Patent ID: 8069368

Claim:
A method in a computer system including a plurality of servers which are connected to an external disk device via a network device and to an external network, wherein each of said servers can be started by booting an operating system from said external disk device, and a management server for managing said plurality of servers, and causing processing of a task of a primary server on some other server in said computer system, said method implemented by said management server comprising the steps of: acquiring configuration information including hardware information and network information of said plurality of servers; specifying a logical disk of said primary server, said logical disk being utilized by said primary server for booting; determining a secondary server belonging to a same network that said primary server belongs to, from among said plurality of servers based on said configuration information of said primary server and said configuration information of the other servers of said plurality of servers; shutting down said primary server; enabling said secondary server to access the same logical disk for booting that has been utilized by said primary server; and booting said secondary server from said same logical disk.