Method for upgrading communication equipment

• US 8,495,616 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Fan, Jinfei, She, Jiangfa, Luo, Bing, Ye, Weichuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Cheneca
• Application Number:
  US10/586,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20070220503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,091 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for updating communication equipment through a server in a communication system, where the server stores the updated files used for updating the communication equipment. In this method, configuration data in the communication equipment are backed up in the server at first, and then the updated files are downloaded to the communication equipment from the server, and the updated files are loaded to the communication equipment to implement the communication equipment update; at last, the configuration data backed up in the server are recovered to the communication equipment. The disclosed method can guarantee the successful update of the communication equipment and no data loss after the update, thus the security of the communication equipment update is greatly improved.

Claims

1. A method for updating an Integrated Access Device (IAD) in a communication system, the method comprising:

configuring, on the IAD, server information from an IAD Management System (IADMS) that is externally connected to the IAD;

receiving, by the IAD, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) backup configuration data command from the IADMS;

backing up, by the IAD, configuration data of the IAD to a specified server that is externally connected to the IAD and that corresponds to the server information according to the SNMP backup configuration data command from the IADMS;

receiving, by the IAD, an SNMP update command from the IADMS, wherein the SNMP update command comprises updated server address information and updated files name information;

downloading, by the IAD, updated files from a server according to the updated server address information in the SNMP update command;

loading the updated files to the IAD;

receiving, by the IAD, an SNMP recovery configuration data command from the IADMS, wherein the SNMP recovery configuration data command comprises server address information and configuration data files name information; and

recovering the configuration data backed up on the specified server to the IAD according to the server address information and the configuration data files name information in the SNMP recovery configuration data command from the IADMS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each one of the specified server and the server is either a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server or a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein backing up the configuration data of the IAD to the specified server comprises:

transmitting the configuration data of the IAD to the specified server; and

determining whether the configuration data is successfully backed up to the specified server,

wherein if the configuration data is not successfully backed up to the specified server, then the method further comprises determining whether to re-transmit the configuration data to the specified server.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining whether the configuration data is successfully backed up to the specified server comprises:

determining whether a backup failure message is received from the IAD; and

determining whether a transmission time of the configuration data exceeds a predetermined time,

wherein if either the backup failure message is received or the transmission time exceeds the predetermined time, then the configuration data is determined to have not been successfully backed up to the specified server.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein when the configuration data is not successfully backed up to the specified server, determining whether to re-transmit the configuration data to the specified server comprises:

notifying a user of the IAD that the configuration data was not successfully backed up to the specified server; and

prompting the user to provide instructions as to whether backing up of the configuration data to the specified server should be re-attempted,

wherein if the user provides an instruction to re-attempt backing up of the configuration data to the specified server, then the method further comprises repeating transmission of the configuration data to the specified server.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein if the user does not provide an instruction to re-attempt backing up of the configuration data to the specified server, then the transmission of the configuration data to the specified server is not repeated.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein before downloading the updated files from the server and loading the updated files to the IAD, the method further comprises:

storing current files in the IAD, wherein the current files are replaced by the updated files when the updated files are loaded to the IAD, and

wherein if the updated files are not successfully loaded to the IAD, then the current files in the IAD are recovered before repeating the steps of downloading the updated files from the server and loading the updated files to the IAD.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the updated files are successfully loaded to the IAD,

wherein if the updated files are not successfully loaded to the IAD, then the method further comprises determining whether to repeat the steps of downloading the updated files from the server and loading the updated files to the IAD.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining whether the updated files are successfully loaded to the IAD comprises:

determining whether an update failure message is received from the IAD; and

determining whether a loading time of the updated files exceeds a predetermined time, wherein the loading time corresponds to the time required to receive the updated files from the server and load the updated files to the IAD;

wherein, if either the update failure message is received or the loading time exceeds the predetermined time, then the updated files are determined to have not been successfully loaded to the IAD.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining whether to repeat the steps of downloading the updated files from the server and loading the updated files to the IAD comprises:

notifying a user of the IAD that the updated files were not successfully loaded to the IAD; and

prompting the user to provide instructions as to whether loading the updated files to the IAD should be re-attempted,

wherein if the user provides an instruction to re-attempt loading the updated files to the IAD, then the method further comprises repeating the steps of downloading the updated files from the server and loading the updated files to the IAD.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein recovering the configuration data backed up to the server comprises:

downloading the configuration data from the server to the IAD;

loading the configuration data to the IAD; and

determining whether the configuration data was successfully recovered by the IAD,

wherein if the configuration data is not successfully recovered by the IAD, then the method further comprises determining whether recovery of the configuration data should be re-attempted by the IAD.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein determining whether recovery of the configuration data should be re-attempted by the IAD comprises;

notifying a user of the IAD that the configuration data was not successfully recovered by the IAD; and

prompting the user to provide instructions as to whether recovery of the configuration data should be re-attempted by the IAD,

wherein if the user provides an instruction that recovery of the configuration data should be re-attempted by the IAD, then the method further comprises re-attempting recovery of the configuration data by the IAD.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein recovering the configuration data backed up to the server comprises:

downloading, by the IAD, the configuration data files according to the SNMP recovery configuration data command, Wherein the server address information allows the IAD to locate the server, and wherein the configuration data files name information allows the IAD to identify the configuration data files; and

loading the configuration data files to the IAD.

14. An Integrated Access Device (IAD) having a processor comprising:

an interface unit externally connected to one or more servers and configured to establish a communication connection with the one or more servers; and

an update control unit configured to;

configure server information from an IAD Management System (IADMS) on the IAD;

receive a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) backup configuration data command from the IADMS;

back up configuration data of the IAD to a specified server corresponding to the server information via the interface unit according to the SNMP backup configuration data command from the IADMS;

receive an SNMP update command from the IADMS, wherein the SNMP update command from the IADMS comprises updated server address information and updated files name information;

download updated files from a server according to the updated server address information in the SNMP update command from the IADMS;

load the updated files to the IAD;

receive an SNMP recovery configuration data command from the IADMS, wherein the SNMP recovery configuration data command comprises server address information and configuration data files name information; and

recover configuration data backed up on the specified server to the IAD according to the server address information and the configuration data files name information in the SNMP recovery configuration data command from the IADMS.

15. The IAD of claim 14, wherein each one of the specified server and the server is either a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server or a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

16. A method for updating communication equipment in a communication system, the method comprising:

receiving, at the communication equipment, a backup configuration data command from a management system externally connected to the communication equipment;

in response to the backup configuration data command, transmitting configuration data of the communication equipment from the communication equipment to a specified server externally connected to the communication equipment such that the configuration data can be backed up on the specified sever;

receiving, at the communication equipment, an update command comprising server address information and file name information from the management system;

downloading, at the communication equipment, updated files of software from a server according to the server address information and the file name information in the update command;

loading the updated files to the communication equipment;

receiving, at the communication equipment, a recovery configuration data command comprising server information of the specified server from the management system; and

recovering downloaded configuration data to the communication equipment to apply to new software, wherein the downloaded configuration data is downloaded from the specified server using the server information of the specified server.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the specified server is a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the communication equipment is at least one of a switch, a router, and an Integrated Access Device (IAD).

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the downloaded configuration data has a new configuration data format in accord with the requirement of the new software.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising converting the download configuration data'"'"'s format to make a new configuration data format in accord with the requirement of the new software.

21. A communication equipment having a process, which is one of a switch, a router, and an Integrated Access Device (IAD), and is capable of implementing a software update through one or more servers externally connected thereto, the communication equipment configured to:

receive a backup configuration data command from a management system externally connected to the communication equipment;

in response to the backup configuration data command, transmit configuration data of the communication equipment to a specified server externally connected to the communication equipment such that the configuration data can be backed up on the specified sever;

receive an update command comprising server address information and file name information from the management system;

download updated files of software from a server according to the server address information and the file name information in the update command;

load the updated files to the communication equipment;

receive a recovery configuration data command comprising server information of the specified server from the management system; and

recover downloaded configuration data to the communication equipment to apply to new software, wherein the downloaded configuration data are downloaded from the specified server using the server information of the specified server.

22. The communication equipment according to claim 21, wherein the specified server is a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server.

23. The communication equipment according to claim 21, wherein the downloaded configuration data has a new configuration data format in accord with the requirement of the new software.

24. The communication equipment according to claim 21, further configured to convert the download configuration data'"'"'s format to make a new configuration data format in accord with the requirement of the new software.