Patent ID: 7975268

Claim:
A system comprising multiple processing servers and a management server for managing the multiple processing servers, each processing server adapted to execute a program assigned thereto from among multiple programs for performing a requested job; the management server comprising: a first computer processor; an execution direction generating unit for generating via the first computer processor, an execution direction, said execution direction including identification information identifying each of the multiple programs, input and/or output files for each of the multiple programs, and an execution order of the multiple programs for performing the requested job, said execution order identifying a first program of the multiple programs to be executed before any other program of the multiple programs is executed; an input data sending unit for sending via the first computer processor, input data and the execution direction to a first processing server of the multiple processing servers for executing the first program with the input data; a processing server information storing unit for storing via the first computer processor, identification information identifying each program of the multiple programs and identification information on each processing server for executing the program assigned to each processing server; an inquiry responding unit for acquiring via the first computer processor, identification information from the processing server information storing unit and for sending the identification information to an inquiring processing server of the multiple processing servers in response to an inquiry for said identification information received from the inquiring processing server after the inquiring processing server has completed execution of the program assigned thereto, said identification information identifying a next processing server to execute a next program included in the execution direction; and each processing server of the multiple processing servers comprising: a second computer processor; a program executing unit for executing via the second computer processor, the assigned program using received input data and for updating the input data following said executing the assigned program; a processing server selecting unit for sending via the second computer processor, to the management server, an inquiry for identification information identifying a next processing server to execute the next program included in the execution direction after said each processing server has completed execution of the program assigned thereto; and an input data transferring unit for sending via the second computer processor, to the next processing server identified in the identification information received by the processing server selecting unit from the management server in response to said inquiry, the received execution direction and updated input data.