Apparatus, system, and method for booting using an external disk through a virtual SCSI connection

An apparatus to boot a logical partition using an external storage device, the apparatus comprising:

• a virtual SCSI device module configured to create a virtual Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”) device assigned to a first logical partition (“LPAR”) of a computer using a virtual input/output (“I/O”) server by mapping a logical unit number (“LUN”) of a storage volume to a SCSI ID uniquely associated with the virtual SCSI device,
• the virtual I/O server configured to map a physical I/O device of the computer to one or more LPARs on the computer,
• the storage volume located external to the computer, and
• the first LPAR configured to share one or more physical processors and one or more physical I/O devices of the first computer with a plurality of LPARs;
• a boot request module configured to receive a boot request to boot the first LPAR, the boot request identifying the storage volume as a boot device using the SCSI ID of the virtual SCSI device;
• a boot data module configured to retrieve boot data from the storage volume using a SCSI driver of the first LPAR;
• and
• a boot module configured to boot the first LPAR using the boot data.

A system to boot a logical partition that shares physical processors using an external storage device, the system comprising:

• a storage area network (“SAN”);
• a storage volume accessible through the SAN by a unique logical unit number (“LUN”);
• a computer in communication with the storage volume through the SAN, the computer comprising
• one or more logical partitions (“LPAR”) each configured to share one or more physical processors and one or more physical I/O devices of the computer,
• a virtual input/output (“I/O”) server configured to map a physical I/O device of the computer to the one or more LPARs on the computer,
• wherein the virtual I/O server executes within a virtualization module configured to manage and control a plurality of physical processors, a plurality of physical communication adapters, a plurality of physical storage devices, and memory to provide virtual processors, virtual communication adapters, virtual storage devices, and memory to the one or more LPARS;
• a virtual SCSI device module configured to create a virtual Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”) device assigned to a first LPAR of the computer using the virtual I/O server by mapping a LUN of the storage volume to a SCSI ID uniquely associated with the virtual SCSI device;
• a boot request module configured to receive a boot request to boot the first LPAR, the boot request identifying the a storage volume as a boot device using the SCSI ID of the virtual SCSI device;
• a boot data module configured to retrieve boot data from the storage volume using a SCSI driver of the first LPAR;
• and
• a boot module configured to boot the first LPAR using the boot data.