Patent ID: 8635348

Claim:
In an endpoint node on a switch fabric, a method comprising: sending an announcement of an intent to host a service for the switch fabric, the announcement to include an announcement entry to an announcement record in a data repository maintained at a designated endpoint node on the switch fabric, the announcement entry to indicate a preference of the endpoint node to take on a first role of a plurality of roles, wherein the announcement entry to include multiple sub-fields which each correspond to a different respective role of the plurality of roles, wherein the multiple sub-fields each include a respective value specifying a level of interest of the endpoint node to take on the role corresponding to the sub-field, each of the plurality of roles for hosting the service; querying the announcement record to determine what other endpoint nodes have announced an intent to host the service; determining a role the endpoint node will take to host the service based, at least in part, on the query, including sorting endpoint nodes based on preferences of the endpoint nodes to take on respective ones of the plurality of roles, wherein the sorting the endpoint nodes is based on the respective values of the multiple sub-fields of the announcement entry; and updating the announcement record to indicate the determined role.