1. A method comprising: monitoring a plurality of independently operating processing nodes in a core data packet routing system, wherein each processing node is running its own operating system instance; making a placement decision for respective processes on selected ones of the independently operating processing nodes based on a predetermined policy; placing, based on the placement decision, the respective processes on the selected ones of the independently operating processing nodes such that the respective processes become placed processes; and maintaining a list of placed process/processing node pairs specifying a pairing of the placed processes and the processing nodes on which the placed processes have been placed.