Fwd: [azipa] Appliance Recovery Process Quandry

[Victor Odhner]

I'm forwarding this from the AZIPA list because I know the expertise 
this guy needs is here.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[azipa] Appliance Recovery Process Quandry
Date: 	Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:18:25 -0700
From: 	<kenfolsom at cox.net>
To: 	<azipa at yahoogroups.com>


Hello

I'm in the market for something I'm not sure exists and would appreciate
any leads.  My company is building a network appliance out of a PC and
application we've developed.  The question is what happens if the OS (Linux
Slackware 10.1) or the application gets corrupted?  Is there an economical
solution to restore the OS and or application to prevent RMA's and make
supporting it a little easier?

Here is the catch.  The PC has no floppy or CD-ROM drive, keyboard, mouse or
Monitor.  It's supposed to sit in the corner and look "non PC like" while
doing it's thing.  So I'm looking for something hardware wise like a switch
or a button as part of a PCI card, or attached to the motherboard, that
would force it to boot from a different partition or even separate hard
drive. That alternate partition would simply refresh the first with a clean
re-install of OS and or application.   

The unit will be connected to a network so even putting in a CD into another
PC and giving the machine directives through an application interface would
work. We're just not familiar with how to make an application force a change
in bios boot order to a secondary partition. or a change to boot from lan,
over the network from another PC.

Also, is anyone aware of a motherboard that can boot from USB?  I wouldn't
think so but have to ask.

Thank you for any ideas or leads in the right direction!

Ken