Patent ID: 8417992
Filing Date: 2013-04-09
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A distributed system configurable to communicate in a network, the distributed system comprising: a plurality of computational devices coupled via the network; a distributed operating system controlling the plurality of computation devices; and a storage partition that stores the distributed operating system and a backup copy of the distributed operating system, wherein the distributed system performs: presenting to a user, by a boot loader at Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) boot time, an option to enter a special setup mode prior to a distributed operating system being loaded; determining, by the boot loader, whether the user has selected the option to enter the special setup mode, in response to the presenting of the option to the user; in response determining that the user has selected the option to enter the special setup mode, loading, by the boot loader, a backup copy of the distributed operating system; and rebooting the plurality of computational devices with the loaded backup copy of the distributed operating system, wherein the distributed system further performs: executing, a recovery application, over a native file system driver; in response to determining that a disk block location of the backup copy of the distributed operating system has changed to a new disk block location, storing, by the recovery application, the new disk block location for the boot loader; and in response to a command from an originator, to alter the backup copy of the distributed operating system, sending, by the recovery application, a message to the originator of the command that no alteration of the backup copy of the operating system is possible.