Patent ID: 8370831

Claim:
A method for installing software in a multi-chassis router comprising: receiving with a control node associated with the multi-chassis router a command to install software on the multi-chassis router, wherein the multi-chassis router includes a plurality of chassis, wherein each of at least two of the plurality of chassis comprises a set of network interface cards and at least one of the plurality of chassis comprises a switch fabric for routing data among the network interface cards; automatically downloading the software from the control node to the plurality of chassis in response to the command; receiving a software validation result from each of the plurality of chassis after downloading the software from the control node to the plurality of chassis in response to the command, wherein the software validation results represent comparisons of current configurations of each of the plurality of chassis with compatibility of the software; after receiving the validation result from each of the plurality of chassis, sending a commit command to the plurality of chassis from the control node to commit the software on each of the plurality of chassis when each of the validation results received from the plurality of chassis are successful software validation results; and after receiving the validation result from each of the plurality of chassis, sending a rollback command to the plurality of chassis to cancel the software installation when at least one of the validation results received from the plurality of chassis is a failed software validation result.