A partitioned object is a managed object with a partition mapper installed. Partition mappers are installed by an application for all managed objects that should be partitioned. A partition mapper is responsible for assigning a managed object to a partition. Partition assignment occurs:
when an object is created
during object partition mapping updates (see the section called “Updating object partition mapping”).
Partition mappers are inherited by all subtypes of a parent type. A child type can install a new partition mapper to override a parent's partition mapper.
A partitioned object is always associated with a single partition, but the partition it is associated with can change during the lifetime of the object.
The algorithm used by a Partition Mapper to assign an object to a partition is application specific. It can use any of the following criteria to make a partition assignment:
object instance information
system resources (e.g. CPU, shared memory utilization, etc.) utilization
load balancing, e.g. consistent hashing, round-robin, priorities, etc.
any other application specific criteria