METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FAST ON SITE DEPLOYMENT OF COMPUTER EQUIPMENT IN A NETWORK COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT

摘要

In a network computer system including computer units connected through a network, a method for rapid installation of a unit includes the following steps: a) at a unit manufacturing stage: preparing at least one master disk image containing a plurality of computer programs and associated parameters; assigning to each master disk image a unique software code value representative of a software configuration corresponding to the contents of said master disk image; during the manufacture of each unit, loading into a mass memory thereof the contents of a selected master disk image and providing on said unit readable information representative of the software code value assigned to said selected master disk image; b) when a unit is to be installed on the network: determining a software code value identifying the software configuration to be used in said computer unit; by using said readable information, selecting from a set of units one having said software code value; connecting said selected unit to the network, and performing a soft installation of said unit involving communication between said unit and a remote configuration server of the network and providing to the unit data for finely tuning the contents of the mass memory of the unit.