Patent ID: 8286179

Claim:
A method for managing a storage system cluster, comprising: executing a job manager at each storage system of a plurality of storage systems within the storage system cluster by a processor operatively connected to each storage system; loading a job object onto a distributed data store operatively connected to the storage system cluster; determining whether the job object has an affinity for a particular storage system of the plurality of the storage systems within the storage system cluster to process the job object based on an affinity field located within a job record data structure associated with the job object; in response to the job object having the affinity for the particular storage system to process the job object based on the affinity field located within the job record data structure associated with the job object, retrieving, by the particular storage system, the job object from the distributed data store, and processing the job object at a particular job manager executing at the particular storage system, wherein the job object is marked as unclaimed after a master job manager detects a failure of the particular storage system before the particular job manager completes processing the job object, and the job object is marked as unclaimed after waiting for a timeout period to elapse; and in response to the job object not having an affinity for the particular storage system to process the job object based on the affinity field located within the job record data structure associated with the job object, retrieving, by any storage system of the plurality of storage systems, the job object from the distributed data store, and processing the job object by the job manager executing on the any storage system.