Patent ID: 7814274

Claim:
A method for remote booting of at least one server from at least one of a plurality of remote disks in a data center, the at least one server being connected to a Fibre Channel Switched Fabric (FC-SW) through at least one host bus adapter (HBA), the HBA being assigned a fixed, physical World Wide Name (WWN), the at least one of the plurality of remote disks being managed by at least one storage device, the at least one storage device and the at least one server in the data center are physical devices communicating over the Fibre Channel Switched Fabric, the at least one server, the at least one storage device and the Fibre Channel Switched Fabric constituting a Storage Area Network (SAN), the data center comprising at least one boot controller, the at least one boot controller being connected to the at least one server through a control network, the method comprising the steps of: a. dynamically selecting a server image, based on the requirements of the data center, the server image being selected for remote booting of the at least one server, the server image being located on the at least one of the plurality of remote disks, the server image being associated with a Virtual World Wide Name (WWN), the Virtual WWN being independent of the physical WWN of any server in the SAN, wherein the Virtual WWN being used by the server to establish communications on the FC-SW constitutes the SAN for the duration of time the selected server image is operated on the server; b. dynamically assigning the at least one virtual World Wide Name (WWN) to the at least one of the plurality of remote disks connected to the Fibre Channel Switched Fabric on the SAN, the at least one virtual WWN assigned to the at least one of the plurality of remote disks being independent and mutually exclusive of a physical identity of the at least one of the plurality of remote disks; c. dynamically mapping the assigned virtual WWN to the at least one server, the at least one server connected to the Fibre Channel Switched Fabric on the SAN, the dynamic mapping authorizing the at least one server to access the at least one of the plurality of remote disks to boot the at least one server, the at least one virtual WWN mapped onto the at least one server being independent and mutually exclusive of a physical WWN of the at least one server; and d. remotely booting the at least one server from the selected server image by using the at least one virtual WWN, the at least one virtual WWN representing a virtual identity to uniquely identify the physical devices present on the SAN, wherein the at least one boot controller facilitates dynamic, non-persistent binding between the at least one server and the at least one of plurality of the remote disks by using the at least one virtual WWN, for remote booting of the at least one server.