Patent ID: 7930529

Claim:
A method comprising: initially specifying a boot logical-unit number (LUN) for a cold-spare device, where the boot LUN is not initially associated with any particular LUN of a storage volume; assigning one or more storage volumes within a storage-area network (SAN) to a computing device, by assigning a LUN of each of the one or more storage volumes to the computing device, where the computing device references the LUN of one of the one or more storage volumes from which the computing device is to be booted as a boot LUN; booting the computing device from the one of the one or more storage volumes within the SAN; determining that the computing device to which the one or more storage volumes within the SAN have been assigned has satisfied a shutdown criterion; in response, unassigning the one or more storage volumes within the SAN from the computing device; assigning the one or more storage volumes within the SAN to the cold-spare computing device; and, booting the cold-spare computing device from the one of the one or more storage volumes within the SAN.