In one aspect, the invention is directed to a method of configuring an operating system on a host. The host is connected on a network for administering a plurality of storage devices. The network has controllers thereon. The method involves, for storage devices which are storage arrays, and are on the network, and which support world wide name signatures, building a first class of unique Lun signature for each such storage device, which is based on the world wide name signature of each storage device.

Configuration information, including network settings and security information, is incorporated in an XML file written to the portable media device while it is installed in a first device. This configuration is then automatically transferred to a second device by installing the portable media device in the second device.

Existing device sharing technologies in the pervasive computing area are not sufficient for peripheral devices designed for personal computers, because these technologies do not provide the degree of network-transparency necessary for both applications and device drivers. In this paper, we propose USB/IP as a peripheral bus extension over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. This novel device sharing approach is based on the sophisticated peripheral interfaces that are supported in most modern operating systems. Using a virtual peripheral bus driver, users can share a diverse range of devices over networks without any modification in existing operating systems and applications.