Patent attributes
One or more embodiments of the invention have a cluster manager, or other related component, determine upfront which data node should perform a backup of the asset. This is achieved by running a pre-backup step, either periodically or prior to the reception of a backup request, to determine the preferred node for backup. Once the backup request is received, the cluster manager queries the preferred node, if the preferred node is still the best data node to perform the backup, then that data node performs the backup. If, however, the preferred data node no-longer is the best data node for performing the backup, the current preferred data node will signal the cluster manager with an alternative data node that is best data node to perform the backup and the cluster manager will have that alternative data node perform the backup.