Patent ID: 8689242

Claim:
A server apparatus that communicates with a plurality of client apparatuses and a plurality of devices connected on a network, said server apparatus comprising: a registration unit constructed to, when a request for driver management is input, register, in a database, driver information of a device driver to be installed in one of the plurality of clients, wherein, when the device driver is already provided with correspondence information on a correspondence between the device driver and device information of one of the plurality of devices, the registration unit registers the correspondence information together with the driver information; a storage unit constructed to, when a request for associating a device driver with a device is input, store, in the database, (a) association information between device information of a predetermined one of the plurality of devices and driver information of a device driver designated by selection for the association for the predetermined device, and (b) association name information set to the association information, wherein, if the correspondence information for the predetermined device is registered in the database, the selection for the association for the predetermined device is made from a list of device drivers having the correspondence information matching the device information of the predetermined device from among the device drivers registered in the database, and, if the correspondence information for the predetermined device is not registered in the database, the selection for the association for the predetermined device is made from a list of the device drivers registered in the database; a generating unit constructed to generate a plurality of types of tasks, wherein the tasks include an adding task for additionally installing a device driver to any of the client apparatuses, and an agent install task for installing an agent used for installing the device driver to any of the client apparatuses based on the adding task; an executing unit constructed to control execution of the tasks generated by the generating unit; an agent transmission unit constructed to transmit an agent installer to one of the client apparatuses that corresponds to the generated agent install task in accordance with the execution of the generated agent install task controlled by the executing unit; and a task transmission unit constructed to transmit information on the generated adding task so that the agent manages the information in a queue of the agent, wherein the generating unit generates the adding task for additionally installing a device driver that supports the predetermined device based on a selection from a list formed using the association information and the association name information stored by the storage unit, and wherein the device driver corresponding to the adding task is installed by the execution of the adding task managed in the queue of the agent.