Providing remote software provisioning to machines

摘要

A provisioning server can generate a network boot emulator configured to provision software for target machines that may not support network booting. The provisioning server can be configured to build the network boot emulator in a format that is usable by target machines regardless of the software available on the target machines. The network boot emulator can include instructions necessary to locate and access software distributions, combine software distributions according to the templates or profiles in order to generate a software installation, and install the software installation on a target machine. The network boot emulator can also include instructions necessary to configure the software installation.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
building, by a server, a network boot emulator that comprises instructions to locate a plurality of software distributions and a template, generate a software installation from the plurality of software distributions in view of the template, wherein the template comprises instructions for combining the software distributions, and install the software installation on a system hosting the network boot emulator; providing the network boot emulator to a target system that is not supported by any network booting protocols via a network; and provisioning, by a processor of the server, the plurality of software distributions to the target system without acquiring or maintaining resources or network infrastructure to support any network booting protocols, wherein the provisioning comprises:
virtualization or re-provisioning using a helper client running on the target system;causing network provisioning of virtualized guests to be performed using the helper client; andcausing an existing system to be reinstalled by causing the helper client to request profile information from a remote boot server that has been configured with the server.