Patent ID: 8176495

Claim:
A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising: receiving a request, from a requestor, at a first server of a cluster, the cluster including a plurality of servers, each server of the cluster receiving the request, each server in the cluster maintaining an affinity table; the first server consulting its affinity table an affinity data structure to determine if the first server has affinity to the requestor; if the first server has affinity, responding to the request; and if the first server does not have affinity, determining whether a second server has affinity to the requestor, wherein determining whether a second server has affinity to the requestor comprises querying other servers in the cluster to ask if any of the other servers has affinity with the requestor, and further comprising: if any of the other servers has affinity, refraining from responding to the request, and if none of the other servers has affinity, responding to the request.