A method, system and article of manufacture are disclosed for selecting a channel instance for connecting a client application with a server application in a multi-channel computer system. In this computer system, when a new channel instance is used to connect one of the client applications with one of the server applications, defined channel instance information is established for the channel instance. The method of this invention comprises the steps of when a new application connection request is made, locking existing channel instance information; and after said locking, scanning through a list of channel instance connections for one of the channel instances that is a candidate channel instance for that new application connection request. The method comprises the further steps of, in response to finding a candidate channel instance, determining whether the candidate channel instance is suitable for the new application connection request.