Efficient heartbeat with remote servers by nas cluster nodes

A method, comprising:

• generating, by a device operatively coupled to a processor, assignments for network-attached storage (NAS) nodes resulting in respective associated NAS nodes, the assignments associating respective ones of the NAS nodes with respective anti-malware servers;
• and
• instructing, by the device, the respective associated NAS nodes to transmit heartbeat request messages to the anti-malware servers according to the assignments.

A machine-readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• generating respective assignments for network-attached storage (NAS) nodes resulting in respective associated NAS nodes, wherein the respective assignments associate each NAS node of the respective associated NAS nodes with a distinct anti-malware server of a group of anti-malware services;
• and
• instructing each NAS node of the respective associated NAS nodes to transmit a respective heartbeat request message to the anti-malware servers according to the respective assignments.