Patent ID: 7013332
Filing Date: 2006-03-14
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: creating an enterprise policy object providing an enterprise-wide policy governing at least one of resource access and protocol use for a plurality of nodes within a networking environment organized within a plurality of arrays; creating at least one array policy object, each array policy object providing an array-wide policy governing resource access for one or more of the plurality of nodes organized within a corresponding array; for each of one or more of the at least one array policy object, inheriting an instance of the enterprise-wide policy as the array-wide policy such that the array-wide policy if each array policy object is at least initially set to the enterprise-wide policy; for each of one of more of the at least one array policy object, adjusting the array-wide policy after the array-wide policy has inherited the enterprise-wide policy; wherein the enterprise-wide policy includes a plurality of enterprise rules, each enterprise rule governing at least one of access to a particular resource and use of a particular protocol, each enterprise rule having a rule type selected from a positive rule type and a negative rule type, the positive rule type explicitly allowing at least one access and use and the negative rule type explicitly denying at least one of access and use; and wherein each array-wide policy includes a plurality of array rules, the plurality of array rules at least initially equal to the plurality of enterprise rules upon the enterprise-wide policy inherited as each array-wide policy.