Incremental OS Image Snapshot Update Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for updating operating systems are inefficient, leading to significant downtime and complications when dealing with multiple devices running different operating system releases and local changes, especially in business continuity and disaster recovery systems, and package-based updates are prone to errors due to interactions with existing system software.
Innovation Solution
The method involves using incremental updates by storing snapshots of operating system images on a target device, receiving incremental data from a remote storage device, forming a new snapshot, and booting the device with the updated image, allowing for efficient and reliable updates while maintaining previous versions for easy reversion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If full operating system packages are transferred to each device, then complete OS updates are achieved, but data transfer time and storage requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the operating system update into two parts: a base image containing common system files and application-specific modules containing device-specific changes. This segmentation allows selective transfer of only the necessary modules to each device, reducing data transfer time while maintaining complete update functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts application-specific modules from the full operating system package and stores them separately in a repository. When updating a device, only the relevant modules are transferred and applied to the base image, rather than transferring the entire OS package, thereby significantly reducing data transfer time and storage requirements.
2Loss of time
If package-based updates are implemented to reduce transfer size, then data transfer efficiency improves, but error likelihood increases due to package interactions with existing system software
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by building and testing the complete operating system image in a virtualized environment before deployment. This pre-validation ensures that all package interactions with existing system software are verified in advance, preventing errors from occurring on production devices while maintaining the efficiency of modular updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a virtualization environment as an intermediary between the package-based update system and the target devices. This intermediary layer allows complete OS images to be constructed and validated without actually installing packages on production systems, thereby eliminating interaction errors while preserving the benefits of modular updates.
3Adaptability or versatility
If operating system updates are built on each target device, then device-specific customization is achieved, but update time and downtime increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the time-consuming operation of building and validating the complete operating system image in advance in a virtualized environment. Once validated, the pre-built image is rapidly deployed to target devices with minimal processing, thereby achieving device-specific customization while reducing update downtime from hours to minutes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the update process into a pre-build phase (performed once in virtualization) and a deployment phase (performed quickly on target devices). This segmentation moves the computationally intensive customization work to the pre-build phase, allowing rapid deployment to multiple devices simultaneously with minimal downtime.
4Loss of time
If incremental updates are used to reduce data transfer, then transfer efficiency improves, but reliability decreases due to potential mismatches with existing system state
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary validation of incremental updates in a virtualized environment before applying them to target devices. The complete OS image including all incremental changes is built and validated in advance, ensuring compatibility with the existing system state. This pre-validation eliminates the reliability issues of incremental updates while maintaining their transfer efficiency benefits.
Data Source
AI summary
A target device operating on a first operating system can receive an incremental update for a second operating system and store in a first data set a snapshot of the second the second operating system based on the incremental update. The target device may then export an image of the second operating system to a second data set and boot into the second image. The target device may receive operating system updates, build operating system images in the background, and boot into the updated operating system when the process is complete. Storing snapshots of the incremental updates and previous operating system images allows for reversion to old operating systems.