Patent ID: 8555048

Claim:
A computer system comprising non-transitory media encoded with: physical boot data including a prioritized list of storage-location entries including a higher-ranking storage-location entry and a lower-ranking storage-location entry having a lower ranking than said higher-ranking storage-location entry, each of said storage-location entries identifying a respective storage location to be searched for an operating-system image; and EFI firmware configured to, when executed by a processor, in response to receipt of incomplete virtual boot data from a resource manager, if said incomplete virtual boot data does not match said higher-ranking storage-location entry and does not match said lower-ranking storage-location entry, searching a storage location identified by said higher-ranking storage location entry before searching a storage location identified by said lower-ranking storage-location entry for said operating-system image, if said incomplete virtual boot data does not match said higher ranking storage-location entry and does match said lower ranking storage-location entry, searching a storage location identified by said lower-ranking storage location entry before searching a storage location identified by said higher-ranking storage-location entry for said operating-system image; said EFI firmware being further configured to send complete virtual boot data to said resource manager, said complete virtual boot data corresponding to a matching storage-location entry; said incomplete virtual boot data specifying source and target world-wide names and a logical unit number but not a file name; and said complete virtual boot data specifying said source and target world-wide names, a logical unit number, and a file name used by said EFI firmware to locate an operating-system image.