Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Network computer configuring – Reconfiguring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-27
2001-02-27
Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2758)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Network computer configuring
Reconfiguring
C709S201000, C709S203000, C709S212000, C709S217000, C709S248000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C711S161000, C711S162000, C714S002000, C714S006130
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195695
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for recovering from a personal computer workstation crash resulting from a corrupted application and/or operating system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a personal computer operating in a communication network where the workstation includes an operating system and an executable application and/or operating system and the workstation can recover from a crash resulting from corruption of the application and/or operating system by the operating system without using the communications network to download another copy of the executable application and operating system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One application of a personal computer is as a workstation where an executable application is loaded into the workstation, operating on top of an operating system like Microsoft's Windows. The operator uses the combination of the executable application and the operating system to enter data, such as orders, in response to customer requests, for example, by telephone calls received at a call center. Once the data is entered and verified, the data is typically forwarded from the workstation computer over a communications network to a host computer or server for storage and further processing (e.g., for order fulfillment, billing, service, etc.) driven by the host computer. Typically, a large number of workstations are coupled to a single host or server.
The executable application (and operating system, if desired) in the personal computer may be initially obtained from the server (in a download operation) or copied from transportable media (like a CD ROM or other storage devices such as floppy diskettes). The executable application (and operating system) randomly and, often without warning, at times become corrupted (and “crash”) due to the numerous temporary files which are cached or written during “normal” operation of the executable application and operating system. In such cases, then, the personal computer or client must be turned off, rebooted and another copy of the application program obtained.
Obtaining another copy of the application program (and/or the operating system) from the server after the application or the operating system has become corrupted and crashed takes communication resources, bandwidth which otherwise might be used to communicate data from the other workstations also attached to the server through the network. Frequently, a large number of workstations are all connected to the same server through the communications network and, in the order entry application described above, the primary purpose of the communication network would be for communicating order entry data from each of the workstations up to the server as each order is entered. In its peak operation, the communications from the workstations might take most, if not all, of the capacity of the communication channel, so it would be desirable to avoid extra communications that would be involved in downloading another copy of the executable application (and operating system) if a workstation crashed from a corrupted executable application or operating system.
Alternatively, each workstation might be brought back up (or restarted and reloaded with an uncorrupted copy of the executable application and operating system) after a crash from a separate physical media available at each individual workstation. Two undesirable features relate to having media at each workstation: the cost of distributing and locating the physical media with the executable application and operating system at each of the plurality of workstations and the security of the media from some user removing the media with the executable applications, either inadvertently or as a theft.
Accordingly, the prior art systems for using an executable application and operating system at a workstation in a client-server environment have significant disadvantages and limitations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art systems by providing a personal computer system and method for recovering from a corrupted executable application and/or operating system (and a resulting crash) without having to download a new copy of the executable application and operating system using some of the limited communication channel capacity in the process.
The present system also has the advantage that a media copy of the executable application program and operating system need not be provided for each workstation so that the workstation client can be rebooted and resume operation after a crash without the necessity of a local media copy of the application and operating system.
The present system and method are characterized by a plurality of partitioned storage areas (preferably regions on the hard drive) on the personal computer, with each including a copy of the executable application and operating system copied at the time of initial loading of the application, sometimes called the “image”, whether from media or from the network. One of the copies of the executable application and operating system then becomes a “working” copy of the application (which the user employs in processing his data such as the order entry application discussed above) and a second copy becomes a “back-up” (or archive) copy (which is not used normally, but becomes visible and used only after the working copy becomes corrupted and crashes). Then, when the back-up or archive copy becomes visible and becomes used as the working copy, a further copy of the executable application is prepared to serve as a new back-up copy, so that a back-up copy remains available even after the first copy is corrupted and the archive or back-up copy is used as the working copy. Since the back-up or archive copy may be in a partition which is hidden, the operating system does not “see” that part of the storage and does not use that part of the storage for writing temporary files which may cause the back-up or archive copy to be corrupted.
The system of the present invention also has the advantageous feature that it is self-renewing. That is, after the system crashes and before the back-up copy of the application is taken as the working copy, the system and method of the present invention envision that a new archive copy would be made, before the copy that was the back-up copy has a chance to become corrupted.
Another advantage of the present invention is that a stored backup copy can be updated periodically, if desired, and that updating may occur either from the server (in case the executable application needs to be updated for revisions to the executable application) or from the working copy (in case, for example, that data is stored locally and it is desired to have a backup of the stored data). In the case that the updating is from the server downloading a copy of the image, Such updating may be scheduled so as to occur when the data traffic on the communications channel is at a low level, for example, in the middle of the night, or may be available for those times when the traffic is at a reduced level. Thus, for example, a copy of the executable application could be downloaded once a week at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Alternatively, the system could be programmed to back itself up every evening or once a week, as desired, and then, if the system crashes, the content of the backup copy is no more out-of-date than the time since the last backup. In some applications, it may be desirable to retain backup copies of different period, so you might backup the application with one copy from this past weekend and a second copy from the previous weekend, and then when each backup occurs, to keep the most recent two versions.
Accordingly, the present invention overcomes the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art by providing a workstation system which allows recovery of an executable application and/or operating system after the executable application and/or operating system has been corrupted. This recovery is effected without having to downloa
Cheston Richard W.
Locker Howard
Rhoades David B.
Barot Bharat
Grosser George E.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Matar Ahmad F.
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