Booting a multi-node computer system from a primary node dynamically selected based on security setting criteria

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, from among nodes within a multi-node system, a node that has a security setting satisfying a security setting criteria, wherein the security setting criteria includes a predetermined minimum security setting selected from the group consisting of a setting that enables trusted execution technology, a trusted execution technology setting, and a setting that authenticates the node and an operating system of the node;

booting the multi-node system with the identified node as a primary node, wherein each node of the multi-node system boots using the basic input output system of the primary node; and

operating the multi-node system using the security setting of the identified node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-node system includes more than two nodes.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the more than two nodes are fully meshed.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the security setting of the identified node is stored in a trusted platform module.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each node within the multi-node system stores a security setting in a trusted platform module within the node.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each node within the multi-node system stores a security setting in non-volatile memory directly accessible to a trusted platform module within the node.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the security setting criteria is the highest security setting among all nodes within the multi-node system.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

establishing a default primary node; and

booting the multi-node system with the default primary node in response to none of the nodes having a security setting satisfying the security setting criteria.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein establishing a default primary node includes receiving user input identifying the default primary node.

10. A method, comprising:

identifying, from among nodes within a multi-node system, a node that has a security setting satisfying a security setting criteria;

setting a field-programmable gate array in each compute node to point to the basic input output system of the compute node identified as the primary node;

booting the multi-node system with the identified node as a primary node, wherein each node of the multi-node system boots using the basic input output system of the primary node; and

operating the multi-node system using the security setting of the identified node.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein each field-programmable gate array is set by an integrated management module within the same compute node as the field-programmable gate array.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein each compute node has an integrated management module, and wherein each of the integrated management modules in the multi-node system coordinate control of the field-programmable gate arrays to point to one of the compute nodes as the primary node.

13. A method, comprising:

identifying, from among nodes within a multi-node system, a node that has a security setting satisfying a security setting criteria, including sequentially designating the nodes as the primary node until reaching a node that has a security setting satisfying the securing setting criteria;

booting the multi-node system with the identified node as a primary node, wherein each node of the multi-node system boots using the basic input output system of the primary node; and

operating the multi-node system using the security setting of the identified node.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

establishing a default primary node; and

booting the multi-node system with the default primary node in response to none of the nodes having a security setting satisfying the security setting criteria.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying, from among nodes within a multi-node system, a node that has a security setting satisfying a security setting criteria;

setting a field-programmable gate array in each compute node to point to the basic input output system of the compute node identified as the primary node;

booting the multi-node system with the identified node as a primary node, wherein each node of the multi-node system boots using the basic input output system of the primary node; and

operating the multi-node system using the security setting of the identified node.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the multi-node system includes more than two nodes.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the security setting of the identified node is stored in a trusted platform module.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein each node within the multi-node system stores a security setting in a trusted platform module within the node.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the security setting criteria includes a predetermined minimum security setting.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 , the method further comprising:

establishing a default primary node; and

booting the multi-node system with the default primary node in response to none of the nodes having a security setting satisfying the security setting criteria.