A migration framework provides for the automatic migration of services in a cluster. A migratable target list contains a list of servers in the cluster capable of hosting a migratable service. A consensus subsystem can select a host server from the migratable target list. A migration manager can migrate the service from a current host to the host selected by the consensus subsystem, and can activate an instance of the service on the selected host server. The migration manager ensures that only one active instance of the service exists in the cluster. A service stub can serve a user request on servers in the migration target, such as by order of preference, until the user request is served on the server hosting the active instance. A lease manager can assign a lease period to determine how long a server hosts an active instance.