SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPDATING NETWORK APPLIANCES USING URGENT UPDATE NOTIFICATION

摘要

The invention provides a system and method for updating network appliances using urgent update notifications. The network appliances periodically initiates connection to "poll" updates from the update server and the update server collects IP addresses from the connections and updates an IP address log. The update server obtains updates for the network appliances and determines whether a particular update is urgent. When an urgent update is available, the server delivers an urgent update notification (UUN) to each known network appliance through an existing port used for messaging. Each network appliance receives the UUN and distinguishes it from other messages. In response to the UUN, each network appliance automatically connects to the server, obtains the urgent update and installs the urgent update.