Patent ID: 7822718
Filing Date: 2010-10-26
Classification: G06F,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: establishing, with a network device, a communication session with a client; receiving, with the network device, a lock command from the client via the communication session; locking candidate configuration data in response to the lock command from the client to grant an archive system exclusive access to the candidate configuration data of the network device so that no other clients can edit the candidate configuration data, wherein the candidate configuration data represents an editable working copy of current operational configuration data of the network device; after locking the candidate configuration data, receiving a load command from the client and, in response to the load command, loading, from the archive system, archived configuration data that represents previous operational configuration data of the network device to replace the locked candidate configuration data; in response to a first commit command from the client, temporarily committing the candidate configuration data to temporarily restore the archived configuration data as the operational configuration data of the network device by creating a temporary copy of the candidate configuration data, merging the operational configuration data into the temporary copy to generate a configuration patch that lists any differences between the candidate configuration data and the operational configuration data, and applying the configuration patch to the operational configuration data to update the operational configuration data in accordance with the differences; upon temporarily committing the candidate configuration data, enabling a timer within the network device; responding to integrity tests from the client to confirm that the network device is reachable and did not fail due to temporarily committing the candidate configuration data to the operational configuration data; upon receiving a second commit command from the client prior to the timer exceeding a pre-set time limit, permanently committing the candidate configuration data to restore the archived configuration data as the operational configuration data of the network device; and upon expiration of the timer without receiving the second commit command with the network device, executing a first rollback to undo any changes to the operational data from the archived configuration data as loaded into the candidate configuration data.