Patent ID: 8190717

Claim:
A booting method for use in a computer system having a plurality of servers connected to an external disk device and a management server that is connected to said plurality of servers via a network and manages said plurality of servers, wherein an operating system of said plurality of servers is booted from said external disk device, said booting method comprising the steps of: storing associated information of a port number of a network switch of said network connecting said servers and an identifier of a virtual network assigned to said port number, said port number and said identifier being associated with each other in said associated information; storing, by said management server, setting information of said virtual network; acquiring a first port number of said network connecting a first server of said plurality of servers and a second port number of said network connecting said management server based on said associated information, and setting the identifier of the virtual network established between said first server and said management server; instructing to boot said first server by said management server; sending an operating system and an agent program from said management server to said first server via said virtual network; after booting said operating system in said first server, acquiring unique information of said first server by said agent program; transferring said unique information of said first server acquired by the agent program to said management server; setting an input/output (I/O) identifier of said first server by said agent program; and restoring the stored setting information of said virtual network.