A software distribution application supporting the installation of
operating systems on pristine computers is proposed. A new configuration
element is added for virtually defining an operating system; the
configuration element points to a corresponding image of the operating
system on different pristine servers. Moreover, the pristine computers
can be defined in a target database before they actually exist; each
pristine computer subscribes to a reference model specifying the
installation of the operating system. A plan is then generated with
actions for installing the operating system on the pristine computers.
When the plan is submitted for execution, a plug-in module associates
each pristine computer with the image of the operating system on the
respective pristine server. In this way, as soon as a pristine computer
is turned on and transmits a remote installation request to the pristine
server the associated image is automatically installed.