A multi-element problem may be solved iteratively by using a modified genetic algorithm to generate a plurality of solutions according to a set of solution criteria. The solution criteria may comprise a plurality of servers, each server including one or more attributes, and an indication of which of the one or more attributes are to be optimized. An index may be appended, by a processing device, to each solution in the plurality of solutions and the values in each solution may be sorted. For each solution in the plurality of solutions, one or more values from the solution may be combined with one or more values from another solution to generate a plurality of child solutions. Each child solution may have an index, and the values in each child solution may be sorted in view of the child solution's index. For one or more child solutions in the plurality of child solutions, two selected values may be rearranged to generate one or more mutated child solutions.