System and method for booting multiple servers from snapshots of an operating system installation image while reducing access to unmodified portions of the installation image and reducing latencies between server ports

摘要

The disclosure is directed to a system and method for booting a plurality of servers from at least one of a primary storage drive and a secondary storage drive. An operating system installation image is stored in a primary storage drive. Snapshots including modifications to the operating system installation image are stored in a plurality of partitions of a secondary storage device. A lookup table directs servers to read unmodified portions of the operating system installation image from the primary storage drive. The lookup table further directs servers to read modified portions of the operating system installation image from the secondary storage drive.