Patent ID: 7543150

Claim:
A method for setting up hosting environments among a plurality of computer systems, wherein a boot image is communicated to each of the computer systems over a network connection, the method comprising: associating a plurality of digital signatures with a first boot image, the first boot image comprising a plurality of image fragments, each digital signature being generated by applying an encryption key to an associated image fragment; receiving information that identifies a plurality of computer systems; communicating the first boot image to each of the computer systems over a network, including communicating the image fragments of the first boot image to each computer system along with the digital signatures associated with the image fragments; in each computer system, performing a boot sequence including verifying each image fragment by applying a decryption key that is stored in the computer system to the digital signature that is associated with the image fragment, and wherein the verifying includes detecting whether the image fragment as part of the first boot image is valid or invalid; and if an invalid image fragment is detected, then communicating an abort signal to abort the boot sequence in each of the computer systems.