Patent ID: 8301740

Claim:
A distributed computing system comprising: a first set of resources, wherein resources in the first set of resources are capable of providing a flux service, wherein the flux service is a top-level service that represents a defined set of functionalities; a second set of resources, wherein resources in the second set of resources are capable of providing interpretation services, wherein each of the interpretation services represents a defined set of functionalities provided to another service within the distributed computing system; and a control node comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions that autonomically control the distributed computing system, wherein the control node further comprises: a service-level agreement (SLA) governor that receives monitoring data that indicates a current service level of the flux service provided by the distributed computing system and determines whether the current service level of the flux service satisfies a service-level agreement, a chain assembly module that dynamically assembles a resource chain when the SLA governor determines that the current service level of the flux service does not satisfy the service-level agreement, wherein the resource chain is a set of resources that are ordered by a relation specifying that a first resource provides a service to a second resource, wherein the resource chain includes a first resource in the first set of resources and one or more resources in the second set of resources, wherein the chain assembly module is operable to assemble resources in the resource chain according to a cost associated with each resource, wherein at least one of the resources is a functioning resource and the cost associated with the at least one of the resources is determined according to whether the at least one of the resources is currently operating in another resource chain, and wherein, when each resource in the resource chain is operating, the resource chain provides the flux service, thereby enhancing the service level of the flux service provided by the distributed computing system.