Patent ID: 8245233

Claim:
In a data processing system, a method comprising: classifying services provided by each of a set of redundant controllers comprising a first controller and a second controller, by: identifying, for the first controller, a first set of accessible devices and a first number of operating system (OS) partitions with which the first controller can communicate, and identifying for the second controller, a second set of accessible devices and a second number of OS partitions with which the second controller can communicate, wherein each of the OS partitions utilizes one or more of the services; identifying a level of partition priority for each of the OS partitions; determining, by a computer processor, a relative importance of each of the set of redundant controllers by using the classification of services and the level of partition priority for each of the OS partitions that a respective controller is able to satisfy; selecting a primary controller from the set of redundant controllers based on a comparison of the relative importance of each of the set of redundant controllers; and assigning, by the computer processor, the primary controller with management of one or more of: (a) Initial Program Load (IPL) system functions; and (b) reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) services.