FR2825165A1 - Remote execution of operations on a networked computer system terminal, a communication protocol initializing mechanism is introduced into each target machine by a pre-installation machine - Google Patents

Abstract

Method permitting automatic execution of remote operations on WINDOWS NT or UNIX target machines (2c) from a central machine (2a) in a data system (3). An initializing mechanism (7) is introduced into each target machine from an intermediate pre-installation machine (2b). The initializing mechanism responds to the protocol used for communication between the central machine and the target machine.. By means of the pre-installation machine (2b) the following can be achieved, resource sharing, mounting by means (15) for remote storage for target machines on the shared resource of machine (2b) and installation of the initializing mechanism on the remote shared resource which is considered local by the pre-installation machine (2b). Before installation of the initializing mechanism (7) the shared resource is installed from installation files used by the mechanism (7) and/or for administration of the target machines. The initializing mechanism is in the form of an action agent (17) in each of the target machines.

Description

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METHOD AND DEVICE FOR EXECUTING
AUTOMATICALLY REMOTE OPERATIONS ON
NT MACHINES
The present invention relates to the field of management of distributed machines provided with a Windows NT operating system (called NT machines) from a central machine provided with the same or another operating system, and more particularly a method and apparatus for automatically executing remote operations on said NT machines from said central machine.

The prior art
The term machine in the present description represents a very broad conceptual unit, of a material and / or software nature.

 To administer a machine on a network and more specifically on the Internet from another machine, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) of the TCP / IP family is very often used. . SNMP allows a machine to communicate over a network with another machine that has an SNMP agent. An agent is a software module running in the background and intended to perform an action when a specified event occurs. To address an SNMP agent, a UDP port and an IP address are used.

 Currently, it is impossible to run remote commands on NT machines from a central machine whose system

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 is different from Windows NT and for example whose operating system is UNIXTM.

 In particular, when installing or updating agents on NT machines, the administrator must: e Move physically on each NT machine with the installation or agent update CD-ROM; * Make an inventory of the agents already installed on the said NT machines; *) Manually install, update, or uninstall the affected agents on each machine; e correctly configure the launch parameters for each of the agents in question; e Manually verify by local tests or visual checks that the installation, update, or uninstall was successful; . Retain the agent installation information; * Configure the central machine to manage the agents, store information on a file from the central machine and check the accessibility of the machine.

 The installation or the update of agents thus requires a heavy manual intervention subjected to numerous errors of seizure or of forgetting. In addition, no centralization of the results of the installation or update is provided for the purpose of automatically managing said machines.

 As an illustration, the manual installation of five agents on one hundred machines requires about 2 men. week. This results in an expensive cost.

 Nowadays, customers install the software to try it before buying it: the complexity and archaism of the installation process dissuade them even before testing the product offered.

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 There are remote installation tools in the Windows NT environment, but these tools are not suitable for the UNIX-NT heterogeneous environment. In addition, these tools turn out to be difficult for administrators to use.

 An object of the present invention is to allow the execution of remote operations on NT machines from a central machine such as launching monitoring or administration actions.

 An object of the present invention is to allow more particularly the installation, updating or uninstallation of agents on NT machines from a machine provided with another operating system automatically.

 Another object of the present invention is to simplify the installation, updating or uninstallation of agents on NT machines from an NT machine.

Summary of the invention
In this context, the present invention proposes a method for automatically executing remote operations on target NT machines from a central machine in a computer system, characterized in that it consists in introducing a boot mechanism. in each target machine from an intermediate preinstallation machine, the bootstrap mechanism corresponding to the protocol used for the communication between the central machine and the target machine.

 The present invention also relates to the device for implementing said method.

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Presentation of figures
Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge in the light of the following description, given by way of illustrative and non-limiting example of the present invention, with reference to the appended drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view the system according to one embodiment of the invention; Figures 2 to 5 are screen shots showing an embodiment of display windows of a graphical interface of the system according to Figure 1; Figure 6 is a schematic view of the system according to Figure 1 wherein the steps of the method according to the invention are highlighted.

Description of an embodiment of the invention
As shown in the embodiment of the computer system 1 according to the invention illustrated in FIG. 1, the system 1 is distributed and composed of machines 2a, 2b, 2c organized in one or more networks 3.

A machine 2 is a very large conceptual unit, of a material and / or software nature. Only the components of the machines 2 of the system 1 characteristic of the present invention will be described, the other components being known to those skilled in the art.

 As shown in Figure 1, in the present invention, the computer system 1 comprises at least one machine 2a said machine 2a central, an intermediate machine 2b preinstallation, called in the following pre-installer 2b, at least one target machine 2c. The machine 2a

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 central is a workstation, a server or any other type of machine, and for example a server NT or UNIX administration (namely a server with Windows NTTI operating system or UNIT). The pre-installer 2b and the target machine 2c are NT servers. The pre-installer 2b may be constituted by a target machine 2c. It should be noted that the machines 2 are likely to be grouped together, for example, the central machine 2a and the pre-installer 2b can form a single machine if their operating system is identical (Windows NTTM ).

 As shown in FIG. 1, the pre-installer 2b comprises the following modules: a graphical interface that makes it possible to present to an administrator 5: the NT network neighborhood of the pre-installer 2b, namely all the domains (domain in FIGS. 4 and 5) and workgroups accessible from the pre-installer 2b; a domain is a set of NT machines managed by a domain controller and accessed from a network. A working group consists of one or more independent machines. Domains and workgroups contain target 2c machines. The network neighborhood therefore represents the set of target 2c machines accessible from the pre-installer 2b; - windows for displaying connection parameters (login) and configuration of target 2c machines; - installation results files displayed according to date criteria, machine names ...

 a motor 6 which remotely installs and automatically configures primers 7 in the target 2c machines; means 8 for storing a history called Log, such as a hard disk 8.

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 The administrator 5 controls the pre-installer 2b by means of a keyboard and a mouse or any other equivalent input means.

 Figures 2 to 5 show an exemplary embodiment of the display windows of the interface 4 offered to the administrator 5.

 The windows of FIGS. 2 and 3 allow the administrator 5 to enter the connection parameters respectively of the central machine 2a (in the example of FIG. 3, the OpenMaster machine) and of each target machine 2c (in the example of Figure 3, the machine Clog123).

 The display window illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 allows the administrator to select target 2c machines in the vicinity of the pre-installer 2b. It comprises: - a menu bar 9 containing the conventional menus for handling files, printing and access to the characteristics of the interface 4; a toolbar 10 offering shortcuts to the menus; a window 11 of objects presenting the network neighborhood of the pre-installer 2b, namely all the domains and workgroups, are target 2c machines accessible from the pre-installer and on which remote operations are likely to be executed; a window 12 of attributes having characteristics of the target machines 2c selected in the window 11 of objects to perform remote operations thereon. The characteristics of the selected machines are classified by tabs 13 and are for example the IP address (IP: Internet Protocol-IP address: address of a machine in a TCP / IP network) of the selected machine, its name ...

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 The target machines 2c comprise means 15 for storing the primer 7 such as a hard disk 15. The primer 7 is constituted by any means allowing the communication between the central machine 2a and the target machines 2c: in the example illustrated, the primer 7 is constituted by an action agent capable of communicating with the central machine 2a by the SNMP protocol. The primer 7 could also be constituted for example by any executable program searchable remotely. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the primer 7 comprises: means 16 for routing and management (means described in the patent FR2698461 / 9214021 filed on November 23, 1992 by the present applicant) constituted by an agent SNMP called referral agent 16 able to receive all SNMP requests and send them back to the SNMP agents concerned by the queries in question; the routing agent allows the use of a single standard SNMP port 161 for all SNMP agents; an action agent 17, an SNMP agent making it possible to locally launch operations on the target machine 2c such as the installation / reinstallation or the uninstallation of agents, the updating of the configuration of agents, the administration the target 2c machine concerned; the action agent 17 also makes it possible to repatriate the results of the operations on the pre-installer 2b.

 The method according to the invention consists in allowing the execution of remote operations from the central machine 2a on the target machines 2c by means of the pre-installer 2b.

 The method according to the invention consists in introducing into each target machine 2c, from the pre-installer 2b, a boot mechanism 7 which responds to a protocol used for the communication between the central machine 2a and the target machine, namely a protocol standard such as SNMP.

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 Figure 6 illustrates the different steps of the method according to the invention.

The method comprises the following steps:
1-In a first step (1), the administrator 5 installs a CD-ROM in the pre-installer 2b. The CD-ROM contains the graphical interface 4 and the engine 6 which contains the primer 7. In this way, when the process has set the primers 7 in place, the interface 4 and the engine 6 have fulfilled their function and can be easily removed from pre-installer 2b by removing the CD-ROM in question. No trace of the device according to the invention remains and the pre-installer is likely to be used for any other purpose such as for example as a target machine. After installing the CD, the administrator starts the engine 6: a process allowing the execution of the following steps starts in the pre-installer 2b. A process 6 is a running program. It corresponds to a logical sharing of the work in the operating system. The activity on a system is generated by the processes. It should be noted that a program is a passive entity contained in a file in memory while a process is an active entity performing functions provided in the program.

 2-The administrator 5 enters, in a second step (2), the information needed by the pre-installer 2b to install the primers 7 on the desired target machines 2c and inform the central machine 2a.

The engine 6 installed as a process in the pre-installer 2b initiates the automatic detection of domains and / or workgroups, 2c target machines are recognized on the network 3 and accessible from the pre-installer 2b. To do this, the engine 6 uses standard programming interfaces (API) discovery, called network neighborhood. It can be expected to manually add target machines to all machines automatically found by the graphical interface 4.

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The graphic interface 4 installed from the CD-ROM in the previous step requires, through the display window represented in FIG. 2, the connection name (login-in the example shown OpenMaster administrator and the password (OpenMaster password) of the central machine 2a and the directory (Openmaster directory) of the central machine 2a in which the administrator wishes to place the information Once the information has been entered, the graphical interface presents all the domains and workgroups found automatically to the administrator 5 by means of the window illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.

The administrator selects the domains and / or workgroups in the window 11 of objects and in these domains and / or workgroups, the target machines 2c on which he wishes to operate. The administrator can manually add other target 2c machines that would not have been found automatically. The selected target machines 2c appear in the attribute window 12. The administrator 5 indicates, through the display window illustrated in FIG. 3, for each selected target machine 2c the password of said machine and the working directory in which the administrator wishes to install the primer 7. If the administrator does not communicate a directory, the engine 6 searches for the most appropriate directory for the installation of the boot according to criteria such as the size of the directory and installs it on a directory by default.

 3-The pre-installer 2b having acquired all the necessary information initializes, in a third step (3) in Figure 6, the installation of the primer 7 on each machine 2c target: the pre-installer carries out a preinstallation. To do this, the engine 6 shares an NT resource, namely shareable storage means on the network by other machines than the pre-installer himself; the resource is constituted by the means 15 for storing the selected target machines 2c. In the sharing operation, the engine 6 extracts the name of the storage means 15 with the full path of the directory in which the installation files will be stored.

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 recopied. The engine 6 then mounts the means 15 for storing the target machines on the pre-installer 2b. The editing operation consists in allocating to the storage means the name of the local storage means of the pre-installer 2b and for example the name of a local disk to the pre-installer; in this manner, the pre-installer 2b considers the remote storage means of each target machine 2c as a local shared resource.

Engine 6 copies the installation files needed to install boot 7 into the shared resource directory. Installation files are primarily the executable files that the action agent launches when an operation is required. The installation files are used for boot 7 and administration of the target 2c machines. As an example of an installation file used for boot 7, the preinst file. exe updates a silent setup file. iss as it will be seen below. As an example of an installation file used to administer the target 2c machines, the installer install file. exe installs or uninstalls agents in target 2c machines.

For each agent to be installed in the target machines, the engine edits a setup file. iss necessary to silent mode of known software INSTALLSHIELDTM. Silent mode is a mode in which the parameters required for launch are automatically indicated by entered or default values. The setup file. iss contains all the responses to the windows for the parameters specific to the installation of the agents, such as the name and IP address of the central machine and the name, password, IP address and path complete installation directory (directory in which the installation files are saved) of the target machine.

 4-The next step (step (4) in Figure 6) consists of the installation of the primer 7 in the target machines, and in this case, the installation of a switching agent 16 and an action agent. Engine 6 launches the known INSTALLSHIELDTM software on the shared resource that it considers

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comme local et avec pour paramètres de lancement les informations saisies par l'administrateur 5 au moyen de l'interface 4. Le logiciel installe et configure les agents 16 d'aiguillage et 17 d'action sur chacune des machines 2c cibles, en mode silencieux. L'installation et la configuration des agents 16 d'aiguillage et 17 d'action consiste en la copie des fichiers des agents 16 et 17 de l'amorce 7 dans les moyens 15 de stockage, la mise à jour du registre Windows (appelé Registry) dans chacune des machines 2c cible, et le lancement des services associés aux agents 16 et 17 de l'amorce 7. Il est à noter que le logiciel INSTALLSHIELD peut installer l'amorce 7 sur le préinstalleur 2b. Le logiciel INSTALLSHIELD produit des compte-rendus d'installation dans un fichier setup. log enregistré dans les moyens 8 de mémorisation. L'interface 4 graphique du préinstalleur 2b scrute périodiquement le résultat de l'installation dans le fichier Log setup. log en recherchant le statut de l'installation dans le fichier et extrait le code du résultat : dans l'exemple illustré, 0 si tout s'est bien déroulé ; < > O si l'installation a échoué. L'interface 4 graphique présente les résultats de l'installation à l'administrateur 5 au fur et à mesure de celle-ci.

as local and with as launching parameters the information entered by the administrator 5 by means of the interface 4. The software installs and configures the routing and switching agents 16 on each of the target machines 2c, in silent mode . The installation and configuration of the referral and action agents 16 consists of copying the files of the agents 16 and 17 of the primer 7 into the storage means 15, the update of the Windows register (called Registry ) in each of the target machines 2c, and the launch of the services associated with the agents 16 and 17 of the primer 7. It should be noted that the INSTALLSHIELD software can install the primer 7 on the pre-installer 2b. INSTALLSHIELD software produces installation reports in a setup file. log recorded in the storage means 8. The graphical interface 4 of the pre-installer 2b periodically polls the result of the installation in the Log setup file. log looking for the status of the installation in the file and extract the result code: in the example shown, 0 if everything went well; <> O if the installation failed. The graphical interface 4 presents the results of the installation to the administrator 5 as and when it occurs.

5-In the next step (step (5) in FIG. 6), the pre-installer 2b returns by encoding them to the central machine 2a information relating to the installation of the agents on each of the target machines 2c. The information, in the illustrated embodiment, is the name of the target machine, its IP address, the login name and the password of a user (known physical person of the target machine concerned who has rights to launch services) of said target machine. The pre-installer 2b groups said information into a file that it codes and then sends by the known FTP protocol (File Transfer Protocol-File Transfer Protocol over TCP / IP networks) to the central machine 2a. The transmitted information enables the central machine 2a to maintain an inventory of the target machines 2c for which a primer 7 has been installed.

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 6-In a final step (6) (FIG. 6), once the installation has been completed, the method consists in cleaning the pre-installer 2b so as to keep no trace of the installation. To perform the cleaning, the engine 6 destroys all temporary installation files. The engine 6 dismounts the storage means 15 and erases the shared resource in the pre-installer 2b. Finally, the CD is removed. In this way, the pre-installer machine 2b can be used for any other purpose and for example as a target machine 2c.

The log file giving the results of the installation is made available to the administrator 5.

It should be noted that all the means allowing the setting up of the primers 7 on the machines 2c are on the CD-ROM.

 A listing file of the installed agents is likely to be provided in the central machine 2a. The file includes the name of each target machine 2c correspondingly with the list of agents installed in said machine with their version. The action agent of each target machine 2c returns to the central machine 2a the information necessary to fill said file. The file allows the central machine 2a to control the version of an agent installed on a given target 2c machine before installing a new agent and thus avoid double installation if the latest version of the new agent is already installed.

 When the final step ends, the central machine 2a can initiate operations on the selected target machines 2c during installation. The machine 2a can deploy agents (namely, install, uninstall, and list on the target 2c machines) for administering the target 2c machines.

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 The central machine 2a communicates remote operation requests to the target machines 2c. The action agent 17 receives said requests such as requests for installation, uninstallation or update operations. However, the action agent 17 can not launch its own reinstallation, uninstallation or update operation. Indeed, Windows NTTM systems refuse to modify an executable file running in memory.

 The file in the storage means 15 is called OAA. EXE (OAA for OpenAgent Action-Action Agent). The process running in RAM following the launch of the action agent (OAA.EXE) is called POAA. The Windows NT system refuses to modify or destroy OAA. EXE as POAA runs.

 The present invention consists in: 1-Renaming the OAA file. EXE in OAAold. EXE in the storage means; 2-Copy the new OAA. EXE in the storage means; 3-Stop the current process POAA; 4-Restart POAA from the new OAA file. EXE (new version); 5-Delete the old file renamed OAAold. exe what is now possible because the process POAA relative to this version of the file in the storage means has been stopped.

 In this way, the central machine 2a can launch any type of remote operation on the target machines 2c.

 With the present invention, the installation of 5 agents on 100 NT server machines requires only about 1 man. week. Moreover, in the present invention, it is time masked since the administrator

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 Once the CD-ROM is installed, the process launched, and the display windows filled, it no longer intervenes and can therefore perform other tasks.

 The present invention therefore relates to a method for automatically executing remote operations on target 2c NT machines from a central machine 2a in a computer system 3, characterized in that it consists in introducing a mechanism for seed 7 in each target machine 2c from an intermediate preinstallation machine 2b, the bootstrap mechanism corresponding to the protocol used for the communication between the central machine 2a and the target machine 2c.

 The method is by means of the pre-installation machine 2b to share a resource, to mount storage means remote from the target machines 2c on the shared resource of the machine 2b, and to install the boot 7 on the remote shared resource considered. as local by the preinstallation 2b machine.

 The method consists in installing on the shared resource, before the installation of the primer 7, installation files used for the primer 7 and / or the administration of the target machines 2c.

 The method includes installing the primer mechanism 7 as an action agent in each of the target machines 2c.

 The method consists of using the pre-installation machine 2b to enter information from an administrator 5, to detect the machines 2c likely to communicate with the preinstallation machine 2b and to present them to the administrator 5, to enter the machines on which the administrator wishes to operate.

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 The method consists in scanning during the installation of the primer 7 a file containing the results of the installation and to communicate said information to an administrator 5 and / or to said central machine 2a.

 The method consists in launching the installation of the primer from a CD-ROM introduced in the preinstallation machine 2b in which the entire installation process is included.

 The method consists, after installation of the primer 7, to clean the pre-installation machine 2b to keep no trace of the installation.

 The present invention also relates to the device capable of implementing said method.

 The present invention relates to a device for automatically executing remote operations on target NT machines from a central machine in a computer system, characterized in that it comprises a preinstallation machine in which are introduced:. a graphical interface to communicate with an administrator; * An engine to remotely install and automatically configure primers in target machines.

 The device comprises means 8 for storing a history of the installation of the primer 7.

 The present invention also relates to the software module introduced into the preinstallation machine 2b in the computer system 3 capable of implementing said method.

Claims (12)

 CLAIMS 1. A method for automatically executing remote operations on target NT machines (2c) from a central machine (2a) in a computer system (3), characterized in that it consists in introducing a mechanism primer (7) in each target machine (2c) from an intermediate preinstallation machine (2b), the initiation mechanism corresponding to the protocol used for the communication between the central machine (2a) and the machine (2c) ) target. 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of the pre-installation machine (2b) to share a resource, to mount means (15) for remote storage of the machines (2c) targets on the shared resource of the machine (2b), and to install the primer (7) on the remote shared resource considered local by the preinstallation machine (2b). 3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that it consists in installing on the shared resource, before the installation of the primer (7), installation files used for the primer (7) and / or to the administration of the machines (2c) targets. 4. Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it consists in installing the initiation mechanism (7) in the form of an agent (17) action in each of the machines (2c) targets . 5. Method according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it consists of the pre-installation machine (2b) to enter information from an administrator (5), to detect the machines (2c) susceptible to communicate with the pre-installation machine (2b) and the <Desc / Clms Page number 17>  present to the administrator (5) to enter the machines on which the administrator (5) wishes to operate.

6. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it consists in scanning during the installation of the primer (7) a file containing the results of the installation and to communicate said information to an administrator (5) and / or said central machine (2a). 7. Method according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it consists in initiating the installation of the primer from a CD-ROM introduced in the machine (2b) preinstallation in which the entire installation process is included. 8. Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it consists, after installation of the primer (7), to clean the machine (2b) preinstallation to keep no trace of the installation. Apparatus for automatically executing at least one processor and memory remote operations on target NT machines (2c) from a central machine (2a) in a system (3) ), characterized in that it comprises means using at least said processor and said memory for implementing the method according to one of claims 1 to 8. Device for automatically executing remote operations on target NT machines (2c) from a central machine (2a) in a computer system (3), characterized in that it comprises a machine (2b) in which are introduced: * a graphical interface (4) for communicating with an administrator (5); a motor (6) for remotely installing and configuring primers (7) in target machines (2c). <Desc / Clms Page number 18> 11. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that it comprises means (8) for storing a history of the installation of the primer (7). A software module introduced into a pre-installation machine (2b) in a computer system (3), comprising portions / means / program code instructions for performing the steps of the method according to one of claims 1 to 8 when said program is executed in the computer system.