Apparatus, system, and method for efficient code update

• US 8,392,904 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Garcia, Melissa Jorgette, Gee, Lourdes Magally, Gudapati, Kavitha, Hourselt, Andrew Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Luu, Cuong V
• Application Number:
  US12/403,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235826A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,454 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for efficiently collecting code updates. The apparatus includes a generation module that identifies sites that provide code updates based on information about the computing system and its components that is already stored in the system. A supplement module identifies additional sites by monitoring Internet traffic on the computing system and looking for certain keywords, patterns, and regular expressions in visited sites. The user may also manually enter sites to supplement the sites automatically identified by the generation module and the supplement module. A monitor module monitors the identified sites for changes and determines when a new code update is available. A notification module notifies the user of the code updates when the monitor module determines that they have become available. The apparatus may also include a download module that automatically downloads new code updates for the user to install.

Claims

1. An apparatus for efficiently collecting code updates, the apparatus comprising:

a generation module that identifies a plurality of known update websites that provide code updates for one or more components in a computing system, and that adds the update websites to an update set;

a supplement module that automatically identifies one or more additional update websites by monitoring Internet traffic for search elements associated with one or more components of the computing system, the one or more additional update websites providing code updates for one or more components in the computing system, the supplement module adding additional update websites to the update set in response to determining that a particular website contains one or more code updates for one or more components of the computing system;

a monitor module that detects one or more new code updates available on the plurality of update websites in the update set for one or more components in the computing system by monitoring the plurality of update websites in the update set for changes; and

a notification module that notifies the user of one or more new code updates in response to the monitor module detecting one or more new code updates on the plurality of update websites in the update set, wherein at least a portion of the generation module, the supplement module, the monitor module, and the notification module comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code stored on one or more non-transitory computer useable storage media;

the one or more additional update websites and the plurality of known update websites are distinct.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a download module that automatically downloads the code updates in response to the monitor module determining that one or more new code updates are available on one or more of the plurality of update websites.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the supplement module is further configured to receive addresses of update websites directly from the user and add them to the update set.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the notification module notifies the user by one or more of an email, a text message, and an on-screen notification.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monitor module monitoring the plurality of update websites for changes comprises the monitor module connecting to the plurality of update websites in the update set at predefined intervals and determining whether the update websites contain one or more new code updates.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monitor module is further configured to receive code update information provided by one or more of the plurality of update websites.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the supplement module monitoring Internet traffic comprises the supplement module monitoring all Internet browsing behavior of the user, and wherein determining that a particular website is an update website comprises checking websites visited by the user for predefined keywords, patterns, and regular expressions, and adding websites that contain one or more of the predefined keywords, patterns, and regular expressions to the update set.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is implemented as part of an advanced management module in a blade server system.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the code updates are firmware updates for one or more components of the computing system, and wherein the computing systems is a blade server system.

10. A blade server system for efficiently collecting code updates, the system comprising:

a processor;

one or more components in the blade server that require code updates;

a generation module that automatically identifies a plurality of known update websites that provide code updates for the one or more components and that adds the update websites to an update set;

a supplement module that automatically identifies one or more additional update websites by monitoring Internet browsing of a user for search elements associated with one or more components of the computing system, the one or more additional update websites providing code updates for one or more components in the computing system, the supplemental module adding additional update websites to the update set in response to determining that a particular website visited by the user is an update website and determining that the particular website is not in the update set;

a monitor module that detects one or more new code updates available on the plurality of update websites in the update set for one or more components in the computing system by monitoring the plurality of update websites in the update set for changes; and

a notification module that notifies the user of one or more new code updates in response to the monitor module detecting one or more code updates on the plurality of update websites in the update set;

the one or more additional update websites and the plurality of known update websites are distinct.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising an advanced management module, and wherein the generation module, supplement module, monitor module, and notification module are implemented in the advanced management module.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a download module that automatically downloads the code updates to the blade server system in response to the monitor module determining that one or more new code updates are available on one or more of the plurality of update websites.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the supplement module monitoring Internet browsing further comprises the supplement module monitoring all Internet browsing behavior of the user, and wherein determining that a particular website is an update website comprises checking websites visited by the user for predefined keywords, patterns, and regular expressions.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the monitor module connects to the plurality of update websites in the update set at predefined intervals and determines whether the update websites contain one or more new code updates.

15. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer useable storage medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for efficiently collecting code updates, said method comprising:

identifying a plurality of update websites that provide code updates for one or more components in a computing system using information stored in the computing system;

adding the update websites to an update set;

identifying one or more additional update websites by monitoring Internet traffic on the computing system for search elements associated with one or more components of the computing system providing code updates for one or more components in the computing system;

adding the additional update websites to the update set in response to determining that a particular website visited by the user is an update website;

detecting one or more new code updates available on the plurality of update websites in the update set for one or more components in the computing system by monitoring the plurality of update websites in the update set for changes; and

notifying the user of one or more new code updates in response to detecting one or more new code updates on the plurality of update websites in the update set;

the one or more additional update websites and the plurality of known update websites are distinct.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, the method further comprising automatically downloading the code updates in response to determining that one or more new code updates are available on one or more of the plurality of update websites.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, the method further comprising receiving addresses of update websites directly from the user and adding them to the update set.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, the method further comprising receiving code update information provided by one or more of the plurality of update websites.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein monitoring Internet traffic further comprises monitoring all Internet browsing behavior of the user and checking websites visited by the user for predefined keywords, patterns, and regular expressions.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, the method further comprising adding websites that contain one or more of the predefined keywords, patterns, and regular expressions to the update set.