Patent ID: 7930397

Claim:
A method for allocating an additional real application server to an existing pool of real application servers, the pool including a first real application server having an application installed therein and communicating with a real data-source server to obtain application data from the data-source server, the additional application server having the application installed therein, the method comprising the steps of: a real management server for the pool receiving performance data for the first real application server and performance data for the real data-source server; the real management server, based on the performance data for the first real application server and the performance data for the real data-source server, automatically determining that the first real application server is functional but has reached a predetermined upper level of utilization, the performance data for the real data-source server indicating an amount of utilization of the real data-source server in providing application data to one or more of the real application servers in the pool, and in response to the determination that the first real application server is functional but has reached a predetermined upper level of utilization, the real management server automatically identifying the additional real application server as having the application but not currently allocated to the pool, and the real management server automatically selecting the real data-source server to provide application data to the additional real application server and automatically sending connection settings for the real data-source server to the additional real application server to configure the additional real application server to send subsequent requests for application data to the real data-source server.