Patent ID: 8959325
Filing Date: 2015-02-17
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for booting devices in a multi-card computing system comprising a plurality of cards connected to a shared backplane, the method comprising: dynamically generating a Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for at least some of the devices in the computing system, the dynamically generated MAC address for each device including information regarding a location of that device on one of the plurality of cards connected to the shared backplane within the multi-card computing system; at a boot management system on a particular card, receiving a boot-related information request from a requesting device in the multi-card system, the boot-related information request comprising a request for particular boot-related information for a boot process for the requesting device, and the boot-related information request including the MAC address of the requesting device; at the boot management system on the particular card, determining whether the boot management system is an assigned boot server for the requesting device based at least on the information in the MAC address regarding the location of the requesting device within the multi-card computing system, the requesting device having only one assigned boot server among a plurality of boot servers within the multi-card system; and sending a response with the particular boot-related information from the boot management system to the requesting device only if the boot management system is determined to be the assigned boot server for the requesting device.