Patent ID: 7716517

Claim:
A system comprising: a hardware platform for supporting a service; an availability management (AM) software entity which supports availability of said service, said AM software entity being distributed to include: a first global availability management core (AMC g ) portion, at a first hierarchical level, having a first set of AM functions associated therewith; a first plurality of local AMC (AMC l ) portions, at a second hierarchical level, having a second set of AM functions associated therewith; and a first plurality of AMC components, at a third hierarchical level, which are supplied with said first and second sets of AM functions to support availability of said service; and a first AM extension portion having a third set of one or more AM functions associated therewith, said first AM extension portion being a plug-in software entity located at said first hierarchical level and said third set of AM functions being mutually exclusive of said first and second sets of AM functions.