Patent ID: 8312456

Claim:
A method implemented by a computer system, said method comprising: selecting a partition from a plurality of partitions included in a virtualized environment running on the computer system; periodically checking one or more resource utilizations of the selected partition on a first time-interval basis, wherein the checking includes executing a folding algorithm to alter the number of virtual CPUs assigned to the selected partition based on the resource utilization; on a second time-interval basis that is less than the first time-interval basis: retrieving a time spent value corresponding to a selected partition that is selected from a plurality of partitions included in a virtualized environment running on the computer system, wherein the time spent value corresponds to an amount of time the selected partition has spent processing interrupts and a number of virtual CPUs are assigned to the selected partition; comparing the time spent value to one or more interrupt thresholds; and increasing the number of virtual CPUs that are assigned to the selected partition in response to the comparison revealing that the time spent value is greater than one of the interrupt thresholds.