A method for an appliance to switch handling of transport layer connection requests from a first virtual server of the appliance managing a first plurality of services to a second virtual server of the appliance managing a second plurality of services upon exceeding, by the first virtual server, a maximum connection threshold determined dynamically from a status of the first plurality of services. The method includes the steps of: establishing, on an appliance, a first virtual server which directs transport layer connection requests from a plurality of clients to a first plurality of services; establishing, via the appliance, a predetermined threshold identifying a maximum active transport layer connection capacity for the first virtual server, the predetermined threshold comprising a sum of a predetermined connection capacity for each of the plurality of services; monitoring, by the appliance, a status for each of the plurality of services; determining, by the appliance, the status of a service of the plurality of services indicates the service is not available; and adjusting, by the appliance in response to the determination, the predetermined threshold to comprise the sum of the predetermined connection capacity for each of the plurality of services having a status of available. Corresponding systems are also described.