Patent ID: 8850174

Claim:
A method for booting up a server using a target storage device over a network, comprising: installing an operating system of the server by storing the operating system of the server in the target storage device located within the network, wherein the location of the target storage device is designated by an internet protocol (IP) address of the target storage device; accessing the operating system of the server on the target storage device using the IP address of the target storage device, the accessing being performed from the server using data block transfers; operating a system BIOS of the server to instruct an option ROM BIOS of an iSCSI card of the server to obtain an operating system boot loader from a first sector of the target storage device designated by the IP address; operating the option ROM BIOS of the iSCSI card to issue BIOS calls to obtain data defining the operating system boot loader from the first sector of the target storage device using an iSCSI protocol that transfers data blocks; executing the operating system boot loader to run inputs/outputs through the system BIOS of the server to request a remainder of an operating system image; obtaining the remainder of the operating system image sequentially through multiple calls of the system BIOS of the server and the option ROM BIOS of the iSCSI card in the form of block inputs/outputs; and executing the operating system boot loader to sequentially copy the operating system image to a host memory and run the operating system from the host memory.