Patent ID: 7840790

Claim:
In a computer system comprising a hardware processor and a storage device coupled thereto, the storage device having a virtualization environment, a method comprising: booting up the hardware processor with a first operating system (OS) installed to run at a first system level, wherein the first OS is booted without a storage device driver for the first OS; loading a virtualization kernel (vmkernel) and an associated vmkernel storage device driver; the vmkernel storage device driver detecting the storage device; the vmkernel storage device driver identifying the storage device to the first OS, wherein, prior to the identifying, the storage device is inaccessible from the first OS; the first OS accessing the storage device, via the vmkernel storage device driver, and retrieving the virtualization environment, wherein the retrieving retrieves remaining parts of the virtualization environment that are not already loaded through the loading of the vmkernel; and loading the remaining parts of the virtualization environment.