Patent ID: 7451183

Claim:
A method for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server, the method comprising: identifying in a partitioned server a first partition having at least one reserve processor available for activation to meat service level objectives associated with applications running on the first partition; identifying in the partitioned server a second partition having at least one active processor; wherein each of the first partition and the second partition is a hardware-based partition; activating the at least one reserve processor in the first partition so that the first partition has an activated processor and the second partition does not have the activated processor; and deactivating the at least one active processor in the second partition so that the at least one active processor becomes a second reserved processor in the second partition and the second partition has a deactivated processor and the first partition does not have the deactivated processor, and so that a total number of reserved processors in the partitioned server remains constant after activating the at least one reserved processor; wherein a number of reserve processors activated in the partitioned server is equal to a number of active processors deactivated in the partitioned server; wherein the number of reserve processors is at a same amount, before activating the at least one reserve processor and after activating the at least one reserve processor; and wherein each reserve processor is available for operation as an active processor in the partitioned server.