Patent ID: 7676551

Claim:
A computer implemented method of managing access to a storage resource for one of a plurality of network-based applications in a multiple server storage system, the method comprising: obtaining a resource identifier from a front end server; utilizing the resource identifier to lookup, in a resource lookup store of a lookup partitioning service server, a partition of a storage server associated with the resource identifier; in an event the partition of the storage server is associated with the resource identifier, granting access to the storage resource by providing a location of the partition of the storage server to the front end server; and in an event no partition of the storage server is associated with the resource identifier: failing to locate a mapping to the storage resource; determining a load balancing factor for each storage partition of a plurality of storage partitions; using the load balancing factors to determine a new storage partition in which a new storage resource should be created and creating the new storage resource in the new storage partition; mapping the resource identifier to the new storage partition in the resource lookup store; and providing a location of the new storage partition to the front end server, wherein determining a load balancing factor for each storage partition comprises: given n storage partitions, determining the number of mapping counts C for each of the n storage partitions; and calculating a load balancing factor (LBF m ) for each storage partition m using the following: LBF m =(1/ C m )/(1/ C 1 +1/ C 2 + . . . +1/ C n ).