Patent ID: 8271772

Claim:
A boot control method for a computer system which comprises two or more computers, including at least one standby computer, and a management computer for controlling the computers, wherein: each of the computers is equipped with an Ethernet controller and executes booting of a software image including an operating system of the computer by use of unique identification information, the unique identification information having been assigned to the Ethernet controller necessary for connecting a device adapted to a SCSI protocol to the computer via a network in which communication according to TCP/IP is possible, and the management computer manages the unique identification information assigned to the Ethernet controller of each computer, and when any failure has occurred to an active computer, the management computer sets the unique identification information which has been assigned to the Ethernet controller of the computer having the failure to the Ethernet controller of the standby computer and the standby computer boots up the software image for the computer having the failure by use of the unique identification information which has been set to its Ethernet controller by the management computer, wherein the management computer previously checks whether there exists overlap in the unique identification information being managed and inhibits the booting of a computer using overlapped unique identification information when overlap is found.