Patent ID: 7480914

Claim:
A method for restricting resources consumed by ghost agents within a grid computing environment, comprising the steps of: identifying a host, wherein said host is a software object operating within said grid environment and movable from one grid to another grid within the grid environment; associating a ghost agent with said host, wherein said ghost agent is configured to execute at least one operation, wherein said operation comprises replicating and recording at least one action of said host, and wherein the ghost agent follows the movement of the associated host; identifying computing resources used by the ghost agent; determining a usage value for each computing resource used by the ghost agent; calculating a resource utilization value for said ghost agent based on usage values determined for individual computing resources; comparing said resource utilization value to a usage threshold value pre-established for the ghost agent, wherein the usage threshold value defines a maximum resource utilization value permitted; and reducing a quantity of the computing resources used by the ghost agent if it is determined that the resource utilization value exceeds the usage threshold value, wherein said ghost agent can be deactivated and reactivated and said reducing step further comprises the steps of: queuing attempted operations of the ghost agent during deactivation; and executing operations from the queue after the ghost agent is reactivated.