Technique for reliable network booting of an operating system to a client computer
US5974547A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 20, 1998 |
| Grant date | Oct 26, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 20, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/4416
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A technique, specifically apparatus and accompanying methods, for use in a client-server environment for booting an operating system (O/S), such as a 32-bit personal computer (PC) O/S, on a client computer through a networked connection to a server. Specifically, the server stores an image of a client hard disk including the client O/S and desired applications. During a boot process, a procedure, which is compliant with both an interrupt handler in the client and a network driver kernel in the client O/S, is installed in the client. Based on client O/S resources then available when, during the boot process, the client requests a local hard disk access to a particular sector, the procedure will re-direct that request, to the network file server, through a network driver kernel in the client O/S rather than through a client interrupt handler. Each such request is processed, to provide physical sector read or write access, through my inventive random access trivial file transfer protocol (RATFTP) server executing in the network server. Advantageously, the source of the sectors remains transparent to the client O/S, while it is being booted from a network connection, in lieu of a local…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.