Patent ID: 8230434

Claim:
An entitlement management system for distributing unallocated CPU processor resources to a plurality of deployment groups operating in a data processing system, the system comprising: a computer hardware device, including: a deployment group entitlement component comprising: an allocation component for allocating a set of micro-partitions from a plurality of micro-partitions to each deployment group of the plurality of deployment groups, wherein each deployment group is assigned at least one designated function of a plurality of designate functions, wherein each designated function serving a different function than the other designated functions, wherein each micro-partition has an micro-partition entitlement of unallocated CPU processor cycles, and wherein each deployment group has a deployment group entitlement equal to or greater than a sum of the micro-partition entitlements of the set of micro-partitions; a determining component for identifying unallocated CPU processor cycles from a donor micro-partition and distributing the identified unallocated CPU processor cycles to a requester micro-partition in the deployment group, the determining component further identifying when there are no further unallocated CPU processor cycles to be donated to any of the micro-partitions in the deployment group and communicating a request to a management entitlement component; and a management entitlement component for receiving requests from at least two deployment group entitlement components and identifying one of the plurality of deployment groups having unallocated CPU processor cycles to donate to deployment group and donating the unallocated CPU cycles to the another deployment group.