A computing node in the high-performance cluster did not restart after a scheduled maintenance window. The monitoring system reported the node offline, and the remote management console showed an error: the system could not find a bootable operating system.

The cluster needs all its nodes for maximum processing power, so I had to mend the boot sequence and bring the node back online.

I entered the basic input/output system (BIOS) settings and verified that the local storage drives were visible. They were present, but the boot order was wrong: the system attempted first to boot from the network by the preboot execution environment (PXE), and the PXE server was itself offline for maintenance. I changed the BIOS settings to boot from the local hard drive first, saved them, and restarted the server.

The server booted successfully from the local hard drive, and the operating system loaded without errors. The cluster management software detected the node and assigned it new tasks. I documented the correct boot order in the system configuration guide.