Patent ID: 8782181

Claim:
A method for upgrading a network device, comprising: establishing, by a network management server, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection with the network device; during an upgrade process, transmitting, by the network management server, a private protocol born on the TCP to the network device to notify the network device to be upgraded; executing, by the network device, a corresponding upgrade operation after receiving the notification and returning an upgrade result to the network management server through the private protocol born on the TCP; wherein the process of the network management server and the network device performing an upgrade by using the private protocol born on the TCP comprises: step A: transmitting, by the network device, device information of the network device itself to the network management server; step B: judging, by the network management server, the device information transmitted from the network device and transmitting upgrade information corresponding to the judgment result to notify the network device to be upgraded; step C: executing, by the network device, a corresponding upgrade operation after receiving the upgrade information and feeding back an upgrade result to the network management server; wherein the step B comprises: judging, by the network management server, the device information transmitted from the network device, notifying the network device to interrupt the TCP connection when determining that the network device is illegal, notifying the network device to download version files when determining that both version and configuration of the network device need an upgrade, and notifying the network device to directly download profiles when determining that the version of the network device needs no upgrade but the configuration needs an upgrade; the step C comprises: when receiving the notification from the network management server of downloading version files, downloading, by the network device, the version files and returning a download result to the network management server; notifying, by the network management server, the network device to restart, then executing, by the network device, a restart operation after receiving the notification and notifying the network management server after the restart; when receiving the notification from the network management server of downloading profiles, downloading, by the network device, the profiles and returning a download result to the network management server; notifying, by the network management server, the network device to upgrade the downloaded profiles, then upgrading, by the network device, the profiles after receiving the notification and returning an upgrade result to the network management server.