Patent ID: 7552171

Claim:
A method for balancing use of resources between nodes of a multi-node system, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a service-level violation on a first node from a set of nodes in the multi-node system; wherein the set of nodes hosts a multi-node server that includes a first server instance on the first node; determining a first number of a plurality of sessions running on the first server instance to migrate to a second server instance of the multi-node server on a second node of said set of nodes, wherein the step of determining includes calculating a particular number of sessions estimated to avoid causing a service-level violation on the second node by migrating said particular number of sessions to said second server instance; migrating at least a portion of said first number of a plurality of sessions to said second server instance; determining whether said service-level violation on the first node persists; and if said service-level violation persists, repeating the step of determining a first number of instances and the step of migrating.