Patent ID: 8423990

Claim:
A method for installing software onto a client under a Network Installation Management (NIM) environment, said NIM environment comprising a NIM server that provides resources desired for installing and maintaining the software on the client and at least one said client, the method comprising: initializing said client, wherein a virtual mapping device associated with a memory driver of the client is created; running said software on the client; conducting data migration operation from the NIM server to the client while running said software, wherein the migrated data is the resource data obtained from NIM server and desired for installing said software; the software installation being completed when all the data desired for installing said software are migrated to the memory driver of the client; and the method for installing software onto a client, wherein the virtual mapping device created is used for scheduling between the client's memory driver and a remote NIM server with respect to an I/O operation for running software so as to direct said I/O operation for running software to the client's memory driver or the remote NIM server.