Sending a cd boot block to a client computer to gather client information and send it to a server in order to create an instance for client computer

Abstract

Client Discovery is a program that utilizes the existing remote boot capability of a network and adds a program to automate the discovery of a computer's class and the creation of an instance for that specific computer. When a client machine is connected to the network and turned on for the first time, the server will find its request for an operating system, identify that the machine does not have an instance and will send an CD boot block to the client computer. The CD boot block will obtain information about the client computer by automatically scanning everything that the program is able to scan. The client information gathering program may also prompt the user with questions and include those responses in the client information. The CD boot block will then send the information gathered to a log file in the server. One or more keys from the client information are compared to one or more keys in the template table. When a match is made, the server program executes a command to link the client machine's MAC address to the template creating an instance for the client computer and to save the instance in the server memory. The client machine will then reboot. When it restarts it will now be automatically identified by its instance and the appropriate operating system sent to it.