Unattended upgrade for a network appliance
First Claim
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1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
- determining that an upgrade of a network appliance is to be performed using versioning information obtained from the network appliance and using upgrade versioning information;
determining whether to upgrade the network appliance by using a full install image or by using one or more patches, wherein the determination is made automatically based on upgrade criteria comprising at least one of;
(a) whether applying one or more patches will result in a safe upgrade of a particular version of the network appliance,(b) whether a number of revision levels between a current revision level obtained from the network appliance and a desired revision level exceeds a predefined threshold,(c) whether one or more patches are unavailable for a particular version of the network appliance, and(d) whether one or more previous attempts to upgrade one or more network appliances of a particular version using one or more patches were unsuccessful; and
if the network appliance is to be upgraded using the full install image, downloading the full install image to the network appliance to upgrade the network appliance using the full install image.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for upgrading a network appliance. In one embodiment, the method includes determining that an upgrade of the network appliance is needed using versioning information of the network appliance and upgrade versioning information, and determining, based on upgrade criteria, whether the network appliance should be upgraded using a full install image. If the network appliance should be upgraded using the full install image, the full install image is downloaded to the network appliance.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
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determining that an upgrade of a network appliance is to be performed using versioning information obtained from the network appliance and using upgrade versioning information; determining whether to upgrade the network appliance by using a full install image or by using one or more patches, wherein the determination is made automatically based on upgrade criteria comprising at least one of; (a) whether applying one or more patches will result in a safe upgrade of a particular version of the network appliance, (b) whether a number of revision levels between a current revision level obtained from the network appliance and a desired revision level exceeds a predefined threshold, (c) whether one or more patches are unavailable for a particular version of the network appliance, and (d) whether one or more previous attempts to upgrade one or more network appliances of a particular version using one or more patches were unsuccessful; and if the network appliance is to be upgraded using the full install image, downloading the full install image to the network appliance to upgrade the network appliance using the full install image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium including instructions that, when executed by a first machine, cause the first machine to perform a computer implemented method comprising:
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determining that an upgrade of a network appliance is to be performed using versioning information obtained from the network appliance and using upgrade versioning information; determining whether to upgrade the network appliance using a full install image or by using one or more patches, wherein the determination is made automatically based on upgrade criteria comprising at least one of; (a) whether applying one or more patches will result in a safe upgrade of a particular version of the network appliance, (b) whether a number of revision levels between a current revision level obtained from the network appliance and a desired revision level exceeds a predefined threshold, (c) whether one or more patches are unavailable for a particular version of the network appliance, and (d) whether one or more previous attempts to upgrade one or more network appliances of a particular version using one or more patches were unsuccessful; and if the network appliance is to be upgraded using the full install image, downloading the full install image to the network appliance to upgrade the network appliance using the full install image. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus, comprising:
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a memory having an image install repository to store a full install image of software upgrades for a network appliance; a processor, coupled to the memory; and an upgrade manager, executable from the memory by the processor, to determine that an upgrade of the network appliance is to be performed using versioning information obtained from the network appliance and using upgrade versioning information, to determine automatically whether to upgrade a network appliance by using the full install image or by using one or more patches, wherein the determination is made using upgrade criteria comprising at least one of; (a) whether applying one or more patches will result in a safe upgrade of a particular version of the network appliance, (b) whether a number of revision levels between a current revision level obtained from the network appliance and a desired revision level exceeds a predefined threshold, (c) whether one or more patches are unavailable for a particular version of the network appliance, and (d) whether one or more previous attempts to upgrade one or more network appliances of a particular version using one or more patches were unsuccessful, and wherein the full install image is downloaded to the network appliance to upgrade the network appliance using the full install image, in response to the determination that the network appliance is to be upgraded using the full install image. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification