Patent ID: 8370943

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a first node of a plurality of nodes in a clustered storage system, a scan request for a storage object located on a volume of a second node in the clustered storage system, wherein the clustered storage system further includes a plurality of anti-virus (AV) servers executing on a set of two or more of the plurality of nodes, and wherein each of the plurality of nodes includes one or more volumes storing storage objects; determining, by the first node, if an initial anti-virus (AV) server of the plurality of AV servers is executing on the second node in the clustered storage system; pulling information describing the AV servers executing on the set of the plurality of nodes in the clustered storage system from a service manager; selecting an alternate AV server executing on a substitute node of the plurality of nodes if the initial AV server is not executing on the second node, wherein the selecting uses the pulled information to select the alternate AV server according to a modified round-robin process, the modified round-robin process utilizing one or more of queue information for at least one of the AV servers and responsiveness information for at least one of the AV servers; and sending the scan request to the initial AV server if the initial AV server is executing on the second node and to the alternate AV server if the initial AV server is not executing on the second node.