Patent ID: 7627746
Filing Date: 2009-12-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of installing software on a network appliance having a short term memory and a hard disk, comprising: receiving an image of the software; loading the image into a short term memory on the network appliance; writing the image to a hard disk on the network appliance, wherein the network appliance is associated with a networking protocol, including one or more of: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), and Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS); accessing a hard disk having an inactive software partition an active software partition, an inactive data partition, and an active data partition; writing a new version of software to the inactive software partition of the hard disk; writing an old version of data to the inactive data partition of the hard disk; activating the inactive software partition and the inactive data partition; and migrating the old version of data to a new version of data, wherein the new version of software performs the migration; wherein the image is received using software that is configured to allow a networked computer without an operating system or a hard disk to be booted remotely over a network.