Disclosed herein are systems and method for booting servers in a distributed storage to improve fault tolerance. In one aspect, an exemplary method comprises, during a booting of a hardware server belonging to the distributed storage, starting a boot component from on any one physical block device from at least two or more physical block devices of the hardware server, wherein the at least two or more physical block devices of the hardware server are bootable and each physical block device stores the boot component, wherein an Operating System (OS) of the hardware server is installed on a virtual disk, and wherein the virtual disk is stored on the distributed storage, and by the boot component, accessing the distributed storage to obtain access to the virtual disk, mounting the virtual disk as a root file system of the OS, and booting the OS from the mounted virtual disk.

Embodiments of a method and apparatus are described for operating a mobile computing device in different modes using different operating systems. An apparatus may comprise, for example, a memory operative to store multiple operating systems, a processor operative to execute the multiple operating systems, an operating system management module operative to select a first operating system when the mobile computing device is in a first mode or a second operating system when the mobile computing device is in a second mode and the mobile computing device is coupled to one or more external devices. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

A method for allowing a computer to boot from a user trusted device is provided. The computer includes a long-term data storage device storing operating system (OS) services. The user trusted device is connectable to the computer and stores a boot loader detectable and executable by a firmware of the computer, an OS loader designed to load an OS of the computer, and one or more crypto drivers designed for allowing access to the OS and data stored encrypted on the data storage device. The method comprises letting the boot loader be executed to cause to transfer the OS loader from the user trusted device to the computer and executing the transferred OS loader to cause to execute the one or more crypto drivers for the OS and the data stored encrypted on the data storage device to start the OS services and complete booting of the computer.

Examples allow booting from remote storage. In one example, a storage disk includes disk sectors which can be checked for data to boot a virtual machine application. If the disk sector does not include the data, the data can be downloaded from a remote storage unit. The data can then be stored on the appropriate disk sector of the storage disk for use by the application.

A network element (NE) comprising a receiver configured to couple to a cloud network; and a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) coupled to the receiver and configured to receive a first partition configuration from an orchestration element, partition a plurality of processor cores into a plurality of processor core partitions according to the first partition configuration, and initiate a plurality of virtual basic input/output systems (vBIOSs) such that each vBIOS manages a processor core partition.

Systems and methods for providing accelerated loading of operating system and application programs upon system boot or application launch are disclosed. In one aspect, a method for providing accelerated loading of an operating system comprises the steps of: maintaining a list of boot data used for booting a computer system; preloading the boot data upon initialization of the computer system; and servicing requests for boot data from the computer system using the preloaded boot data. In another aspect, a method for providing accelerated launching of an application program comprises the steps of: maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program; preloading the application data upon launching the application program; and servicing requests for application data from a computer system using the preloaded application data.

As an example, a computing device having a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) may boot into a preinstallation environment (associated with a first operating system), determine that a second operating system is to be installed on the computing device, and write an image of the second operating system to the boot disk. The image may include a special partition. The computing device may write the preinstallation environment (associated with first operating system) to the special partition of the image of the second operating system, and create a boot entry in the UEFI to cause the computing device to boot into the preinstallation environment (Windows PE). After booting into the preinstallation environment, the computing device may execute one or more diagnostic tests, delete the boot entry, and reboot the computing device to install a basic input output system (Coreboot) to replace UEFI and install the second operating system (Chrome OS).

One embodiment relates to an apparatus, comprising logic, at least partially incorporated into hardware, to receive, by a primary communication device, an update image associated with a smart device, and initiate sending of the update image to the smart device, wherein a bootloader of the smart device is configured to update a memory of the smart device with the update image. The logic is further to determine whether the updating of the memory of the smart device with the update image has been interrupted, and responsive to determining that the updating of the memory of the smart device with the update image has been interrupted, send a first message to the smart device to instruct the bootloader of the smart device to resume updating of the memory of the smart device.

Certain aspects of present disclosure are directed the present disclosure relates to a baseboard management controller (BMC) implemented method of installation of operating system (OS) on a host computer using virtual storage of BMC. The method includes: (a) receiving a device request from the host computer to access a storage device, (b) simulating the storage device to host computer according to the device request, (c) receiving a data request command from host computer, (d) transferring requested data to the host computer according to the data request command, (e) receiving a data storage command from host computer directed to the simulated storage device and writing a status file at request of the data storage command, (f) determining if the status file exists in the simulated storage, and (g) stopping emulating the storage device to the host computer through the first communication interface if it is determined that the status file exists.

A secure live media boot system includes a BIOS that is coupled to a storage subsystem and a non-volatile memory system. The BIOS receives an operating system image. Prior to installing an operating system on a computing device using with the operating system image, the BIOS performs a first measurement action on the operating system image to produce a first operating system measurement that it stores in the non-volatile memory system. The BIOS also stores a read-only version of the operating system image on the storage subsystem. The BIOS subsequently receives a request to install the operating system on the computing device and, in response, performs a second measurement action on the operating system image in order to produce a second operating system measurement. If the BIOS determines that the second operating system measurement matches the first operating system measurement, the BIOS installs the operating system on the computing device.