Data processing: software development – installation – and managem – Software program development tool – Translation of code
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-14
2001-03-13
Powell, Mark R. (Department: 2122)
Data processing: software development, installation, and managem
Software program development tool
Translation of code
C709S220000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202206
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED COPENDING PATENT APPLICATIONS
The following patent applications, which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and filed concurrently herewith, cover subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention: “A STORED FILE OF PRERECORDED KEYSTROKES AND CURSOR SELECTIONS FOR CONTROLLING AUTOMATIC INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION OF PROGRAMS AND COMPONENTS IN A NETWORK OF SERVER AND CLIENT COMPUTERS”, Bezanson, Chuang and Rodriguez; and “CONTROLLING THE INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION OF PROGRAMS AND COMPONENTS IN A NETWORK OF SERVER AND CLIENT COMPUTERS THROUGH ENTRIES INTO A PRIMARY SERVER COMPUTER”, Dean, Howard and Rodriguez.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and program for the configuration of a computer network and particularly a local network of server computers and client computers or the modification of the configuration of such a network in a manner which is expeditious and involves very little down-time of the network or its components.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Computers and their application programs are used in all aspects of business, industry and academic endeavors. In recent years, there has been technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the Internet in recent years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human productivity in the industrialized world requires human and computer interaction. The computer industry has been a force for bringing about great increases in business and industrial productivity. Almost every week seems to bring computer industry advances which promise even further increases in productivity. These advances offer to drive down business and industry costs and increase efficiency in addition to increasing productivity. In addition, the cost of “computer power” continues to drop as a result of rapid advances in computer related technologies.
Despite all of these advantages, there still remains great resistance in all industries and business fields to new computer systems and significant system upgrades which offer much in productivity increases. This resistance results from past experience which equates installing new computer systems or significant upgrades in existing systems with large amounts of down-time during which the business, manufacturing facility or individual worker functions are inoperative or operate at diminished levels. When a business or production facility is trying to decide whether to install a new or significantly upgraded computer system, the concern about down-time, the possible loss of business, as well as stress on the workers involved very often outweighs the cost of the installation in influencing the decision. The concern about business and production delays resulting from installation has become so great that fewer and fewer of even small businesses are still trying to make system and program changes on their own. The professional computer service industry which carries out and supports installations and upgrades for the business and industrial sector has been rapidly expanding over the past decade. However, even with such computer professional support, the threat of such down-time coupled with the costs of such professional services caused by installation delays remains of great concern.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention together with the above cross-referenced concurrently filed copending patent applications provide solutions which are directed to minimizing the time required for installation and configuration, as well as the significant upgrading of networks made up of a plurality of server computers having groups of client computers connected to each server computer. These inventions further minimize the number of computers in the network which have to be involved in each stage of an installation to thereby permit some of the system to remain functional for as long as possible during an upgrade.
The above-mentioned copending application entitled “CONTROLLING THE INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION OF PROGRAMS AND COMPONENTS IN A NETWORK OF SERVER AND CLIENT COMPUTERS THROUGH ENTRIES INTO A PRIMARY SERVER COMPUTER”, covers predetermining the internal and external components and the application programs to be supported by each of the server and client computers in the network and the interconnections between the server and client computers. One server computer having an interactive display interface is then designated as a primary server computer. Then, all of the interactive selection entries required to install all of the application programs and the driver programs which may be required to support said internal and external components of all of the other server and client computers in the network are then made into the interactive display interface of said primary server computer. The other of the copending applications entitled “A STORED FILE OF PRERECORDED KEYSTROKES AND CURSOR SELECTIONS FOR CONTROLLING AUTOMATIC INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION OF PROGRAMS AND COMPONENTS IN A NETWORK OF SERVER AND CLIENT COMPUTERS”, covers storing this input in the primary server as a data file recording the exact keystroke and cursor selection entries required to install the selected programs and further configure the network.
The present invention uses the data files and other information developed during the preliminary processing which involved the primary server computer alone as covered by those two copending patent applications. The primary server loads all of the selected application programs onto their respective server and client computers and completes the network configuration under the control of the profile data file which is stored in the primary server computer. All of the selected programs to be installed throughout the network of server and client computers are first loaded into the primary server computer. Then, there is run the sequence of the keystroke and cursor entries required to install said selected components and programs on said server and client computers as recorded in a data file representative of said sequence of entries stored in said primary server computer. As a result, the programs and components are automatically loaded into the respective server and client computers in said network requiring said programs and components. The programs thus distributed include the operating systems for the server and client computers. Driver programs, as well as programs supporting various selected adapters such as network adapters, are preloaded and distributed throughout the network in this manner. Also, all network settings and other configurations are done in this way.
With such an overall procedure provided by the present invention together with the above-referenced copending applications, most of the remaining computers in the network are free to continue to function during the time that all of the programs are being setup and preinstalled into the primary server computer. Also with such an arrangement, all of the problems should have been solved during the preliminary entry into the primary server computer so that the subsequent installation into the computers in the rest of the network should run smoothly and quickly.
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Dean Jeffrey Randell
Howard Jeffrey Langdon
Rodriguez Ingrid Milagros
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kraft J. B.
Nguyen-Ba Hoang-Vu Antony
Powell Mark R.
Van Leeuwen L. A.
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