Stateless Flexible Boot Control

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface unit;
• a memory;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface unit and the memory, and configured to:
• receive instructions from a management device in a network, wherein the instructions comprise attributes associated with boot devices;
• analyze the attributes in the instructions to determine a priority order for the boot devices;
• remove one or more boot devices from an initialization process when the one or more boot devices do not match the attributes in the instructions;
• and
• initialize remaining boot devices other than the one or more boot devices removed from the initialization process such that the remaining boot devices are initialized in accordance with the priority order.

A computer-readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and when the software is executed operable to:

• receive instructions from a management device in a network, wherein the instructions comprise attributes associated with boot devices hosted by a computing apparatus;
• analyze the attributes in the instructions to determine a priority order for the boot devices;
• remove one or more boot devices hosted by the computing apparatus from an initialization process when the one or more boot devices do not match the attributes in the instructions;
• and
• initialize remaining boot devices other than the one or more boot devices removed from the initialization process such that the remaining boot devices are initialized in accordance with the priority order.