Managing different versions of server components regarding compatibility with collaborating servers

• US 8,151,257 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2007
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zachmann, Guenter
• Primary Examiner(s): Deng, Anna
• Assistant Examiner(s): BANES, ADAM
• Application Number:
  US11/754,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20080301668A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,771 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 while running

Abstract

A system and method for determining whether a rolling update may be performed. The system receives a statement of compatibility for software running on collaborating servers. The statement of compatibility indicates which software versions are compatible with one another. The statement may be stored in a shared storage area that is accessible to each of the servers in the group. The statement may be updated at any time if compatibility issues are determined after release of a software version. The system and method check the statement of compatibility automatically upon the start of an update process for a server. If the statement of incompatibility indicates that the server starting up is incompatible with an operating server, the start up process is aborted.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

starting initialization of a first server;

retrieving a statement of compatibility from a remote storage location;

checking an expiration of the statement of compatibility;

checking compatibility between an update for software of the first server and software of a second collaborating server based on the statement of compatibility, the statement of compatibility defining sets of compatible versions of the software;

selecting automatically one of a parallel update process and a rolling update process to install the update based on the checking of the compatibility, the parallel update process to update the software of the first server for an update that is incompatible with the software of the second collaborating server by updating the software of the first server and the second collaborating server at a same time and the rolling update process to update the software of the first server for an update that is compatible with the software of the second collaborating server while the second collaborating server executes another compatible version of the software;

scheduling automatically the parallel update process in response to the expiration of the statement of compatibility; and

executing a selected update process.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

halting initialization of the first server if incompatibility with the software of the second collaborating server is determined through the statement of compatibility.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

halting initialization or update of the software of the first server if the statement of compatibility is expired.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the statement of compatibility is in a shared storage area of the remote storage location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a table in a shared storage area to indicate a version of the first server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an update to an expiration date of the statement of compatibility.

7. A system comprising:

a first server to provide a first application to a client;

a storage system to store compatibility data; and

a second server to provide a second application to the client, the second server sharing resources with the first server, the second server to check the expiration of the compatibility data and intercompatibility of the first application and an update of the second application using the compatibility data prior to update of the second application on the second server, the second server to select any one of a parallel or a rolling update to update the second application based on the check of the compatibility data, the parallel update to update the second application of the second server for an update that is incompatible with the first application of the first server at a same time that the first application is updated and the rolling update to update the application of the second server for an update that is compatible with the first application of the first server while the compatible first application is executed by the first server, the second server to schedule automatically the parallel update process in response to the expiration of the compatibility data.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

an update module to update compatibility data automatically.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the second server compares version data to the compatibility data to determine compatibility of the update of the second application with the first application.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the compatibility data indicates compatible software versions of the first application and the second application.

11. A non-transitory machine readable medium having a set of instructions stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations comprising:

receiving an updated server software for a first server, the first server sharing resources with server software of a second server;

checking an expiration of a statement of compatibility;

checking compatibility of the updated server software with the server software of the second server through a statement of compatibility stored in a shared storage module, the statement of compatibility defining sets of compatible versions of server software;

selecting automatically one of a parallel update process and a rolling update process to install the updated server software based on the checking of the compatibility, the parallel update process to update the server software of the first server for updated server software that is incompatible with the server software of the second server at a same time the server software of the second server is updated and the rolling update process to update the server software of the first server for updated server software that is compatible with the server software of the second server while the second server is executing the compatible server software; and

scheduling automatically the parallel update process in response to the expiration of the statement of compatibility.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, having a further set of instruction stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations further comprising:

downloading the statement of compatibility from a remote server.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, having a further set of instructions stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations further comprising:

halting initialization of the first server if the statement of compatibility is expired.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, having a further set of instructions stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations further comprising:

performing a rolling update of all servers being updated to compatible versions based on the statement of compatibility.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, having a further set of instructions stored therein which when executed cause a machine to perform a set of operations further comprising:

receiving an update to an expiration date of the statement of compatibility.