Rapid provisioning of a computer into a homogenized resource pool

A data processing system for installing software on a data processing system, the data processing system comprising:

• identifying means for identifying files for the data processing system to be provisioned to form identified files;
• locating means for locating the identified files using a location map, wherein the location map identifies a set of files and identifies each node in a plurality of nodes in a network data processing system on which a file in the set of files is located and wherein a file in the set of files is located on a number of nodes in the plurality of nodes;
• transferring means for transferring identified files to the data processing system from the plurality of nodes in the network data processing system using the location map to form installation files;
• and
• provisioning means for provisioning the data processing system using the installation files.

A computer program product for installing software on a data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

• first instructions for identifying files for the data processing system to be provisioned to form identified files;
• second instructions for locating the identified files using a location map, wherein the location map identifies a set of files and identifies each node in a plurality of nodes in a network data processing system on which a file in the set of files is located and wherein a file in the set of files is located on a number of nodes in the plurality of nodes;
• third instructions for transferring identified files to the data processing system from the plurality of nodes in the network data processing system using the location map to form installation files;
• and
• fourth instructions for provisioning the data processing system using the installation files.

A data processing system comprising:

• a bus;
• a communications unit connected to the bus;
• a memory connected to the bus, wherein the memory includes a set of instructions;
• a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the set of instructions to identify files for the data processing system to be provisioned to form identified files;
• locate the identified files using a location map, wherein the location map identifies a set of files and identifies each node in a plurality of nodes in a network data processing system on which a file in the set of files is located and wherein a file in the set of files is located on a number of nodes in the plurality of nodes;
• transfer identified files to the data processing system from the plurality of nodes in the network data processing system using the location map to form installation files;
• and provision the data processing system using the installation files.