Patent ID: 7574620

Claim:
A method for operating a server farm including an arrangement of a plurality of computers that are configured to execute a plurality of software units, and an additional monitoring computer to conduct repeated monitoring of the status of the plurality of computers and the intervening of the plurality of computers, wherein the software units are assigned a weighting according to a selected importance criteria, the method comprising: when at least one computer has been determined as failing, collecting information at scheduled monitoring times and in relation to which of the computers have failed and which software units are thereby affected; determining a plurality of possible transfer scenarios for transferring the affected software units from failed computers to active computers including terminating active software units based on the weighting so as to establish free capacity for transferring software units from computers that have failed, wherein the weighting is achieved via criteria comprising a plurality of attributes including: a first attribute that specifies a measure of the power to have other active software units terminated thereby creating free capacity, and a second attribute that specifies a measure of the resistance to the request for termination by other software units that are to be transferred from a failed computer and each transfer scenario indicates which software units are to be transferred to which active computers; assessing the possible transfer scenarios based upon the weighting of the software units; selecting a transfer scenario based on the assessment of possible transfer scenarios; and executing the selected transfer scenario.