Patent attributes
A resource manager arranges the resources in a computer system into one or more resource pools. The resource manager allocates a number of active resources and a number of backup resources to a particular resource pool. For each resource managed by the resource manager, the resource manager acquires information that describes the capacity and reliability of the resource. Capacity and reliability information for the particular resource pool is determined based on the capacity and reliability information associated with the resources assigned to the pool. In response to a request, the resource manager may provide an application with resources from several resource pools. The likelihood that the resource manager will be able to provide sufficient resources to the application may be determined based at least in part on the reliability information associated with the several resource pools.