Patent ID: 8161076

Claim:
A method comprising: generating, in a computer system, a data structure for use in determining how responsibilities for services in a network storage system should be distributed amongst a plurality of resources in the network storage system, wherein the data structure includes a number of regions, each region including a plurality of cells, wherein generating the data structure includes executing an iterative process of optimizing the data structure for a plurality of quality metrics, and wherein the iterative process includes: successively adding regions to the data structure, each added region including a plurality of cells; and after each instance of adding a region to the data structure, then for each region of the plurality of regions in the data structure, for each cell in the region, temporarily replacing only said cell and then scoring the data structure for a plurality of quality criteria; comparing results of said scoring for a plurality of instances of temporarily replacing a cell; and selecting a cell to be replaced in the region, based on a result of said comparing; and using the data structure, by a storage controller in the network storage system, to distribute the responsibilities for the services amongst the plurality of resources.