Remote commands framework to control clients

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11032350-B2
Application number	US-201815920396-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

A method and system for remotely executing commands at a client computing device. The method comprises receiving a selection of commands to transmit to a group of client computing devices via a webserver. The group of client computing devices, as well as the selected commands, are associated with a group identifier. The method validates access privileges of the administrator to transmit the selected commands to the group of client computing devices. Upon receipt of the selected commands, the webserver transmits the selected commands to at least one registered proxy server. The registered proxy server then determines one or more client identifiers associated with the group identifier. Each client identifier is assigned to a client computing device. Upon receipt of the selected commands, the registered proxy server transmits the selected commands to client computing devices in the group of client computing devices matching the determined client identifiers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, causes a client computing device to perform a method comprising:
attempting to connect to a proxy server communicatively coupled to the client computing device to obtain a plurality of commands to be executed by the client computing device;
determining whether the connection with the proxy server was successful;
in response to a determination that the connection with the proxy server was not successful:
determining a status code received from the proxy server based on the unsuccessful connection with the proxy server;
establishing a reconnection interval based on the determined status code; and
re-trying the unsuccessful connection with the proxy server at an expiration of the reconnection interval; and,

in response to a determination the connection with the proxy server was successful:
downloading, from the proxy server, the plurality of commands to be executed by the client computing device, wherein:
at least one command of the plurality of commands is associated with a subset of users having been selected from a plurality of users, and
the client computing device that is to execute the at least one command is associated with a user selected from the subset of users;

determining, by the client computing device, that the at least one command comprises an update command to execute from the plurality of commands using a plurality of priority rules associated with the plurality of commands, wherein the plurality of priority rules indicate an order in which commands of the plurality of commands are to be executed;
executing, by the client computing device, the update command to obtain an update to an application executable by the client computing device;
determining whether the obtained update is a forced update based on a property associated with the obtained update;
in response to determining that the obtained update is a forced update, generating a prompt to a user at the client computing device, wherein the prompt indicates that an application associated with the client computing device will be restarted;
in response to determining that the obtained update is not a forced update, adding the update command to a commands script at the client computing device, wherein the commands script comprises a list of commands to be executed at the client computing device; and
executing the update command at the client computing device, which causes the application associated with the client computing device to restart.

2. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the application is an email application.

3. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
in response to determining that the obtained update is not a forced update, maintaining a timer at the client computing device, wherein the timer tracks a timestamp of downloading the plurality of commands.

4. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 3 wherein the method further comprises:
determining that the timer has reached a timer threshold; and
generating a prompt to a user at the client computing device, wherein the prompt indicates that the application associated with the client computing device will be restarted based on the timer.

5. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
in response to executing the update command at the client computing device, transmitting an execution confirmation message to the proxy server, wherein:
the proxy server updates a log file to include the execution confirmation message, and
the proxy server transmits at least a portion of the log file to a webserver communicatively coupled to the proxy server.

6. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the client computing device polls the proxy server once every configurable time interval to receive a command file with one or more commands to be executed.

7. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the update command is executed at the client computing device when the client computing device is connected to the proxy server.

8. A method comprising:
attempting to connect to a proxy server communicatively coupled to a client computing device to obtain a plurality of commands to be executed by the client computing device;
determining whether the connection with the proxy server was successful;
in response to a determination that the connection with the proxy server was not successful:
determining a status code received from the proxy server based on the unsuccessful connection with the proxy server;
establishing a reconnection interval based on the determined status code; and,
re-trying the unsuccessful connection with the proxy server at an expiration of the reconnection interval; and,

in response to a determination the connection with the proxy server was successful:
downloading, from the proxy server, the plurality of commands to be executed by the client computing device, wherein:
at least one command of the plurality of commands is associated with a subset of users having been selected from a plurality of users, and
the client computing device that is to execute the at least one command is associated with a user selected from the subset of users;

determining, by the client computing device, an update command to execute from the plurality of commands using a plurality of priority rules associated with the plurality of commands, wherein the plurality of priority rules indicate an order in which commands of the plurality of commands are to be executed;
executing, by the client computing device, the update command to obtain an update to an application executable by the client computing device;
determining whether the update is a forced update based on a property associated with the obtained update;
in response to determining that the obtained update is a forced update, generating a prompt to a user at the client computing device, wherein the prompt indicates that the application associated with the client computing device will be restarted;
in response to determining that the obtained update is not a forced update, adding the update command to a commands script at the client computing device, wherein the commands script comprises a list of commands to be executed at the client computing device; and
executing the update command at the client computing device, which causes the application associated with the client computing device to restart.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the application is an email application.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises:
in response to determining that the obtained update is not a forced update, maintaining a timer at the client computing device, wherein the timer tracks a timestamp of downloading the plurality of commands.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the method further comprises:
determining that the timer has reached a timer threshold; and
generating a prompt to a user at the client computing device, wherein the prompt indicates that the application associated with the client computing device will be restarted based on the timer.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises:
in response to executing the update command at the client computing device, transmitting an execution confirmation message to the proxy server, wherein:
the proxy server updates a log file to include the execution confirmation message, and
the proxy server transmits at least a portion

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Sinha Prosenjit
• Janakiraman Sangeetha
• Amarendran Arun Prasad
• Chatterjee Tirthankar

Classifications

• H04L67/2871 Primary

  Implementation details of single intermediate entities · CPC title

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title

• H04L67/566

  Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing · CPC title

• H04L67/55

  Push-based network services · CPC title

• G06F11/2023

  Failover techniques · CPC title