Patent ID: 7363374

Claim:
A method within a server device for facilitating a remote boot process in a client device, wherein the client device and the server device reside on a network, the method comprising the steps of: determining whether or not the server device is able to service an additional boot request; receiving at the server device a boot request from the client device, wherein the server device is one of a plurality of boot servers on the network, and wherein the server device is able to respond to a boot request from any client device on the network; responsive first to determining that the server device is able to service an additional boot request and second to receiving at the server device the boot request from the client device, sending a boot response to the client device, wherein the boot response directs the client device to download boot files from the server device; and employing a self-throttling process to prevent the server device from servicing an additional remote boot process for an additional client device if the server device has insufficient resources for servicing an additional remote boot process.