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Dynamic identification and administration of networked clients

  • US 7,568,018 B1
  • Filed: 03/19/2004
  • Issued: 07/28/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system comprising:

  • a network administered by a network administrator, wherein the network includes at least one network administration server in communication with a plurality of client computers over which the network administrator has administrative responsibilities;

    network administration software operative on the at least one network administration server to perform the following functions;

    maintain a list of client computers over which the network administrator has administrative responsibilities;

    define one or more configurations of interest, wherein the configurations of interests include a state of a configuration parameter of a client computer;

    define and associate one of the configurations of interest with one or more actions to be taken, wherein the action includes at least updating software and one or more of;

    installing a file, overwriting a file, removing a file, adding a registry setting, changing a registry setting, removing a registry setting, and modifying an operating system file permission;

    distribute data to a plurality of the client computers selected from the list of client computers, wherein the data defines at least one of the configurations of interest; and

    receive from each particular computer in the plurality of client computers a state of a configuration of the particular client computer relative to a configuration of interest distributed to the particular computer;

    wherein, the plurality of client computers include at least one program operative on the plurality of client computers to;

    receive the data defining the at least one configuration of interest;

    store the at least one configuration of interest on the client computer;

    repeatedly determine the state of the configuration of the client computer relative to the at least one configuration of interest;

    report to the network administration server the state of the configuration of the client computer relative to the at least one configuration of interest;

    repeatedly determine whether the state of the configuration of the client matches the at least one configuration of interest, and when the state of the configuration of the client matches the configuration of interest, determine whether at least one of the one or more actions to be taken associated with the at least one configuration of interest is a client-side action; and

    automatically perform the client-side action associated with the at least one configuration of interest;

    and further wherein the network administration software is further operative on the at least one network administration server to;

    receive the reported state of the configuration of the plurality of client computers relative to the respective at least one configuration of interest;

    record an indication of each state of the configuration of the plurality of client computers relative to the respective configurations of interest;

    determine whether the reported state of the configuration of the plurality of client computers matches at least one of the distributed configurations of interest, and when the reported state of the configuration of at least one of the plurality of client computers changes with respect to at least one of the distributed configurations of interest, determine whether at least one of the one or more actions to be taken associated with the at least one of the distributed configurations of interest is a server-side action;

    automatically perform the server-side action associated with the at least one of the distributed configurations of interest; and

    provide at least one indication of one of the client computers with at least one of the configurations of interest.

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