Systems and methods of installing an application without rebooting

• US 8,769,522 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2006
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Venkatraman, Charu, Kumar, Arkesh, He, Junxiao, Soni, Ajay
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAYIM, SAMUEL E
• Application Number:
  US11/465,948
• Publication Number:
  US 20080046371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,871 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method for automatically changing a version of a client agent for a non-administrative user account without rebooting the user'"'"'s machine uses a service having installation privileges. The service executes on the client and installs a client agent. The client agent communicates with a network appliance. The client agent detects a difference between its version and a version of the client agent identified by the network appliance. The agent signals the service that it has detected the difference and, in response, the service executes an installation program that installs, without rebooting the client, the version of the client agent identified by the appliance. A corresponding system is also described.

Claims

1. A method for automatically changing a version of a client agent for a non-administrative user account without rebooting, the method comprising:

(a) executing, on a client, a service having an installation privilege of an administrator to execute an installation program in a user account of the client, the installation program providing installation of a first version of a client agent for a non-administrative user account for communicating with an appliance, the appliance intermediary to the client and a plurality of servers, the client agent configured to be installed by the installation program via installation privilege of the administrator and configured to update to another version of the client agent via the service executing the installation program under the installation privilege of the administrator while executing under the non-administrative user account;

(b) identifying, by the appliance, availability of a second version of the client agent;

(c) receiving, by the first version of the client agent from the appliance, information identifying the second version of the client agent to be used with the appliance;

(d) detecting, by a the first version of the client agent installed by the installation program via installation privilege of the administrator and executing for a non-administrative user on the client and responsive to the information identifying the second version of the client agent, a version mismatch between the first version of the client agent installed on the client and the second version of the client agent to be used with the appliance and identified using the information received from the appliance;

(e) executing, by the service listening on a predetermined port, the installation program in response to receiving a signal as a socket event via the predetermined port from the first version of the client agent, responsive to the detection of the version mismatch, the first version of the client agent executing under the non-administrative user automatically initiating installation of the second version of the client agent via the service having the installation privilege of the administrator to execute the installation program; and

(f) installing, by the installation program without rebooting the client and via a silent installation, the second version of the client identified by the appliance, the client using the second version of the client agent to communicate with the appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising automatically using, in the user account, the second version of the client agent upon installation.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising installing, by the first version of the client agent, the second version of the client agent transparently to the user account.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first version or the second version of the client agent is required to be installed by one of a user with installation privilege or an administrative user.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising installing the installation program for a first time on the client computing device via an administrative user account.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying, by the appliance, the second version of the client agent comprises one of an upgrade or a downgrade to the first version of the client agent.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising detecting, by the first version of the client agent, the second version of the client agent identified by the appliance is one of an upgrade or a downgrade to the first version of the client agent.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, by the first version of the client agent, a signal responsive to the difference determination to the appliance as a socket event on a predetermined User Datagram Protocol port.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises receiving, by the first version of the client agent, information about the second version of the client agent, wherein the information comprises a HyperText Markup language (HTML) file transmitted from the appliance and having a tag identifying the version of the client agent.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first version of the client agent comprises a plugin to a web browser.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising unregistering, by the first version of the client agent, itself with the web browser, and deleting the HTML file from a cache of the web browser.

12. The method of claim 10, comprising requesting, by the first version of the client agent, the web browser to reload the HTML file.

13. A system for automatically changing a version of a client agent for a non-administrative user account without rebooting, the system comprising:

a client computing device having a processor;

a service executing on a client having an installation privilege of an administrator to execute an installation program in a user account of the client computing device;

executing the installation program for providing installation of a first version of a client agent in a network stack of the client for intercepting, in the network stack, communications from applications executing on the client and for communicating the intercepted communications to an appliance via a transport later connection established between the client agent and the appliance, the client agent configured to be installed by the installation program via installation privilege of the administrator; and

wherein the appliance identifies availability of a second version of the client agent;

wherein the first version of the client agent, installed by the installation program via installation privilege of the administrator and executing for a non-administrative user on the client, receives from the appliance information identifying the second version of the client agent to be used with the appliance;

wherein responsive to the information identifying the second version of the client agent the first version of the client agent detects a version mismatch between the first version of the client agent and the second version of the client agent to be used with the appliance and identified using the information received from the appliance;

wherein responsive to the detection of the version mismatch, the first version of the client agent executing under the non-administrative user automatically initiates installation of the second version of the client agent via the service having the installation privilege of the administrator to execute the installation program; and

wherein the service listens on a predetermined port and executes the installation program in response to receiving a signal as a socket event via the predetermined port from the first version of the client agent;

wherein the installation program installs the second version of the client agent without rebooting the client computing device and via a silent installation, the client using the second version of the client agent to communicate with the appliance.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein upon installation, the second version of the client agent is automatically used the user account.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first version of the client agent installs the second version of the client agent transparently to the user account.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein one of the first version or the second version of the client agent is required to be installed by one of a user with installation privilege or an administrative user.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the installation program is installed for a first time on the client computing device via an administrative user account.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the second version of the client agent identified by the appliance comprises one of an upgrade or a downgrade to the first version of the client agent.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the first version of the client agent transmits a signal responsive to the difference determination to the appliance as a socket event on a predetermined User Datagram Protocol port.

20. A system having a processor for automatically changing a version of a client agent for a non-administrative user account without rebooting, the system comprising,

a version control service executing on a client computing device having an installation privilege to execute an installation program in a user account of the client computing device, the version control service to install via the installation program different versions of client agents on the client computing device;

a first version of a client agent comprises a plug-in to a web browser, the client agent for communicating with an appliance to accelerate communications between the client and one or more servers of the plurality of servers, the appliance intermediary to the client and a plurality of servers and accelerating network traffic between the plurality of servers and the client; and

wherein the first version of the client agent, executing for a non-administrative user on the client, receives from the appliance a HyperText Markup language (HTML) file having a tag identifying the version of the client agent identified by the appliance;

wherein responsive to the identification of the second version of the client agent, the first version of the client agent initiates installation of the second version of the client agent by transmitting a socket event as a signal to the version control service via a predetermined port;

wherein the first version of the client agent, while the web browser is running, unregisters itself with the web browser, deletes the HTML file from a cache of the web browser and requests the web browser to reload the HTML file;

wherein the service listens on the predetermined port and executes the installation program in response to receiving the signal via the predetermined port from the first version of the client agent; and

wherein the installation program installs via a silent installation the second version of the client agent without rebooting the client computing device.