System for automatically activating reserve hardware component based on hierarchical resource deployment scheme or rate of resource consumption

Abstract

An apparatus and method to automatically activate a reserve resource when the load on a number of active resources (e.g., a number of CPUs or servers) meets a threshold. A resource usage policy specifying at least one threshold and having a corresponding task is compared to a monitored load on the active resource. When the monitored load meets the threshold as specified in the resource usage policy, the corresponding task is performed. For instance, the corresponding task can be to signal an event manager (e.g., a pager), to activate a reserve resource, etc. Once a reserve resource is activated, the load is balanced among the number of active resources and the activated reserve resource. When the load drops below the threshold, the processor can deactivate the reserve resource. In a preferred embodiment, the processor updates a configuration profile for tracking each of the resources. Another embodiment includes charging a fee for monitoring and activation.