System and method for sharing storage to boot multiple servers
First Claim
1. An information handling system with shared boot storage, the information handling system comprising:
- first and second servers;
shared storage in communication with the first and second servers;
a shared operating-system storage subdivision in the shared storage containing substantially unmodified operating-system data;
first and second delta storage subdivisions in the shared storage, wherein the first delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the first server, and the second delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the second server;
one or more delta drivers in communication with the shared storage, wherein the one or more delta drivers use the shared operating-system storage subdivision and the first and second delta storage subdivisions to provide first and second virtual storage subdivisions for booting first and second instances of an operating system for the first and second servers, respectively, such that the first instance of the operating system may be configured differently from the second instance of the operating system.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An information handling system includes first and second servers in communication with shared storage. The shared storage may include a shared operating-system storage subdivision containing unmodified operating system data, well as first and second delta storage subdivisions containing operating-system data configured for the first and second servers, respectively. The information handling system may also include one or more delta drivers that use the shared operating-system storage subdivision and the first and second delta storage subdivisions to provide first and second virtual storage subdivisions for booting first and second instances of an operating system, where each instance may be configured differently for each server. For example, for operations from the first server involving modified and unmodified portions of the first virtual storage subdivision, the delta driver may automatically access the first delta storage subdivision and the shared operating-system storage subdivision, respectively.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An information handling system with shared boot storage, the information handling system comprising:
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first and second servers;
shared storage in communication with the first and second servers;
a shared operating-system storage subdivision in the shared storage containing substantially unmodified operating-system data;
first and second delta storage subdivisions in the shared storage, wherein the first delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the first server, and the second delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the second server;
one or more delta drivers in communication with the shared storage, wherein the one or more delta drivers use the shared operating-system storage subdivision and the first and second delta storage subdivisions to provide first and second virtual storage subdivisions for booting first and second instances of an operating system for the first and second servers, respectively, such that the first instance of the operating system may be configured differently from the second instance of the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An information handling system capable of booting a custom-configured instance of an operating system from shared storage, wherein the shared storage contains a shared operating-system storage subdivision, a first delta storage subdivision associated with the information handling system, and a second delta storage subsystem associated with a different information handling system, and wherein the first delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the information handling system, and the second delta storage subdivision contains modified operating-system data configured for the different information handling system, the information handling system comprising:
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one or more central processing units (CPUs);
random access memory (RAM) in communication with the one or more CPUs; and
a delta driver in communication with the shared storage, wherein the delta driver uses the shared operating-system storage subdivision and the first delta storage subdivision to provide a virtual storage subdivision for the first server, such that the delta driver supports booting the custom-configured instance of the operating system on the first server from the shared storage, wherein the shared storage also supports booting the different information handling system to a different custom-configured instance of the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A method of booting an information handling system to a custom-configured instance of an operating system from shared storage, the method comprising:
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during a boot process for an information handling system, automatically consulting delta driver configuration data to identify which delta storage subdivision among multiple delta storage subdivisions in shared storage is associated with the information handling system, wherein the multiple delta storage subdivisions contain modified operating-system data configured for respective information handling systems;
using a delta driver in communication with the shared storage to provide a first virtual storage subdivision for the information handling system, based on a shared operating-system storage subdivision in the shared storage containing substantially unmodified operating-system data and the delta storage subdivision in the shared storage identified as associated with the information handling system; and
booting an instance of the operating-system configured for the information handling system into the information handling system from the virtual storage subdivision. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification