in an install staging area of a memory of a network appliance;

marking the install staging area as bootable;

rebooting the network appliance; and

installing, by the processor, the up-to-date set of installation objects from the install staging area onto the network appliance.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

assembling a list of fingerprints of available installation objects;

sending the assembled list to the server; and

receiving the installation object data from the server.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the installation object data identifies outdated installation objects from the assembled list, and new installation objects not included in the assembled list.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein storing the up-to-date set of installation objects in the install staging area comprises:

deleting the outdated installation objects from the install staging area; and

adding the new installation objects to the install staging area.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein obtaining the installation object data from the server comprises:

creating an empty list of installation object fingerprints;

sending the empty list of installation object fingerprints to a server; and

receiving a list of installation objects from the server.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the up-to-date set of installation objects comprises a software package in a preinstalled form.