Methods for automatically obtaining image files

Abstract

A method for automatically acquiring image files is applied to a cluster server system in conjunction with a data management system. The cluster server system includes a master server and multiple slave servers. The data management system includes a firmware manager and a data unit. The data unit has multiple image file modules. The method for automatically acquiring image files includes: a step (B) in which the master server transmits the firmware information required by each slave server to the firmware manager; a step (C) in which the firmware manager integrates each executable image file with the corresponding slave server into a firmware script and transmits it to a remote storage device for storage at a storage location; and a step (D) in which the master server transmits each storage location to the corresponding slave server, and each slave server connects to the remote storage device and downloads the executable image file of the corresponding firmware script according to the corresponding storage location, thereby automatically updating the executable image file.

Claims

1. A method for automatically obtaining image files, applied to a cluster server system in conjunction with a data management system, the cluster server system including a master server and multiple slave servers connected to the master server via network communication, the data management system including a firmware manager connected to the master server and a data unit connected to the firmware manager, the data unit having multiple image file modules, the image file modules respectively corresponding to the slave servers and the master server, the method for automatically obtaining image files comprising the following steps: (A) the master server sends an inquiry command to the slave servers, each slave server receiving the inquiry command and sending back firmware information of the required image file; (B) the master server transmits the IP address corresponding to each slave server and the required firmware information to the firmware manager, the firmware manager finding an executable image file of the corresponding image file module from the data unit based on the received firmware information; (C) The firmware manager integrates each executable image file and the corresponding slave server's IP address into a firmware script and transmits it to a remote storage device. The remote storage device stores each firmware script and sends back a storage location corresponding to each firmware script to the firmware manager. Each storage location has the IP address of the slave server corresponding to the corresponding firmware script. The firmware manager transmits the received storage location corresponding to each firmware script to the master server; and (D) the master server transmits each storage location to the corresponding slave server according to the IP address of each storage location, and the slave server of the corresponding storage location connects to the remote storage device and downloads the execution image file of the corresponding firmware script according to the corresponding storage location.

2. The method for automatically acquiring an image file as described in claim 1 further includes a step (E) following step (D), wherein, In step (D), each slave server connects to the remote storage device and downloads the corresponding firmware script execution image file according to the corresponding storage location, and then sends back a mounted message to the master server. In step (E), the master server issues an execution command to the corresponding slave server according to the received mounted message. The slave server that receives the execution command from the master server boots up and executes the corresponding execution image file.

3. The method for automatically acquiring image files as described in claim 2, wherein each slave server of the cluster server system includes a slave baseboard management controller, wherein, In step (D), the master server transmits each storage location to the slave board management controller of the corresponding slave server, thereby connecting the corresponding slave board management controller to the remote storage device and downloading the corresponding firmware script execution image file according to the corresponding storage location.

4. The method for automatically obtaining image files as described in claim 2, in step (B), the firmware manager finds the executable image file and a recovery image file of the corresponding image file module from the data unit according to the received firmware information. In step (C), the firmware manager further includes integrating each executable image file and the IP address of the corresponding slave server into a corresponding firmware script and simultaneously integrating each recovery image file and the IP address of the corresponding slave server into a corresponding recovery script, and simultaneously transmitting them to the remote storage device. The remote storage device stores each firmware script and the corresponding recovery script in the same storage location and sends back the storage location corresponding to each firmware script and the corresponding recovery script to the firmware manager. The firmware manager transmits the received storage location corresponding to each firmware script and the corresponding recovery script to the master server.

5. The method for automatically obtaining an image file as described in claim 4, wherein, In step (D), the slave server of the corresponding storage location is connected to the remote storage device and the execution image file of the corresponding firmware script and the recovery image file of the corresponding recovery script are downloaded according to the corresponding storage location.

6. The method for automatically acquiring an image file as described in claim 5, further comprising a step (F) following step (E), wherein, In step (F), the slave server determines whether the corresponding execution image file has been executed. If so, the slave server sends an update completion message back to the master server.

7. The method for automatically acquiring an image file as described in claim 6 further includes a step (G) following step (F), wherein, In step (F), if the determination is negative, the slave server sends an update failure message back to the master server, indicating that the slave server cannot successfully update the corresponding execution image file. In step (G), the slave server restarts and replaces the recovery image file that executes the corresponding recovery script.

8. The method for automatically acquiring image files as described in claim 4, wherein each slave server of the cluster server system includes a slave baseboard management controller, wherein, In step (D), the master server transmits each storage location to the slave baseboard management controller of the corresponding slave server, thereby connecting the corresponding slave baseboard management controller to the remote storage device and downloading the execution image file of the corresponding firmware script and the recovery image file of the corresponding recovery script according to the corresponding storage location.

9. The method for automatically obtaining an image file as described in claim 1, wherein the master server of the cluster server system has a cluster management interface for communicating and managing the slave servers, and in step (A), the query command issued by the master server is transmitted to the slave servers through the cluster management interface, and the master server receives firmware information corresponding to the image file returned by each slave server through the cluster management interface and integrates the firmware information required by each slave server.

10. The method for automatically acquiring image files as described in claim 9, wherein the master server of the cluster server system further has a firmware management interface for connecting to and communicating with the firmware manager of the data management system, wherein, In step (B), the master server transmits the firmware information required by each slave server to the firmware manager through the firmware management interface. The firmware manager then finds the corresponding execution image file from the data unit based on the received firmware information.

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