Efficient application patching in heterogeneous computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016004528-A1
Application number	US-201514791220-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Jul 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for efficiently updating multiple computing systems in potentially heterogeneous computing environments. Embodiments provide for efficient patching of multiple software applications executing in multiple execution environments. For example, a custom installation tool can be provided to each of the computing devices in the cloud infrastructure system. The computing devices can execute the custom installation tool and identify, retrieve, and apply the necessary patches to applications on the computing devices. The patch-related processing across the multiple computing devices may occur in parallel such that at least a portion of the processing is performed concurrently from one another.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
one or more processors; and memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory encoded with a set of instructions configured to perform a process comprising:
receiving, at a first computing device to be upgraded, from an administrative server, an update application for updating the first computing device; and
executing the update application at the first computing device, the executing comprising:
determining, based on configuration information associated with the first computing device, a set of patches;
downloading the set of patches onto the first computing device; and
upgrading the first computing device by applying the set of patches.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
receiving, at a second computing device to be upgraded, from the administrative server, the update application; and executing the update application at the second computing device, the executing comprising:
determining, based on configuration information associated with the second computing device, another set of patches, wherein the configuration information associated with the first computing device is different from the configuration information associated with the second computing device;
downloading the other set of patches onto the second computing device; and
upgrading the second computing device by applying the other set of patches,
wherein execution of the update application on the first computing device and execution of the update application on the second computing device are performed in parallel.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
determining the configuration information associated with the first computing device, wherein the determination includes identifying a set of applications installed on the first computing device and identifying versions of the set of applications installed on the first computing device.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information associated with the first computing device is determined from a property file received from the administrative server.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
determining, based on the configuration information associated with the first computing device, a set of labels applicable for the first computing device, wherein a label identifies one or more patches for one or more applications; and determining, based on the set of labels, the set of patches to be applied to the first computing device.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
using an application-specific installer for a first application to install a first patch in the set of patches, the first application being an application on the first computing device.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
sending configuration information associated with the first computing device to a patch server; and receiving the set of patches from the patch server, the set of patches determined based on the configuration information; determining a list of labels based on the configuration information; and downloading from one or more servers the set of patches associated with the list of labels.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions are further configured to perform the process comprising:
sending configuration information associated with the first computing device to a patch server; receiving patch identification information from the patch server, the patch identification information determined based on the configuration information; determining, based on the patch identification information, the set of patches and one or more locations at which the set of patches are accessible, the one or more locations including a first server and a second server; downloading a subset of the set of patches from the first server; and downloading another subset of the set of patches from the second server.

9 . A method comprising:
receiving, at a first computing device to be upgraded, from an administrative server, an update application for updating the first computing device; and executing the update application at the first computing device, the executing comprising:
determining, based on configuration information associated with the first computing device, a set of patches;
downloading the set of patches onto the first computing device; and
upgrading the first computing device by applying the set of patches.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving, at a second computing device to be upgraded, from the administrative server, the update application; and executing the update application at the second computing device, the executing comprising:
determining, based on configuration information associated with the second computing device, another set of patches, wherein the configuration information associated with the first computing device is different from the configuration information associated with the second computing device;
downloading the other set of patches onto the second computing device; and
upgrading the second computing device by applying the other set of patches,
wherein execution of the update application on the first computing device and execution of the update application on the second computing device are performed in parallel.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining the configuration information associated with the first computing device, wherein the determination includes identifying a set of applications installed on the first computing device and identifying versions of the set of applications installed on the first computing device.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the configuration information associated with the first computing device is determined from a property file received from the administrative server.

13 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining, based on the configuration information associated with the first computing device, a set of labels applicable for the first computing device, wherein a label identifies one or more patches for one or more applications; and determining, based on the set of labels, the set of patches to be applied to the first computing device.

14 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
using an application-specific installer for a first application to install a first patch in the set of patches, the first application being an application on the first computing device.

15 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
sending configuration information associated with the first computing device to a patch server; and receiving the set of patches from the patch server, the set of patches determined based on the configuration information; determining a list of labels based on the configuration information; and downloading from one or more servers the set of patches associated with the list of labels.

16 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
sending configuration information associated with the first computing device to a patch server; receiving patch identification information from the patch server, the patch identification information determined based on the configuration information; determining, based on the patc

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Price David
• Muthakana Somanathan
• Nair Unnikrishnan Madhavan

Classifications

• G06F8/71

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title