Patent ID: 7743146

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling use by concurrent users of a distributed resource on a network, wherein use of the distributed resource is limited to a specified maximum number of concurrent users, the apparatus comprising: a first host comprising logic encoded in one or more tangible medium for execution; wherein the first host is one of a plurality of hosts that are operable to communicatively connect to the network that contains the distributed resource; wherein the logic when executed is operable to: provide a local lock manager process that executes on the first host; associate a user identification for each user of a first set of the concurrent users with the first host; and respond to a first request for the distributed resource associated with a first user having a first user identification associated with the first host by requesting a lock from the local lock manager process; wherein the local lock manager process may grant a lock on the same resource as another local lock manager process executing on another host of the plurality of hosts at any time when a number of outstanding locks granted on the same resource is less than the specified maximum number of concurrent users.