Patent ID: 8549533

Claim:
A method for balancing standby workload assignments and active workload assignments for a group of service units in a system which employs an N+M redundancy model to provide protection for a workload represented by a plurality of service instances, wherein N service units are active service units and M service units are standby service units, N and M being positive integers, the method comprising: calculating a first set of numbers representing the numbers of service instances to be assigned to corresponding ones of N active service units, such that differences among the first set of numbers are minimized; providing each of the N active service units in the group with an active workload assignment based on the calculated first set of numbers, wherein the active workload assignment specifies the number of service instances assigned to each of the N active service units; calculating a second set of numbers representing the numbers of service instances to be assigned to corresponding ones of the M standby service units, such that differences among the second set of numbers are minimized; and distributing standby workload assignments among the M standby service units based on the calculated second set of numbers, wherein the standby workload assignments specify the number of service instances assigned to each of the M standby service units.