In an example, a server architecture is described for a dynamic cascaded node chain providing a resource cluster. The cascaded node chain may include one or more resource instances provisioned as a head node, zero or more middle nodes, and a tail node. Each node may include a discrete number of available resource entries in a flow table. As traffic enters the head node, each node attempts to match the traffic to an entry in its flow table. If no match is found, the packet is downlinked to the next node in the chain. If the packet reaches the tail node without a match, it is punted to the controller. The controller may then provision a matching entry if an entry is available. If not, the controller may spawn a new resource instance. When the full capacity of the cluster is reached, non-matching entries may be dropped.