Patent ID: 8381217

Claim:
A method performed in a clustered network storage system including a plurality of storage server nodes, the method comprising: maintaining, by a management module in each of the plurality of storage server nodes, a record of job credits corresponding to available resources of the clustered network storage system, wherein each of the storage server nodes includes one of a plurality of management modules and one of a plurality of data modules; receiving, at one of the data modules, a job request from a job submission module implemented in one of the management modules; debiting, in said one of the management modules, a job credit from a record of job credits corresponding to said one of the data modules, in response to receiving the job request; scheduling, in said one of the data modules, a job for execution on said one of the data modules, based on a priority, in response to receiving the job request; queuing the job in said one of the data modules, for processing; executing the job on said one of the data modules; and re-allocating, in said one of the management modules, the job credit to the record of job credits upon completion of the job.