Patent ID: 7478230

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a plurality of computers including a provisioning computer; a plurality of storage devices which store boot images to boot said plurality of computers individually, the boot images including operating systems; a first storage device which stores a status of each of said plurality of computers; and a second storage device which stores information indicative of a correspondence between each of said plurality of storage devices and a computer booted by each of the boot images stored in the storage devices, wherein each of said plurality of computers except the provisioning computer includes: a failed computer search unit configured to search the computer system for a failed computer, wherein: the failed computer search unit on the failed computer is defined as a service to be taken over to a computer other than the provisioning computer and the failed computer; a provisioning computer search unit configured to select the provisioning computer in accordance with the status of each of said plurality of computers stored in the first storage device, the provisioning computer being used in place of the failed computer when the failed computer search unit detects the failed computer; a boot image selecting unit configured to select a storage device in accordance with the information stored in the second storage device, the storage device storing a boot image to boot the provisioning computer selected by the provisioning computer search unit when the failed computer search unit detects the failed computer; and a boot unit configured to boot the provisioning computer selected by the provisioning computer search unit using the boot image stored in the storage device selected by the boot image selecting unit.