Patent ID: 7661012

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for spare device management, comprising: sorting candidate devices into spare coverage groups by type; for each spare coverage group, determining which of the candidate devices in the spare coverage group are to be spare devices by: identifying one or more candidate devices having closest fitting characteristics of a desired type from the spare coverage groups; assigning the identified one or more candidate devices to be spare devices for the spare coverage group; determining whether a desired number of spare devices have been assigned to the spare coverage group; and in response to determining that the desired number of spare devices have not been assigned to the spare coverage group, assigning multiple additional spare devices by assigning one spare device having the closest fining characteristics from each group formed by an increment of a predetermined number of candidate devices having the closest fitting characteristics; and assigning multiple additional spare devices by assigning a spare device having next closest fitting characteristics for every predetermined number of candidate devices having the next closest fitting characteristics, wherein the closest fitting characteristics are different from the next closest fitting characteristics, and wherein the spare coverage group includes devices having the closest fitting characteristics and the next closest fitting characteristics.