Example methods and apparatus associated with data de-duplication for a global coherent de-duplication repository are provided. In one example a request related to data de-duplication is transmitted to a plurality of nodes associated with the global coherent de-duplication repository. Responses to the request are received from at least a subset of nodes in the plurality of nodes. Affinity scores are assigned to nodes of the subset of nodes based, at least in part, on affinity data from the responses. A node is selected to perform the request related to de-duplication from the subset of nodes of the plurality of nodes based, at least in part, on the affinity score assigned to the nodes.