Patent ID: 8065268

Claim:
A method, performed by a master device, for distributing chunks of data in a system that includes a plurality of servers that store replicas of the chunks, the method comprising: monitoring, by the master device, total numbers of replicas of the chunks available in the system; identifying, by the master device, chunks that have a total number of replicas below one or more chunk thresholds; assigning, by the master device, priorities to the identified chunks, where the assigning includes at least one of: assigning a higher priority to one of the identified chunks whose total number of replicas is farther away from a corresponding one of the one or more chunk thresholds than another one of the identified chunks whose total number of replicas is closer to another corresponding one of the one or more chunk thresholds, determining priorities for the identified chunks based on whether the identified chunks are associated with active files, or determining priorities for the identified chunks based on whether the identified chunks are blocking progress within the system; and re-replicating, by the master device, the identified chunks based substantially on the assigned priorities.