Patent ID: 7415519

Claim:
A network system configured to download an operating system image from an image server to a plurality of clients, comprising: a management logic module configured to query resources of the network system selected from the group consisting of available image server memory and available network bandwidth of a network used by the plurality of clients to communicate with the image server and, based at least in part on said query, determine a maximum number of clients to enable for simultaneous boot access to the image server within a threshold download time, wherein said determined maximum numbers of clients is less than a total plurality of clients in communication with the image server; wherein the management logic module is further configured to increment the determined maximum number of clients and measure a total time required to boot a fixed number of clients of the plurality of clients, the fixed number larger than the incremented determined maximum number of clients, and select a one of the determined maximum number of clients and the incremented determined maximum number of clients that results in a shortest total boot time for the fixed number of the clients; and restrict simultaneous downloading of an operating image system by the clients from said image server to no more than the selected one of the determined maximum number and the incremented determined maximum number of the clients.