A method for managing a cluster of computing nodes following a failure or management event that divides the cluster into at least a first partition and a second partition, comprising: managing the cluster of computing nodes, wherein the cluster aggregates local storage resources (117, 118) of each of the computing nodes to provide an object store, wherein an object stored in the object store represents a virtual disk of a virtual machine, and wherein said objects stored in the object store each contain data that is divided into data components (220 x) that are stored across the storage resources of the respective computing nodes; determining that a majority of the data components (220 x) that comprise a first object stored in the object store are stored within computing nodes in the first partition; determining that a majority of data components (220 x) that comprise a second object stored in the object store are stored within computing nodes in the second partition; in response to determining that the majority of data components (220 x) that comprise the first object are stored within computing nodes in the first partition, permitting configuration operations to be performed on the first object in the first partition while denying any access to the first object from the second partition, wherein the configuration operations performed on the first object alter a storage profile of the virtual disk represented by the first object or a storage policy including capacity, availability or IOPs of the virtual disk represented by the first object; and in response to determining that the majority of data components (220 x) that comprise the second object are stored within computing nodes in the second partition, permitting the configuration operations to be performed on the second object in the second partition while denying any access to the second object from the first partition. managing the cluster of computing nodes, wherein the cluster aggregates local storage resources (117, 118) of each of the computing nodes to provide an object store, wherein an object stored in the object store represents a virtual disk of a virtual machine, and wherein said objects stored in the object store each contain data that is divided into data components (220 x) that are stored across the storage resources of the respective computing nodes; determining that a majority of the data components (220 x) that comprise a first object stored in the object store are stored within computing nodes in the first partition; determining that a majority of data components (220 x) that comprise a second object stored in the object store are stored within computing nodes in the second partition; in response to determining that the majority of data components (220 x) that comprise the first object are stored within computing nodes in the first partition, permitting configuration operations to be performed on the first object in the first partition while denying any access to the first object from the second partition, wherein the configuration operations performed on the first object alter a storage profile of the virtual disk represented by the first object or a storage policy including capacity, availability or IOPs of the virtual disk represented by the first object; and in response to determining that the majority of data components (220 x) that comprise the second object are stored within computing nodes in the second partition, permitting the configuration operations to be performed on the second object in the second partition while denying any access to the second object from the first partition.