Patent ID: 7805503

Claim:
A method for adding a particular node to a group of one or more nodes, comprising: storing group capability data only in volatile memory of a group manager for said group, wherein said group capability data identifies capability requirements for members of said group, and wherein said group manager provides notification services for said members of said group; wherein said notification services notify said members that a group member has joined or left the group; receiving a request to add said particular node to said group; in response to receiving said request, determining whether said particular node satisfies said capability requirements identified by said group capability data; and upon determining that said particular node satisfies said capability requirements identified by said group capability data, adding said particular node to said group; wherein said request is a first request, and upon receiving a second request, from a user, to update said capability requirements, updating said capability requirements to identify an updated set of capabilities that each member of said group must support, wherein said second request identifies said updated set of capabilities; after updating said capability requirements for said group to identify an updated set of capabilities that each member of said group must support, removing any members of said group which no longer satisfy said updated set of capabilities from said group; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.