Patent ID: 7827217

Claim:
A method for operating a virtual machine within a data processing system, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: a processor; the processor for storing an object in memory that is managed by a virtual machine that is running on a device within the data processing system; associating the object with a plurality of objects within an object group; associating the object group with the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine incorporates functionality for interoperating with other virtual machines in a virtual machine cluster, wherein each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster acts as a node within the virtual machine cluster, and wherein each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster shares information about the plurality of object groups in the virtual machine cluster to form shared information; wherein the shared information comprises information about locations of the plurality of object groups with each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster; managing the plurality of object groups within each virtual machine of the virtual machine cluster; allowing the object group moved from the virtual machine to a different virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster; disassociating the object group from the virtual machine; moving the object group to the different virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster; in response to moving the object group to the different virtual machine, associating the object group with the different virtual machine; and updating the shared information responsive to the object group moving from the virtual machine to the different virtual machine.