Recovering the last successful device update on a computing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021240461-A1
Application number	US-202016780230-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 3, 2020
Priority date	Feb 3, 2020
Publication date	Aug 5, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

The last successful device update can be recovered on a computing system. An update tool can be employed to detect whether an update package is installed successfully. When an update package is successfully installed, the update tool can define a last successful device update that associates the update package with the device that the update package targets. In contrast, when the update package does not install successfully, the update tool can access the last successful device update for the targeted device and use it to obtain and install the previous update package that the last successful device update represents. In this way, the related components for a device can be rolled back to a common state to prevent incompatibilities that may otherwise exist due to the failed installation.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A method, performed by an update tool, for recovering a last successful device update on a computing system, the method comprising:
receiving a first update package that targets a device on the computing system, the first update package including multiple related components for the device; detecting that installation of the first update package has failed; in response, accessing a last successful device update that is defined for the device; identifying a second update package that is defined in the last successful device update; and causing the second update package to be installed on the computing system, the second update package also including the multiple related components for the device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple related components include at least one driver for the device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the multiple related components also include a control application for the device.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multiple related components included in the second update package are prior versions of the multiple related components included in the first update package.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting that installation of the first update package has failed comprises detecting that at least one of the multiple related components failed to install.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the last successful device update that is defined for the device comprises determining that the last successful device update includes an identifier of the device.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the second update package to be installed on the computing system comprises using a download link defined in the last successful device update to download the second update package.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a third update package that targets the device, the third update package including the multiple related components for the device; detecting that installation of the third update package has completed successfully; in response, updating the last successful device update for the device to identify the third package.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein updating the last successful device update for the device to identify the third package comprises defining an association between an identifier of the device and an identifier of the third update package.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein updating the last successful device update for the device to identify the third package further comprises identifying the second update package as a predecessor.

11 . One or more computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed on a computing system implement an update tool that is configured to recover a last successful device update on a computing system by performing the following:
receiving a first update package that targets a device on the computing system, the first update package including multiple related components for the device; detecting that installation of the first update package has completed successfully; in response, creating a last successful device update that associates the first update package with the device; receiving a second update package that targets the device, the second update package including the multiple related components for the device; detecting that installation of the second update package has failed; in response to the failed installation, accessing the last successful device update to identify the first update package; and causing the first update package to be installed on the computing system.

12 . The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein the multiple related components include multiple drivers.

13 . The computer storage media of claim 12 , wherein the multiple related components include at least one driver and a control application.

14 . The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein creating the last successful device update that associates the first update package with the device comprises defining an association between an identifier of the first update package and an identifier of the device.

15 . The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein creating the last successful device update that associates the first update package with the device comprises linking the last successful device update to a predecessor successful device update, the predecessor successful device update associating a different update package with the device.

16 . The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein the multiple related components included in the second update package comprise subsequent versions of the multiple related components included in the first update package.

17 . The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein detecting that installation of the second update package has failed comprises detecting that the second update package was only partially installed.

18 . A computing system comprising:
one or more processors; and computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors implement an update tool; wherein the update tool is configured to detect when an update package is installed successfully and, in response, define a last successful device update that associates the update package with a device that the update package targets; and wherein the update tool is also configured to detect when an update package is not installed successfully and, in response, employ the last successful device update to retrieve and install the update package that the last successful device update associates with the device.

19 . The computing system of claim 18 , wherein the update tool maintains last successful device updates for a plurality of devices.

20 . The computing system of claim 18 , wherein each update package includes multiple related components for the corresponding device.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Rajagopalan Vivekanandh Narayanasamy
• Antony Trinto Thattil Nadakkalan
• Jadhav Ambadas Devrao

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

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

• H04L67/34 Primary

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• G06F11/1433

  during software upgrading · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  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) · CPC title