Patent Document ID: 20100005160
Application ID: 12559310
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method comprising: storing a model within a database of a control node, wherein the model defines an organization of a distributed computing system having a plurality of computing nodes; automatically detecting the addition of a node to a network; upon detecting the addition of the node, network booting the detected node with an inventory software image that includes an executable inventory process for identifying hardware attributes of the detected node; executing the inventory process on the detected node to automatically identify the hardware attributes for the detected node and to send the identified hardware attributes from the detected node to the control node for storage within the model; updating the model to store the identified hardware attributes for the detected node; and automatically deploying the detected node within the distributed computing system in accordance with the model based on the identified hardware attributes, wherein automatically deploying the detected node comprises automatically loading a software image onto the detected node to replace the inventory software image and provide a computing environment for execution of user software applications.