Patent ID: 7228351

Claim:
A method for managing contention among users for access to one or more serialized resources in a system cluster containing a plurality of systems, each of said users having an assigned need that is independent of any contention of the user for a serialized resource and being capable of being either a holder or a waiter for a serialized resource it is seeking to access, said method being performed on at least one of said systems as a local system and comprising the steps of: storing local cluster data indicating a grouping of said serialized resources into one or more local clusters on the basis of contention on said local system and indicating for each of said local clusters the assigned need of a waiter for one or more serialized resources in said local cluster; receiving remote cluster data from another system in said system cluster as a remote system indicating a grouping of said serialized resources into one or more remote clusters on the basis of contention on said remote system and indicating for each of said remote clusters the assigned need of a waiter for one or more serialized resources in said remote cluster; combining said local cluster data and said remote cluster data to generate composite cluster data indicating a grouping of said serialized resources into one or more composite clusters on the basis of contention across said systems and indicating for each of said composite clusters the assigned need of a waiter for one or more serialized resources in that composite cluster; and managing a holder on said local system of a serialized resource in one of said composite clusters in accordance with the composite cluster data for said cluster including said assigned need of said waiter for one or more serialized resources in that composite cluster.