KR100575996B1 - How to Upgrade Image Files to Run the System - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method of upgrading an image file for driving network equipment in a network communication system. The image file upgrade method according to the present invention includes a process of duplexing and storing an image file for driving in an internal memory of a network device, renaming any one of the duplicated image files to a temporary file, and the temporary file. Downloading an image file for upgrading from an external server through the process, and if an error occurs during the download process, and decompressing the other one of the redundant image file to drive the network device.

Description

How to Upgrade Image Files to Run the System

The present invention relates to a method of upgrading an image file for driving a system, and more particularly, to a method of upgrading an image file of a network device by downloading an image file from a TFTP server using a flash memory.

In general, network devices such as an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch, Ethernet Switch, Router, Hub, and the like store programs for operating the system. In this case, the program is usually implemented as an image file, which is stored in a memory such as a personal communication memory card international association (PCMCIA) flash card.

On the other hand, the upgrade of the image file required for the operation of the network device is downloaded to the flash card from the server (SERVER) connected to the network device is processed. At this time, the server typically downloads an image file for upgrading to a flash card of a network device using TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol). A connection configuration of a network system in which a server (hereinafter referred to as "TFTP server") downloads an image file to an ATM switch using TFTP is shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, the TFTP server 100 downloads an image file for upgrading each board to a MCU (Maintenance & Control Unit) board 210 of the ATM switch 200. At this time, the image file from the TFTP server 100 is downloaded to the flash card 30 of the MCU board 210 and stored. The central processing unit (CPU) 10 reads the image file downloaded and stored in the flash card 30, decompresses it, loads it into a random access memory (RAM) 20, and then executes the code. Start up the system by starting it, starting the operating system (OS), and initializing the device driver. In addition, the CPU 10 reads an image file for upgrading the subscriber boards 220 and 230 from the image file stored in the flash card 30, decompresses the file, and then uses the IPC (Inter-Processor Communication) to extract the file. By transmitting to the boards 220 and 230, the subscriber board is driven.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an operation according to the prior art of downloading a new image file to a network device of a network system as shown in FIG. 1 and upgrading an image file previously stored in the network device. This prior art upgrade operation is called a " image backup method ". In the following description, it should be noted that a program required for driving a network device, that is, an image file name "MCU.Z" is taken as an example.

Referring to FIG. 2, an existing image file is stored in the PCMCIA flash card 200 mounted on the MCU board 210 at step S200. In this state, if there is a new image file for upgrading in the TFTP server 100, the CPU 10 of the MCU board 210 is a temporary file to store a new image called MCU.tmp in the file system of the flash card 30 To generate (S201, step S203). Then, the image file from the TFTP server 100 is downloaded to the MCU.tmp file in a predetermined size unit (for example, 512 bytes).

If the download is not completed by the external mask during the download process, the MCU.tmp file is deleted and the existing MCU.Z file is renamed as MCU.old file. It does not lose and remains as an existing MCU.Z file (steps S204 and S205).

On the other hand, when the download is completed, the CPU 10 renames the existing MCU.Z file to MCU.old. If the download completes successfully without errors, rename the MCU.tmp file to the MCU.Z file. (Step S204, S206)

Next, the CPU 10 of the MCU board 210 reads the MCU.Z file downloaded to the flash card 30, decompresses it, and loads the file into RAM (usually DRAM) 20. The system is driven by starting the execution code, starting the operating system (OS), and initializing the device driver (step S207). When the system is normally driven, the flash card 30 stores the newly upgraded image file MCU.Z.

On the other hand, when the system is not successfully driven, that is, when a loading error or a system driving error occurs, a task of recovering the image file is required. In other words, when a bug occurs after loading the DRAM, it is necessary to restore the image file by renaming the existing MCU.old file from pSH to MCU.Z file.

As described above, the method of upgrading an image file of a network device, that is, an image backup method, is troublesome that an operator needs to restore an existing image file on pSH when a problem occurs in driving a system. More specifically, rename the MCU.old file to the MCU.Z file to restore the existing image file. At this time, there is a fatal problem that there is a dead time in which the system cannot be operated as much as the time required to recover a file as well as the user's trouble. This problem results in a significant decrease in the reliability of the system.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for eliminating the inconvenience that an operator must experience when upgrading an image file of a network device.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for reducing dead time existing when upgrading an image file of a network device.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for preventing the reliability of a system from being degraded due to an error occurring when upgrading an image file of a network device.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of upgrading an image file, including: storing a duplicate image file for driving in an internal memory of a network device; After renaming one file to a temporary file and downloading an image file for upgrade from an external server through this temporary file, and if an error occurs during the download, after decompressing one of the redundant image files The process of driving the network equipment.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method for upgrading an image file for driving the network equipment in a network system consisting of a TFTP server and a network equipment, the first image of the existing image file in the network equipment A first process of duplexing and storing a file and a second image file, a second process of determining whether an image file for upgrade exists in the TFTP server, and an image file for upgrade exists in the TFTP server Deleting the first image file, renaming the second image file to the first file, and generating a temporary file; and downloading an image file for upgrading from the TFTP server through the temporary file. A fourth process, and a fifth process of renaming the temporary file to a second file if the download is successful; The second process is to decompress and then load the second file to drive the network equipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, the terms to be described below are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, which may vary according to the intention or custom of the user or chip designer, and the definitions should be made based on the contents throughout the present specification.

3 is a view illustrating a structure of a PCMCIA flash card for an image file upgrade operation according to the present invention, in which the image file is stored in a redundancy scheme. That is, the flash card 30 of the present invention is divided into two regions 32 and 34 for storing image files, and the same image files MCU1.Z and MCU2.Z are stored in each region. The image file MCU.Z is a function supported by the MCU < RTI ID = 0.0 > (Monitoring & Control Unit) < / RTI > board 210 that controls the overall operation of the ATM switch as a network device 200 (e.g., BSP (Board Support Package). Gzip compressed image file with)).

As described above, the present invention will be described with an example in which the network device 200 is an ATM switch having the configuration as shown in FIG. 1 and the image file is "MCU.Z" as an example. However, the present invention may be applied even when the network device 200 is not an ATM switch, and it should be noted that an image file may be named differently by an operator.

FIG. 4 is a view showing various flags FLAG provided for an image file upgrade operation according to the present invention. In the present invention, four flags B11, B12, B21, and B22 are used. The B11 flag indicates whether an existing image file exists (MCU1_IMG_Exist). The B12 flag indicates whether the existing image file has been successfully downloaded (MCU1_DL_Succ). The B21 flag indicates whether the upgraded image file exists (MCU2_IMG_Exist). The B22 flag indicates whether the upgraded image file has been successfully downloaded (MCU2_DL_Succ). Bits of the respective flags are set to "1" when indicating a corresponding item, and "0" when not indicating. In addition, the bit values of the flags are allocated to a space of the memory such that the bit values of the flags are stored in an empty space of a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).

5 is a view illustrating an operation of upgrading an image file according to the present invention, and shows how image files MCU1.Z and MCU2.Z stored in the PCMCIA flashcard 30 of FIG. 1 are processed when the image file is upgraded. . Referring to FIG. 5, the present invention stores the image file in the flash card 30 in a redundant manner, so that an error occurs while downloading the image file for upgrade and driving the system (step 511). The system can be directly driven using the image file MCU1.Z (step 512 of FIG. 5).

6 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of an image file upgrade operation according to the present invention. The operation of the image file upgrade to be described below assumes that an existing error-free image file MCU1.Z exists.

First, the CPU 10 of the MCU board 210 of FIG. 1 communicates with the TFTP server 100 to determine whether a new image file for upgrading exists (steps 600 and 601). When there is a new image file for upgrading in the TFTP server 100, the CPU 10 checks the value of the B21 (MCU2_IMG_Exist) bit of the NVRAM (step 602). If the MCU2.Z file exists (when the bit value of B21 is "1"), the CPU 10 deletes the existing MCU1.Z file (step 603), and converts the MCU2.Z file into the MCU1.Z file. Rename (step 604). Thereafter, the MCU2.tmp file is generated to download a new image file, and the new image file is downloaded from the TFTP server 100 through the MCU2.tmp file in units of 512 bytes (step 605).

If it is determined that the download is successfully completed (step 606), the CPU 10 renames the MCU2.tmp file to the MCU2.Z file (step 607), and decompresses the file and loads it into the DRAM (step 609, Step 610). Thereafter, a process of starting an operating system (OS) and initializing a device driver is performed in step 611.

If the image file is not downloaded correctly (an error occurs) due to an error caused by an interrupt during the download, the existing MCU1.Z file is pointed and used (step 608). As such, when the image file is dual and the download of the new image file is not performed properly, the existing standard image file can be used to drive the system.

If an error occurs during the DRAM loading process while the image file is completely downloaded and decompressed, the CPU 10 sets the B22 (MCU2_DL_Succ) bit in the MCU2 area of the NVRAM to a value of "0" to load the MCU2.Z image file. It indicates that the image cannot be performed (step 613), and finds the latest image file (MCU1.Z) (step 614) to decompress and load the image into the DRAM (step 609 and step 610).

If no error occurs, the CPU 10 sets the B22 (MCU2_DL_Succ) bit and the B21 (MCU2_IMG_Exist) bit to a value of "1" to indicate that the MCU2.Z image file is an image file that can be executed without error (615). Step) End.

As described above, since the present invention uses a method of upgrading software using an image file in most network equipments, an image file of a redundancy concept using a dual image file in a recovery format of an existing image file using an existing backup method. Management is performed. Accordingly, the present invention can reduce the instantaneous failure of the system that can occur when an error occurs, the hassle of manual operation, and above all has the advantage of improving the reliability of the system.

Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention has described an example in which the network equipment is an ATM switch and an image file from a TFTP server is downloaded to a PCMCIA flash card. However, the present invention can be applied to other network equipment, and can also be applied to downloading image files through most flash memories. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

1 is a view showing the configuration of a network system to which the present invention is applied.

2 illustrates an operation of upgrading an image file according to the prior art.

3 is a view showing that the image file is duplicated and stored in the flash card for the image file upgrade operation according to the present invention.

4 is a view showing various flag bits provided for an image file upgrade operation according to the present invention;

5 illustrates an operation of upgrading an image file in accordance with the present invention.

6 is a view showing a processing flow of an image file upgrade operation according to the present invention;

Claims (6)

In the method of upgrading an image file for use in a network device, Duplicating and storing two image files having different file names and the same software in a single memory of the network device; In case of upgrading the software, changing a file name of one of the two image files into a temporary file and downloading the upgraded software from an external server through the temporary file; If an error occurs while performing a download, decompressing one of the duplicated image files and then driving the network device. In a method for upgrading an image file for driving the network equipment in a network system consisting of a TFTP server and network equipment, A first process of duplicating an existing image file in the network device with a different file name and duplication into a first image file and a second image file of the same software and storing the same image file in a single memory; A second step of determining whether an image file for upgrading exists in the TFTP server; A third process of deleting the first image file, renaming the second image file to a first file, and creating a temporary file when an image file for upgrading exists in the TFTP server; A fourth step of downloading an image file for upgrading from the TFTP server through the temporary file; A fifth step of renaming the temporary file to a second file if the download is successful; And decompressing and loading the second file to drive the network device. 6. The method of claim 2, further comprising: driving the network device by using the first file when an error occurs during the fourth process. The method of claim 2, further comprising: driving the network device using the first file when an error occurs during the sixth process. The method of claim 2, wherein the first image file and the second image file are stored in a PCMCIA flash card of the network device. The method of claim 2, wherein the first image file and the second image file are stored in a flash memory.