Boot system for distributed digital data processing system

Claim 1

In a distributed digital processing system comprising a host and associated storage disposed at a first location, and at least one computer node and associated memory disposed at a second location remote from the first location, said host and said at least one computer node being coupled together by at least one communications link of a network that is disposed between said first location and said second location a method of booting said node, comprising the steps of: A. said host sending a boot command over said communications link to said node when said node is in a preoperational state in which said node is not prepared to respond to instructions from a user to perform data processing operations; B. said node sending an initiate boot image transfer request over said communications link to said host in response to said boot command; C. performing a boot retrieval operation in response to receipt by said host of said initiate boot image transfer request, said boot retrieval operation being initiated by said host and including the steps of: i. said host identifying portions of an executable boot image in said storage and generating boot image pointer information to said boot image and a response to said node, said boot image pointer information comprising a plurality of pointers to said portions; and ii. said node, upon receipt of said response from said host, transferring the generated boot image pointer information from said first location to said second location via said communications link, said node using said pointers to iteratively initiate retrieval of said boot image portions from said storage of said host and for controlling the rate of said iterative retrieval, and said node storing the transferred boot image portions in the memory of said node; D. said host performing other operations while said node iteratively retrieves said boot image portions from said storage of said host; and E. said node executing the retrieved entire boot image to place itself in an operational condition in which said node is prepared to respond to instructions from the user to perform data processing operations.