Patent ID: 7849178

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of networked server computers automatically configured into a hierarchical architecture of subgroups configured to cooperate to perform a common processing task; a lead server computer of each subgroup for monitoring and managing operations of other server computers of the subgroup; a catalog server computer of the plurality of networked server computers in communication with and configured to manage each lead server computer, the catalog server computer including a heartbeating service to periodically ping each lead server computer to detect whether each lead server computer is available, wherein, when a particular lead server computer is detected as unavailable, the heartbeating service determines addresses of the server computers of the subgroup associated with the particular lead server computer and pings the server computers of the subgroup until a new lead server computer is selected for the subgroup; and program code executable by at least one networked server computer of the plurality of networked server computers for automatically configuring the plurality of networked server computers into the hierarchical architecture, wherein a message sent from a networked server computer of the plurality of networked server computers is sent to the catalog server computer in no more than two hops.