Patent ID: 7437459

Claim:
A method used for managing resources in a multi-node system, the method comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of performance grades that each indicate relative performance that can be realized for categories of work performed by a plurality of servers, wherein each server of said plurality of servers is running on a node in said multi-node system, and comprises integrated software components executed by at least one process running on said particular node, wherein each node in said multiple node system is a computing element interconnected to at least another node of said multiple node system, and wherein each server of said plurality of servers is associated with a performance grade of the plurality of performance grades; wherein each performance grade of said plurality of performance grades indicates, for a particular category of work, relative performance that may be realized on a server relative to performance that may be realized on other servers of said plurality of servers; and without allocating a new server to perform a category of said categories of work, adjusting allocation of said plurality of servers between said categories of work based on said performance grades.