Patent ID: 8060585
Filing Date: 2011-11-15
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for managing downtime for software modifications to a population of networked computing systems, comprising: receiving a management credential of a user; determining, based on the management credential, a subset of system management servers of an enterprise computing network permitted to be managed by the user, wherein the subset of system management servers is less than an entirety of the system management servers; determining, based on the management credential, configuration management actions permitted to be taken by the user; receiving a configuration change from the user, wherein the configuration change identifies a user-defined downtime window, a configuration management action, and at least one of the subset of system management servers, wherein the configuration change schedules the configuration management action during the user-defined downtime window for the at least one of the subset of system management servers; creating different server collections on the enterprise computing network, wherein each server collection comprises respective system management servers having a respective user-defined downtime window within a common range of time; storing the created different server collections for a subsequent software modification of the subset of system management servers in accordance with the user-defined downtime window; authenticating management credentials of an enterprise administrator user as having elevated rights; facilitating query and software modifications to substantially all computing systems of the enterprise computing network for the enterprise administrator; and determining the subset of system management servers with reference to directory services database, creating different server collections in a configuration management database.