Switching versions of software in a system background

摘要

A multi-node parallel processing system includes modules to perform version switching of software. In one arrangement, the operating system running in each node of the parallel processing is a WINDOWS TM operating system. While one software version is running in the system, another version may be installed and stored in a different versioned directory. The installed software version may be marked as the desired version. If a version switch is to be performed, version switch software instances may be launched in each of the nodes. The version switch software instances then determine which of the nodes in the parallel processing system are available to perform the version switch. One of the version switch software instances is marked as the master instance. The master instance accesses the nodes (identified as available to perform the version switch) in the system to determine if a version switch is to be performed. If so, the current running software version is stopped and unloaded and the new version loaded. <IMAGE>