Patent ID: 7558864

Claim:
A method for logically provisioning resources in a data processing system, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a request for a set of resources in a plurality of resources in a provisioning environment within the data processing system, wherein each resource in said set of resources is one of a plurality of different types of resources, wherein said plurality of different types of resources comprises hardware elements and software elements; associating a current state variable and a shared state variable with each one of said plurality of resources, wherein the current state variable indicates whether the each one of said plurality of resources is available, in a process of being reserved, or reserved, and wherein the shared state variable indicates whether the each one of said plurality of resources is a shared resource; selecting a particular instance of a resource in said set of resources of said plurality of resources from a group of unassigned available resources of said plurality of different types of resources; indicating that said selected particular instance is in the process of being reserved utilizing the current state variable, wherein said selected particular instance is unavailable for selection after indicating that said selected particular instance is in the process of being reserved, wherein said selected particular instance is unavailable for selection by another request prior to provisioning said selected particular instance, and wherein a selection is prevented of any of said plurality of resources having an indication of in the process of being reserved; logically provisioning said selected particular instance to fulfill the request by establishing logical relationships between said selected particular instance and other resources; and responsive to logically provisioning said selected particular instance to fulfill the request, indicating whether the each one of said plurality of resources is reserved utilizing the current state variable, wherein a reserved resource has an established logical relationship with said provisioning environment and said reserved resource's shared state variable indicates said reserved resource is not a shared resource.